ONE might be curious: what role is played by the political parties? Two newspaper reports are worth mentioning to comprehend how this quota movement evolved in the context of political party participation. According to an interview with Mahfuz Alam, special assistant to the chief adviser, published by Prothom Alo on October 2, 2024, the students of the Democratic Student Force, recently formed, are dedicated to organising students from all over the country. As per Mahfuz Alam, the student organisers did not get any support for their movement from the political parties from July 1 to July 14. Manabzamin published another news report on October 4, authored by Kiran Shaikh. According to him, Tarique Rahman led his party’s struggle against the fascist government, and, lastly, he made sure, by his magic leadership, that leaders and activists of his party’s participation in the July-August Revolution were maximised. The Decan Herald published in its August 9 edition, ‘It[The Economic Times] also claims that in the run-up to the fall of the Hasina govt, Rahman [Tarique Rahman] became active on social media platform X and encouraged the movement to oust the elected government through street power and violence.’
These are complementary without delving into controversy in those news reports. The real stuff of the Gen Z revolution took place, indeed, after Hasina’s derogatory remarks with the word ‘razakars’ on July 14. Mahfuz Alam did not deny those political parties’ involvement from July 15 to August 5.
Therefore, we should not ignore that protesters belonging to the student wings of major political parties like the BNP and Jamat-e-Islam, with open or covert ties to those student organisations, played a vital role in the uprising. Both parties supported the movement, but their leaders did not join openly initially. However, their activists actively participated as vanguards, escalating the revolutionary violence. As a consequence, the death toll of these two parties outweighs many times those suffered by the students, whose lion’s share goes to the private university students. No student of Dhaka University, the alma mater of Mahfuz Alam, sacrificed his/her life at the altar of the Gen Z revolution. On the other hand, smaller parties of VP Noor, ASM Abdur Rob, Zonayed Saki, Saiful Huq, Mahmudur Rahman Manna, Syed Muhammad Rezaul Karim, Sheikh Rafiqul Islam Bablu, Hasnat Quaiyum, Andaleeve Rahman Partho, Bobby Hajjaj, and Reza Kibria actively participated in the revolution. There was a loss of lives from some of those parties.
The Bangladeshi diaspora played a vital role in galvanising the Gen Z Revolution. The relentless support, encouragement, and information flow to the students and masses when the media in Bangladesh was silenced or the media leaders took the role of sycophants were priceless. The information warriors in cyberspace (Saifur Sagar, Hasina Akhter, Pinaki Bhattacharya, Kanak Sarwar, Elias Hossain, Nazmus Sakib, Abu Saleh Naeb Ali, and others) joined the revolution with the ruthless weapons of information war via the internet and social media talk shows that fuelled the passion of the vanguards and the masses. Mushfiqul Fazal Ansari, an exiled journalist based in Washington, DC, asked helpful questions; some were rhetorical, drawing responses from the US Department of State and United Nations news briefings that helped uplift the morale of the student protestors.
I remember during our liberation war, our only resources for information were Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra, All India Radio, and short-wave broadcasts from BBC and VOA. The news on our liberation war from these sources kept our hopes and dreams alive. During the July-August uprising, the diaspora bloggers and internet TV channels served our causes of freedom with a lot more intensity, passion and content. Many of these media fighters incurred the wrath of the Hasina government, and they and their families suffered immense oppression in terms of loss of property and even imprisonment. But they never budged. Their contributions to the July-August uprising, leading to the overthrow of a despotic ruler, can’t be expressed in words. As a nation, we should gratefully acknowledge the revolutionary role played by the media warriors.
The remittance boycott spearheaded by the Bangladeshi expatriates put a significant dent in foreign currency reserves, causing panic in the establishment elites. There were demonstrations by the expatriates supporting the student demand in many cities, even in places where demonstrations are strictly banned. Remember, 57 demonstrators were arrested in the UAE and subjected to long prison terms, including a life sentence of three. With his magic touch, Dr Yunus brought those expatriate veterans back home.
The Bangladeshis are fortunate to get a universally accepted and honoured scholar and leader, the Nobel Laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus, to step in as the head of the government at the request of the revolutionary students. He has a formidable task to reform the rotten deep state, corrupted and left by fleeing Hasina, and to present a constitution that sets up guardrails against any tendency towards authoritarian rule and establishes equality and justice for all the citizens of Bangladesh. Dr Yunus does not need anything for himself. He got everything. If he can transfer power to a truly elected government at the end of his challenging tenure, his name will be written with indelible ink on the annals of world history. That would be the Mandela moment magnified many times over.
Concluded.
Dr Mostofa Sarwar, scientist and poet, is professor emeritus at the University of New Orleans. He was dean, provost and vice-chancellor of Delgado Community College and served as the visiting professor and adjunct faculty of the University of Pennsylvania.
