August 15: Know the Facts, Not
Fiction
After 21 years in the political
wilderness, the Bangladesh Awami League returned to power in 1996, thanks
to the conniving hand of former dictator General H M Ershad. The first
thing Sheikh Hasina Wazed, the new Prime Minister, did was to arrest the coup
leaders of August 15, 1975, and put them on trial.
Interestingly,
the trial issue was never an AL election manifesto--- not even in 1996. The
party knew well that the trial of the August 15 coup leaders was neither a
public demand nor in national interest.
Nonetheless,
the trial turned out to be Sheikh Hasina’s top priority. According to at least
two prominent personalities, Serajur Rahman of BBC, and a Colonel of the
Directorate General of Forces Intelligence, Sheikh Hasina had no interest in
politics. But she wanted to be in the seat of power at least for a day to
fulfill her two agendas: 1) To try the ‘killers’ of her father Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman and, 2) to rehabilitate his image. She did exactly those two things in
her first term as Prime Minister.
To
justify the so-called Mujib Murder Trial, all kinds of falsehood and
misinformation were fed to the public, to the media and to the foreigners about
the August 15, 1975 coup. According to most independent observers,
the drama orchestrated in the name of the trial was a sham. The
Awami-inspired judges dished out the death penalty to a few army officers
picked up as scapegoats. Within minutes of the final okay by the Supreme Court
and the president's seal of approval, the national heroes had to walk to the
gallows in unprecedented haste on the fateful night of January 27/28,
2010.
During
the trial, few people looked to the circumstances that led to the pre-dawn
military action against the repressive and dictatorial regime of Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman.
Bangabandhu turns Banga-Shatru?
On
January 10, 1972, the people of newly liberated Bangladesh showered all their
love and affection on Sheikh Mujibur Rahman upon his arrival in Dhaka from
Pakistani custody. Few leaders in history enjoyed such adulation, such
popularity. Regrettably, things changed in just three and a half years.
Well-known
Indian journalist and writer Kuswant Singh wrote in the Illustrated Weekly of India about Sheikh Mujib, "Within a
couple of years, he had lost much of his charisma and lived in a cocoon of
self-spun esteem. He came to regard honest critics as traitors and sycophants
as loyal friends. It was a classic case of folio
de grandeur. He was blissfully unaware that the very people who called him
Bangabandhu to his face behind his back called him Banga-Shatru."
On
January 2, 1973, Mujahidul Islam Selim, Vice President of Dhaka University
Central Students Union (DUCSU), at a Paltan rally in Dhaka, withdrew the
“Bangabandhu” title given to Sheikh Mujibur Rahmna and cancelled his life-long
membership in the DUCSU, tearing off the page from the register in public. It
was the same student leader-who had granted him the DUCSU membership a year ago.
Selim had further asked all offices to remove the pictures of Mujib. Among
other slogans at the rally, “Sheikh Mujib, Traitor of Bangladesh (Banglar Mir Jaffor Sheikh Mujib) was the
loudest. Motia Chowdhury, a fiery Chatra Union leader, desired to make a dug-dugi, hand-held drum, with the skin
of Mujib. Around that time, AL’s Chatra League activists stripped the sari off
Motia Chowdhury in public. The incidents
were in the wake of the killing of some activists of the Student Union at
Mujib’s order while they were demonstrating anti-American slogans for the Vietnam
War.
On
August 29, 1975, the Workers Party of Rashed Khan Menon stated, “For the past three and a half years, the
people suffered under the detested and anti-people regime of Sheikh Mujib and
prayed every moment for its fall. August 15 had accomplished it.”
Ironically, all these leaders are happily doing Awami politics today, or
sympathetic to it.
A Reflection on August 15
At the
dawn of August 15, 1975, the people of Dhaka woke up to the blasts of a few
artillery shots, followed by small arms fire coming from the posh Dhanmondi
area where Sheikh Mujib lived. By intuition,
they immediately switched their radios on. Rumors of a possible coup were in
the air for some time. Suddently, they heard an announcement that the
government of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had been overthrown in a military coup.
The
first announcement came from one Major Rashed. It was followed by an agitated
speech by Captain Mustafa, condemning the fallen regime. It was before 6 AM and
the main transmitter had not been activated yet. So, most people missed parts of those announcements.
After
half an hour, another person, identifying himself as Major Dalim, made the
detailed announcement, including the news of the unfortunate death of Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman in the short military action, and that his close associate
Khandakar Mushtaque Ahmed had taken over as the new president. His recorded
announcement continued for some time.
