 "How Sheikh Hasina’s ‘missing’ resignation letter has sparked fresh tensions in Bangladesh")
More than two months after the ouster of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina not all is well in the neighbouring nation. In August, protesters forcefully entered Hasina’s official residence in Dhaka soon after she fled to India. Now in what seems like a repeat of recent history, protesters laid siege to the presidential palace Bangabhaban, demanding the resignation of President Mohammed Shahabuddin.
The Anti-discrimination Student Movement, which led the protests against Hasina , is leading the demonstration against the president . On Tuesday, hundreds of students first rallied at the central Shaheed Minar in Dhaka, demanding that Shahabuddin step down. They then marched towards Bangabhaban and overran the barricades set up by the army.
It’s Shahabuddin’s interview with a Bangla daily Manab Zamin last week, where he claimed that there was no documentary evidence that Hasina resigned as PM when she fled the country, which angered protesters.
#FPLIVE | A group of protestors sieged the Bangladesh Presidential Palace and asked President Mohammed Shahabuddin to quit. https://t.co/j73vHYLcBo
— Firstpost (@firstpost) October 23, 2024
Why do protesters want the Bangladesh president gone?
Many consider Shahabuddin a “crony” of the Hasina government.
The anger against him peaked after the interview with Manab Zamin last week. The president said that he heard that Hasina had resigned as PM before she fled to India but he did not have documentary evidence for it.
Despite numerous efforts, the president said, he had failed to find any documents. “Perhaps she did not have the time,” Shahabuddin told the publication.
Narrating the events that unfolded on August 5, the day Hasina left Bangladesh, Shahabuddin recalled that he received a call at Bangabhaban from Hasina’s residence around 10:30 am, informing him that the PM would meet him. However, “within an hour, another call came, saying she was not coming”.
On 8 August, Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus became the chief adviser of Bangladesh’s interim government. Shahabuddin said that before he administered the oath of office to Yunus and his advisory council members, he had sought the opinion of the Supreme Court, which advised him to go ahead because of the extraordinary situation.
Reports in the Bangladesh media earlier said that Hasina went to the president’s house before leaving the country with her sister and tendered her resignation. However, now Shahabuddin claims that there was no resignation letter.
The interview has angered student activists who think of the president as Hasina’s sympathiser. “The president is an ally of fascism. He was in favour of genocide. We demand his resignation,” Nasir Uddin Patwari, a protest leader, said.
A group of protesters under the banner of Shadhinota-Shorbobhoumotto Rokkha Committee (committee to protect independence and sovereignty) staged a sit-in protest at the Dhaka University campus, demanding Shahabuddin’s resignation and calling for the termination of the Constitution and the formation of a “revolutionary government”.
Rafiq Khan, a prominent leader of the group, called Shahabuddin a “culprit” as he was “unlawfully” appointed by “killer Hasina”. “We request him to resign immediately and vacate the Bangabhaban. Otherwise, we will start another movement like the one in July,” he warned.
Protesters who gathered outside the president’s palace chanted on Tuesday chanted slogans against him. “The president is a crony of Hasina’s authoritarian regime,” said a demonstrator, demanding that Shahabuddin step down.
The Anti-discrimination Student Movement has set a deadline for Shahabuddin’s removal as they laid a five-point demand, including the scrapping of Bangladesh’s 1972 Constitution. They also demanded the disbanding of Hasina’s Awami League party and its allies from political activities.
Why does the resignation letter matter?
The resignation legitimises the appointment of the interim government. But without one, the Yunus-led government can be accused of power-grabbing, according to a report in India Today.
Questions are already being raised by critics of the current establishment.
“Sheikh Hasina did not resign from her prime Minister post, and she is still alive. Therefore, the Yunus government is illegal,” wrote exiled Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen on X.
Everybody in Bangladesh lied. Army chief said Hasina resigned. President said Hasina resigned. Yunus said Hasina resigned. But nobody has seen the resignation letter. Resignation letter is like a god, everybody says it is there, but nobody can show or prove it is there.
— taslima nasreen (@taslimanasreen) October 23, 2024
“Everybody in Bangladesh lied. Army chief said Hasina resigned. President said Hasina resigned. Yunus said Hasina resigned. But nobody has seen the resignation letter. Resignation letter is like a god, everybody says it is there, but nobody can show or prove it is there.”
“After the toppling of Sheikh Hasina’s government, the interim government has been formed on the basis of the Supreme Court’s opinion… no debate is required about it,” he said.
What is the Bangladesh government saying?
Asif Nazrul, a law adviser to the caretaker government, pointed out that President Shahabuddin had said in a speech that Hasina had tendered her resignation and was he was now contradicting himself. He said that the president was either lying in August when he delivered the speech or now and that he could be charged with falsehood.
What is the president saying?
In a televised address on August 5, Shahabuddin said, “Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has tendered her resignation letter to the president and I have received it.”
Bangabhaban, meanwhile, in a statement said the president urged the people not to reignite controversy over a settled issue. “This is a clear statement from His Excellency the President that, all the answers regarding the resignation and departure of the Prime Minister (Hasina) in the face of the students-people mass revolution, the dissolution of the Parliament and all the questions raised in the public mind about the Constitutional validity about the incumbent Interim Government are reflected in the order of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in Special Reference No-01/2024, dated August 8, 2024,” it said.
Is Mohammed Shahabuddin an ally of Hasina?
Shahabuddin has been the president of Bangladesh since April 2023. He has been a close associate of Sheikh Hasina’s family for decades.
Born in 1949 and hailing from the northwestern Pabna district, Shahabuddin, also known as Chuppu, was a leader of the Awami League’s student and youth wings and took part in the 1971 Liberation War.
Hasina’s father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh, appointed Shahabuddin a district joint secretary in the Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League, a political front of farmers and workers which included the Awami League party, in 1975. After the assassination of Rahman in 1975, Shahabuddin was jailed for three years.
In 1982, he was inducted into the country’s judicial service. As a retired district judge, he later served as one of the commissioners of the independent Anti-Corruption Commission. He headed an investigation panel that probed violence against party members and supporters when the party was in the opposition. He has been a Hasina loyalist.
Shahabuddin later joined politics and became a member of the Awami League Advisory Council, which comprises senior party leaders and technocrats, but his election to the highest office would require him to relinquish the party post.
He was elected unopposed as the country’s 22nd president to succeed Abdul Hamid. The role of the head of state in Bangladesh is largely ornamental. The office of the president draws attention during the general elections as he appoints the prime minister and the custodial guardian of the country.
With inputs from agencies
 "Russian drones over Poland: Trump’s tepid reaction a wake-up call for Nato?")
 "As Russia pushes east, Ukraine faces mounting pressure to defend its heartland")
 "Why Mossad was not on board with Israel’s strike on Hamas in Qatar")
 "Turkey: Erdogan's police arrest opposition mayor Hasan Mutlu, dozens officials in corruption probe")
 "Russian drones over Poland: Trump’s tepid reaction a wake-up call for Nato?")
 "As Russia pushes east, Ukraine faces mounting pressure to defend its heartland")
 "Why Mossad was not on board with Israel’s strike on Hamas in Qatar")
 "Turkey: Erdogan's police arrest opposition mayor Hasan Mutlu, dozens officials in corruption probe")
