The quota for freedom fighters at the centre of the Bangladesh protests

Bangladesh protests: what is the quota for freedom fighters at the centre of the storm? We examine.

Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has resigned and fled Dhaka, as protests in the capital escalate. What started as a student protest over quotas accorded to freedom fighters in government jobs has turned into a protest against Hasina and the Awami League Party. Protestors have demanded the resignation of Hasina as a single-point priority, while the government alleges that the Bangladesh Nationalist party and the now banned Jamaat-e-Islami.

The mass uprising is creating ripples of unrest across the nation, and has intesified after a particularly violent weekend which saw the deaths of around hundred Bangladeshis.

Protests have continued despite the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court dismissing the order of the High Court that had precipitated the crisis, and reserving 93% of the seats in government services for merit, allocating just 5% jobs for freedom fighters and their descendants. A one per cent quota each has been allocated for tribes, differentially abled people and sexual minorities.

We take a look at the now-scrapped quota, why it was instituted and why the government sought to defend it.

After the war of 1971, Bangladesh was remodelled and one of the main planks of the creation of the state was Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s promise to do justice to those who had sacrificed and endured atrocities by the Pakistani military. In 1972, immediately after returning to Dhaka, he resolved to create a quota for freedom fighters. Apart from freedom fighters, Mujib also gave a quota for the women who were tortured by Pakistani soldiers. After the assassination of Sheikh Mujib, the quota system was diluted and extended to unrepresented sections of the country. Thus Bangladesh’s varying and evolving quota system spanned freedom fighters, women, underdeveloped areas and ethnic minorities or tribes.

Over the years, the quota system at times remained underutilised as the number of freedom fighters dwindled, and therefore possibilities of abuse of the quota arose. The argument of the critics was that as long as Mukti joddhas (freedom fighters) were young and seeking jobs, it was fair to give them reservation. After the mukti joddhas passed, their children have been getting reservation in jobs. And now the grand children of the mukti joddhas are also going to benefit from the revived quota system. At times, when the families were not available, there were suspicions that the quota was extended to party operatives of Ms. Hasina’s Awami League.

Bangladesh’s political system has been dominated by Ms. Hasina and the Awami League for a long time. There has been a growing sentiment among opposition parties and critics that the quota for freedom fighters was essentially an attempt to create a group of close supporters for the Awami League within the bureaucracy or civil service who would perpetuate the Awami League’s rule. This is one of the main reasons that prompted the students to launch the quota reform movement after the government filed an appeal with the appellate division of the court.