As the second year of the July mass uprising is underway, efforts to malign this momentous event have intensified by many who backed the fallen tyrant's misdeeds and enjoyed benefits of varying nature. Several so-called intellectuals, along with supporters and beneficiaries of Hasina's ousted regime, are spreading rumours, hatred, threats and lies mostly on virtual platforms. Their core intention is to undermine the student-led mass uprising in 2024 that forced Hasina to step down and take refuge in India. They used to dogmatically believe no force could remove her from power and that her party would rule indefinitely. There was also a strong conviction among them that as long as New Delhi is with the regime, it is fully protected and New Delhi will continue to back her at any cost. The regime's fall in the face of the mass uprising, however, came as a rude shock to them. They have yet to accept the reality and now devoted themselves to vilifying those who led and joined the uprising.
Cambridge dictionary defines vilification as 'the act of saying or writing unpleasant things about someone or something, in order to cause other people to have a bad opinion of them.' A vilification campaign is generally based on misinformation, hate speech and selective framing. All these are clearly visible in the activities of the Awami League (AL) supporters.
The Mujib-Hasina devotees have started to label the July uprising as 'July terrorism'. To them, those who led and joined the three fateful weeks in July-August 2024 are either 'terrorists' or 'thugs'. To justify their revulsion at the uprising, they argue the movement's ultimate goal was to take the country backwards. The pro-Hasina intellectuals also claim that today's Bangladesh is 'light years removed from the Bangladesh as of the morning of August 5, 2024.' They argue the country has plunged into political and historical darkness since August 5.
A section of so-called intellectuals, mostly living abroad, have lost the ability to distinguish between right or wrong. To them there were no atrocities committed by the Hasina regime during July-August 2024. They claim the number of people killed and injured by Awami League goons and the police is grossly inflated. Some say police acted rightly to restore law and order, while others see no problem when Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL, now banned) goons brutally attacked and terrorised protesting students. These shameless people only shed crocodile tears for police staff killed after the fall of tyrannical regime.
Another line of attack on the mass uprising is labelling it as a movement to undermine the spirit of the 1971 war of liberation. These people, who are self-claimed sentinels of the liberation war, have long distorted the history and used to tag any criticism of the ousted regime as 'anti-Bangladesh' and 'anti-liberation.' They are now crying that structures symbolising the War of Liberation have been destroyed, and the country is now in an existential crisis.
As vilification campaigners, they skilfully focus on the chaos following the tyrant's fall on August 5. Of course there was anarchy and violence after Hasina's ouster. But that does not mean the mass uprising itself was anarchism. Despite knowing history well, they ignore the fact that no mass uprising or revolution is peaceful.
The July uprising is an outburst of accumulated anger and disappointment over 15 years of corruption and repression by Hasina's regime. It is not driven by a single factor, such as protests against the discriminatory quota in public jobs, though those protests played a key role in shaping the uprising. Mockery of citizens' voting rights, persistent intimidation of students by BCL goons, harshly curbing dissent, distorting the financial sector, manipulating national statistics, allowing rent-seeking by pro-regime people, patronising crony capitalists and marginalising opposition parties have turned the regime authoritarian and tyrannical. Stooges of the fallen regime found nothing wrong with these happenings. They have forgotten that destruction does not cease if someone goes blind wilfully.
These people need to go for soul-searching and self-criticism before joining a vilification campaign against the July mass uprising. They, and everyone, have the legitimate right to critically examine the movement and its consequences. To do so, they also need to look at the factors that had triggered the uprising in a broader context. Otherwise, vilification will only fuel hatred and reduce the space for mutual cooperation in society and the country.
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