In Bangladesh, it’s called the battle of the Begums. The struggle between the nation’s two women political leaders for the mastery of Bangladesh becomes sharper with the Awami League government of Sheikh Hasina according its approval to the filing of sedition charges against the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader, Begum Khaleda.

The political situation in Bangladesh has become more volatile with Ms. Khaleda’s reckless remark on an emotive issue – the number of martyrs during the liberation struggle in 1971. (East Pakistan broke away to form Bangladesh after an Indian military intervention. The number of those killed has been said to be about 3 million. Begum Khaleda cast doubt on those figures at a public event last month.)

Ms. Khaleda, herself prime minister in the early 1980s, has been asked to appear in court. The sedition charge has been filed when Bangladesh contends with the hideous upsurge in Islamist militancy, exemplified by the killing of secular writers.

The leader of the pro-Islamist BNP to raked up the matter on 21 December – five days after the 44th anniversary of Victory Day. More specifically, she contended that “there are controversies over how many were martyred in the Liberation War.”

She has distinctly played to the Jamaat gallery (hardline political factions) and the pro-Pakistan segment within the country, and in the event has antagonised the judiciary and the post-71 generation that spearheaded the Shabaug upheaval in 2013, shrilling for justice against the “collaborators and war criminals”.

(About the Shabaug protests: This is a reference to the protests in 2013 that took place at the Shabaug intersection in Dhaka, in a movement reminiscent of the Arab Spring protests in the Middle-East.)

A fact of history cannot be disputed without empirical evidence, let alone a flippant wave of hand.

No wonder the Begum’s subjective reflection has ignited stout condemnation among Bangladesh’s pro-liberation forces.

Less easily explained is her perception that Pakistani forces were present in 1971 as what she calls hanadar bahini (occupation forces). Hence the popular demand for an explanation of the appellation by both the Jamaat and the BNP.

Did Khaleda simply echo the sentiments of the Jamaat? No doubt, the BNP leader, whose political prospects have dimmed over the years, has created a grim situation. Her provocation has been greeted with condemnation that she is acting as an “agent of Pakistan”, one who ought to “leave Bangladesh”.

It thus comes about that Pakistan, the BNP and Jamaat are on the same page, reducing the liberation struggle to a travesty of history.

Neither the Islamist surge nor professed secularism nor the Pakistani perception can serve as documentary reference to a chapter of history.

It shall not be easy for the BNP or the Jamaat or  the violent fundamentalists to contend with the charge of sedition. Section 123 (A) of the penal code says that one can be punished “with rigorous imprisonment of up to ten years for condemnation of the creation of Bangladesh”.

The renewed opposition to Begum Khaleda, embedded in nationalist sentiment, may just suit the other Begum, Sheikh Hasina and the Awami League agenda.

  Bangladesh, pakistan