It was Friday, and the curfew
was relaxed for two hours at noontime to facilitate the Jummah prayer. Wow! The
Dhaka city turned to another Victory Day celebration. People paraded in the
streets singing slogans, expressing their happiness and solidarity with the
political change. Veteran politician and former East Pakistan Chief Minister
Ataur Rahman Khan termed August 15 as “The Day of Deliverance.”
Under the Awami
administration, the day is observed as a Mourning Day for the loss of its leader.
In the month of August, the party and its supporting agencies kept showering
praise on Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. To them, he was Bangabandhu, he was Jatir Pita and he was Shorbokaler Sorbosreshto Bangali.
Outside their circle, not many people agree with those titles.
The younger generations may go
through the media reports and pages of newspapers of the time--it is not
difficult in today's technology-- and find the facts for themselves to learn
the truth. One should not be swayed by myths, and untrue and unsubstantiated
information.
I once came across an article
by M M Azizul Haq published in the Daily
Inqilab on November 1, 1991. It was titled "Indemnity Rohit: Kar Sarthey? (Repeal of Indemnity: In Whose Interest?). It was written in the backdrop of
then opposition party Awami League's pressure for the repeal of the Indemnity
Act. There could be more such write-ups elsewhere.
The new president (Khandakar
Mushtaque Ahmed) promulgated an indemnity ordinance to immunize those who were
involved in the military action on August 15, 1975. The ordinance became part
of the constitution as the Indemnity Act in 1979 under the Fifth
Amendment.
Mr.
Azizul Haq detailed the reasons why August 15 took place, and what might have
been the scenario in Bangladesh had there not been this coup. The picture he
painted was scary. According to most analysts, August 15 was inevitable. It was
the call of the time, the call of the majority of Bangladeshis who were
groaning under the dark and heavy hands of Mujb's autocratic and repressive
machinery. They thought the military alone could salvage the nation.
While observing the Mourning
Day, the AL and its supporters start and end with the AL leader’s heavily
edited version of the March 7, 1971 speech. They rarely talk about the
achievements of his administration. Younger generations--those in their forties
and below--need to visualize the Bangladesh of 1972-1975, the supposed “Golden
Period” of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Those who lived in the period need to walk
back in time for reorientation. Few may disagree that whatever little benefit
of independence, freedom, democracy and development people of Bangladesh enjoy
today is largely attributed to the August 15 political change.
The New York Times, the Washington
Post, the Guardian of London, the
Far Eastern Economic Review and many other international media houses
highlighted Mujib's corruptible administration, under which a few hundred
thousand people perished in the man-made famine of 1974-75. Men and animals
struggling for eatables in the city wastes were common sights. Poor women could
not come out of their houses, as they did not have clothes. Dead bodies had to
be buried with banana leaves.
But
there was no dearth of relief goods that remained hoarded in the warehouses of
the ruling coterie, to be dispensed for political expediency or sold in the
black market. The corruption was so extensive that former US Secretary of State
Henry Kissinger termed Bangladesh a “Bottomless Basket.”
While people were dying in the
streets and in the countryside, the marriages of Sheikh Kamal and Sheikh Jamal,
sons of Sheikh Mujib, were celebrated in royal style at the Gonobhaban, Mujib's
official residence. So was Mujib's
birthday in 1975.
Mujib's personal force of
Rakkhi Bahini, created at the instance of India ostensibly to counter the army,
killed over 30,000 political opponents. The late Enayetullah Khan of the
Holiday put the figure to 38,000. A S M Abdur Rob of Jatiyo Samajtantrik Dal
once claimed that over 40,000 of his cadre were killed/disappeared during that
period. Mujib himself admitted in the Parliament killing of Siraj Sikder, a top
leftist leader. Can one imagine how many additional lives would
have lost had there not been August 15?
At the end of 1974, Emergency was clamped in the
country. All but four government-controlled newspapers were cancelled
publication. Political activities were banned. Anyone not toeing the official
line was either in jail or not seen again. The political openness and the media
freedom we see in Bangladesh today are a gift of August 15.
In January 1975, Sheikh Mujib
took over the presidency, showing the exit door to poor Muhammad Ullah, the
former president. Reportedly, there was a plan, through the Chatra League
route, to make Mujib the lifelong president. August 15 stopped that dream of a
lifelong repressive autocracy in Bangladesh.
The last nail in the coffin of
an ailing nation came in the form of Mujib's supposed “greatest
achievement,” the formation of the Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League
(BAKSAL), the Soviet-style one-party government. All other political parties
were banned. The military and the bureaucracy were politicized by forcing them
to join the BAKSAL. The country was divided into 61 political districts, each
to be administered jointly by a BAKSAL governor and a BAKSAL Secretary, chosen
personally by the leader. The system was to take effect on September 1,
1975.
