Political parties in Bangladesh have opposed the calls for scrapping the 1972 constitution claiming the move unnecessary and against the spirit of the country’s liberation war in which millions sacrificed their lives.
Parties were reacting on Monday, December 30, a day after the Anti-Discrimination Students Movement called the 1972 constitution “Mujibist” and accused it of favoring the Awami League. The Awami League is the party of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina who was forced to resign and leave the country in August after mass protests broke out against its reservation policy in government jobs.
The Anti-Discrimination Students Movement is a front made of student leaders of the anti-quota movement protests which shook the country from June to August 2024. The student front has two representatives in the interim government formed after Hasina’s ouster.
“From the very place where one point movement was declared, the grave of the Mujibist 1972 constitution will be dug-we want the Mujibist constitution to be buried,” said Hasnat Abdullah convenor of the platform on Sunday, The Daily Star reported.
Abdullah also announced that the proclamation of the ‘July Revolution’ would be issued on December 31 which will replace the constitution. He said that the proclamation had been delayed as it should have been made at the time of Hasina’s resignation in August. The delay in announcing the scrapping of the constitution has provided time for the “pro-fascist forces” to work against the movement from abroad, he claimed. Days after, the proclamation was postponed and instead the movement called for a “March for Unity”.
The student group has stated that these announced measures seek to prevent the Awami League from coming to power again, calling the party as “Nazi-like.”
The League had been in power for most of the time since the country’s independence due to its leadership of the national liberation movement. It has won four consecutive elections since 2008 under the leadership of Hasina. The party has faced large-scale persecution and threats of a ban ever since the interim administration took control in early August.
Abdullah’s reference to the anti-quota stir as “July Revolution” surprised many in the country with the interim government, of which the student movement is part, distancing itself from the announcement claiming it to be a “private initiative.”
Student movement’s proposals accused of being against the spirit of national liberation movement
Except the religious parties in the country such as Jamaat-e-Islami, most other parties objected to the idea of scrapping the 1972 constitution which they claim was a result of the national liberation movement in which millions of people sacrificed their lives.
Bangladesh was created after a bloody war of liberation against Pakistan in 1971. Mujibur Rahman, the founder of the Awami League and the liberated country’s second prime minister and first president, was the leader of the liberation movement. According to claims made by the Bangladesh government around 3 million people were killed during the war.
Rejecting the call to change the constitution, Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) general secretary Ruhin Hossain Prince said that it was a result of a long struggle and “those who refuse to acknowledge this or want to repeal” it, “and its preamble, are actually disowning the liberation war.”
Several leaders of the main opposition party Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) also opposed the idea calling it a “fascist move.”
Sharif Shamshir, a prominent left activist, told Peoples Dispatch that the move was expected given the religious nature of the student movement. After removing the Hasina government through the anti-quota movement in July-August they are moving to scrap the constitution now, he said. He expressed apprehensions that the move will further erode the secular polity in the country and pave the way for the rise of regressive forces in the country. At the immediate basis it will intensify the struggle between forces in opposition which want immediate elections and those who came to power in the interim administration, Shamshir said. He accused that the forces in the interim government do not want early elections so that they can consolidate their grip on power.
The interim government headed by Nobel laureate Mohammad Yunus came to power after Hasina resigned and left the country. Despite all major parties calling for elections to be held within the constitutionally required time frame, the Yunus-led interim government has expressed its inability to do so owing to the needs of “reforms” in the country’s political system. It announced earlier this month that the elections will only happen in the country by June 2026. Recently Yunus proposed lowering the age of voting from 18 years to 17 years which has invited fresh objections from the major political formations in the country which have claimed it is yet another tactic to delay the elections.