Ex-R&AW Chief Discounts US Role in Bangladesh Regime Change
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R&AW Spl Secy Amitabh Mathur Spotlights Complex Bengali Identities
By Raisina Correspondent
New Delhi, February 13: Former R&AW official Amitabh Mathur has spotlighted complex Bangladesh identities in the backdrop of violent upheavals. He reasoned that an interplay of two identities, Bengali and pro-Pakistani, has been a mainstay in the Islamic nation.
A section of diplomats has blamed the US hand in the Bangladesh regime change. Clinton Centre also felicitated Muhammed Yunus, the Chief Advisor of the Bangladesh Interim Government. He introduced key activists who had led the violent movement against the Sheikh Hasina-led government in Bangladesh.
But Mathur shed light on conflicts of identities. In an interview with India’s World, Mathur reminded that 35-40 per cent of the people have voted in 1971 to stay with Pakistan.
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The former R&AW official also recalled the violent agitation in Bangladesh in 1975 when everything associated with Sheikh Mujib ur Rehman were attacked. He drew a parallel with the overthrow of Hasina government.
His remarks are in contrast to a section of diplomats who pinned blame on the Joe Biden administration in the US for regime change in Bangladesh. Hasina and the US had been engaged in a war of words in the run up to the national elections which she had won.
“We saw this happen in 1975 when it completely repudiated everything Sheikh Mujib stood for. And now we see it again in 2024, a rejection of not only Sheikh Hasina but, once again, of Sheikh Mujib,” Mathur told India’s World, a new portal which focusses on geopolitical issues.
Bangladesh has perhaps two broad identities, he said, adding: “The origins of one can be traced back to 1947. …we have the Bengali identity of 1971. It was a product of the language movement in Pakistan,” argued Mathur.
He reasoned that the 1971 uprising “was not a repudiation of their Islamic identity but primarily an assertion of their Bengali identity underscored by pride in Bengali literature and culture”.
“The conflict between these two identities has been ongoing for a very long time. We tend to forget that even in 1971, 35 to 40% of Bangladeshis voted in favour of remaining in Pakistan,” Mathur told the new portal. He identified the Bangladesh National Party of Khalida Zia as inheritor of the Pakistani identity in Bangladesh.
However, his remarks are in contrast to India’s former High Commissioner in Dhaka Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty who squarely accused the US for the regime change. Chakravarty claimed that the US was behind the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina-led government in Bangladesh.
He expressed doubt if the US President-elect Donald Trump will reverse the Washington policy on Bangladesh. “The US administration led by President Joe Biden planned the regime change operation in Dhaka,” Chakravarty told stratnewsglobal.com in an interview.
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The former diplomat charged that the “US carried out the regime change in Bangladesh without taking into account the consequences”.
Chakravarty told Ramananda Sengupta of Strat News Global that the “US had been supportive of Islamist organizations in several parts of the world while carrying out regime changes”.
“Although there might be some change once Trump returns to the White House, the deed has been done,” added Chakravarty.
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