Noted historian and author K Ali said
regarding Sheikh Mujib, “He was out and
out a despotic ruler and snatched away fundamental rights of the people by
introducing absolute dictatorship under a one-party system----there was hardly
any doubt that the measure (one-party rule) was taken only to establish his
permanent rule in the country without any opposition.” August 15 stopped that
dangerous path.
According to the
politico-partisan trial, August 15 was said to be an isolated act
committed by a “handful of disgruntled army officers.” Far from the
truth. Available information suggested that the coup was executed by two
units--2 Field Artillery and 1 Lancer--and led mostly by their officers. One infantry
unit (16 Bengal) from Joydevpur failed to join the group at the last
moment. How wide-ranging was the support for the coup might be verified
from the following examples:
Military Support
When
under attack, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman called then Army Chief General Safiullah
for help. The General could not help him. Safiullah later acknowledged to the
Daily Star that he was helpless, as he found that the whole army was supportive
of the coup.
The
moment Brigadier Khaled Mosharraf, then Army Chief of the General Staff, learnt
that the main guns of the tanks that were out for the coup had no ammunition;
he immediately ordered shells for the guns.
Immediately
after the coup, the chiefs of Army, Navy, Air Force, Bangladesh Rifles, Police,
Rakkhi Bahini and Ansar rushed to the Dhaka Radio Station to announce their
complete support for the coup and loyalty to the new president. It would be
ludicrous to think that “a handful of officers” forced them to do it.
If
the whole military did not support the coup, what prevented it from immediately
crushing those handful of men?
Public support
Hardly
any Innalillah….was heard upon the
news of Sheikh Mujib’s death. In fact, people said to have heaved a sigh of
relief with an Alhamdulillah. They thanked
Allah, they had been saved! It was declared a Day of Deliverance by Ataur
Rahman Khan, a latter-day Prime Minister. Abdul Malik Ukil said in London
immediately after the coup that the country was saved from a Zalim Feraun
(Mujib). Malik Ukil was the Awami League Speaker of the Parliament and later
became the president of Awami League. Another former Awami League Speaker,
Humayun Rasheed Choudhury, said in the mid 1980s that Mujib’s sins could not be
cleansed even if he was hanged a hundred times.
There
was not an iota of resistance or protest from any quarter following the coup or
“killing” of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. One may check the newspapers in the
archives for facts. Again, the 100 million people of Bangladesh were not at
gunpoint from the “handful of officers.”
People
swarmed the Dhaka streets in the thousands, in jubilation and celebration of
the success of the coup. Similar celebrations were reported from the rest of
the country. The scenario may be compared to the victory day celebrations of
December 16, 1971.
People
offered special prayers and distributed sweets on the day. Such celebrations
were also reported form Bangladeshi communities abroad.
Political Support
The
post-coup administration was formed entirely by (Mujib’s) Awami League members
of the parliament. The only exception was former president Justice Abu Sayeed
Chowdhury, who became the foreign minister. No coup leader was seen within
miles of the new administration, an unprecedented example in the history of
successful coups/revolutions. To those patriots and dedicated souls, termed as
“Surja Santans” (Divine children), August 15 was to save the nation, not to run
it.
Veteran
Awami Leaguer Abdul Malek Ukil termed Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as Zalim Feroun and hailed his fall.
Following the August 15 coup,
newspapers and TV channels were filled with greetings from various political,
educational and cultural groups from all over the country. Again, one may visit
the media archives--national and international--to find the facts.
Diplomatic Acknowledgment
The
new government formed after the August 15 coup was immediately welcomed and
recognized by the international community, including India, the US, the USSR
and the UK. China and Saudi Arabia accorded recognition to Bangladesh for the
first time.
It
is, however, regrettable that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and some of his close relatives
died during the coup. I am not aware if his death was intended or if it could
have been averted. I may quote a top bureaucrat of that time, "Under the
circumstances, one could not think of a change of government keeping Mujib
alive." Colonel Abdur Rashid, one of the coup leaders, said more
or less the same think to Anthony Mascarenhas in London in 1976.
My
intention is not to glorify a death event. But August 15 cannot be called a
mere death event. It was a successful military coup for the greater national
interest. The event should be seen from a larger perspective. It reintroduced
multiparty democracy, it brought political freedom, it relieved the gagged
press, and it opened public accountability, among others.
To
understand August 15, one needs to walk back in time to the early period of
Bangladesh and judge the day in that perspective. Sheikh Mujib is dead. So are
hundreds of thousands of others who perished under his heavy hands. The
greatest achievement of August 15, I think, was that it succeeded in stopping
those unaccountable killings.
Obaid Chowdhury
NY, USA
December 24, 2012