Quotas scaled down but Bangladesh still tense
Bangladesh's Supreme Court reduces veterans' job quota to 5% from 30% amid violent protests. Tensions persist as curfew extended, protests continue.
Bangladesh’s Supreme Court on Sunday scaled down a controversial quota system for government jobs following violent protests led by students spiralled into clashes, killing at least 139 people across the South Asian country that remained on the edge after demonstrators said they will continue their stir and the government extended a strict curfew.
The protesters have been demanding an end to a quota that reserved 30% of government jobs for relatives of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of Independence in 1971. The government previously halted it in 2018 following mass student protests, but in June, Bangladesh’s high court reinstated the quota and set off a new round of protests. Ruling on an appeal, the Supreme Court ordered that the veterans’ quota be cut to 5%, with 93% of jobs to be allocated on merit. The remaining 2% will be set aside for members of ethnic minorities and transgender and disabled people.
“I am hoping normalcy will return after today’s ruling and people with ulterior motives will stop instigating people,” attorney general AM Amin Uddin said. The country’s law minister Anisul Haq also welcomed the court’s decision and said it is “well thought of”.
The situation on the ground remained tense as Bangladeshi authorities extended a nationwide curfew on Sunday and soldiers continued to patrol cities across the country that remained under an internet blackout. The Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina-led government has declared a public holiday on Monday, with only emergency services allowed to operate.
The coordinators of the anti-job quota movement maintained that their protests will continue despite the Supreme Court’s ruling.
“We won’t call off our protests until the government issues an order reflecting our demands,” a spokesperson for Students Against Discrimination, which has been spearheading the protests, told news agency AFP on condition of anonymity. The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party has backed the protests, vowing to organize its own demonstrations as many of its supporters have joined the student-led protests. However, BNP said in a statement that its followers were not responsible for the violence and denied the ruling party’s accusations of using the protests for political gains.
The turmoil in Bangladesh has sent ripples across its neighbours, including India. More than 4,500 Indians and nearly 540 citizens of Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives have returned from Bangladesh with the assistance of Indian authorities following violent protests, the ministry of external affairs said in a statement.
At a rally in Kolkata, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said on Sunday said that she would be willing to provide shelter in her state to people from Bangladesh who were in distress.
“I should not be speaking on the affairs of Bangladesh since it is a sovereign nation and whatever needs to be said on the issue is a subject matter of the Centre. But I can tell you this, if helpless people come knocking on the doors of [West] Bengal, we will surely provide them shelter,” Banerjee said.
She referred to UN resolution on refugees to justify her stand. “That’s because there is a UN resolution to accommodate refugees in regions adjacent to those which are in turmoil,” she said, citing the example of people from Assam being allowed to live in the Alipurduars area of West Bengal during the Bodo agitation.
However, people familiar with the matter said that such matters are handled by the Central government. “These are matters which are handled by the Union government. A state government has no locus standi on the issue and as such, their comments are totally misplaced,” one of the people said on condition of anonymity.