A number of indices on democracy have recognized the present Bangladeshi political system as “semi-authoritarian,” “hybrid,” or solely “partly free.” Regardless of exhibiting promise of re-democratization from the early Nineties to the late 2000s, the nation seems to have returned to its path of “democratic backsliding.”
The controversy in 2013 over the Worldwide Crimes Tribunal—which was instituted to prosecute the folks concerned in crimes towards humanity, battle crimes, genocide, and different crimes below worldwide legislation that occurred in the course of the 1971 liberation battle—accelerated democratic backsliding within the nation, accentuated the rift between secular and Islamist events (reflecting the left/proper divide) in Bangladeshi politics, and led to 2 opposing mass actions. On the floor, pro-tribunal, leftist forces received this battle with the profitable conclusion of the tribunal. Some consultants declare that because the Awami League (AL) got here to energy in 2014, it has enacted insurance policies that undermine freedom of expression, minority rights, and girls’s empowerment, contributing to democratic backsliding and an general rightward shift within the nation. On prime of this, others argue that the get together’s insurance policies have contributed to additional marginalization of the opposition.
In the present day, Bangladeshi opposition events are struggling. The middle-right Bangladesh Nationalist Get together (BNP) by no means fairly recovered from its boycott of the 2014 election, and its get together chair, Begum Khaleda Zia, was imprisoned in 2018 on corruption expenses. Zia was granted bail on sure situations via a authorities govt order in 2020. Though the federal government prolonged the bail for the fifth time in March 2022, BNP management nonetheless complains about repression. The opposite center-right get together, Jatiya Get together (JP), struggles to keep up its function as the principle opposition get together, holding solely 26 out of 350 parliamentary seats. The far-right Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami (BJI) misplaced its registration standing because of the management’s battle crimes within the 1971 liberation battle. One other far-right get together, Islami Andolan Bangladesh (IAB), captured third place within the 2018 parliamentary election, nevertheless it did not safe a single seat in parliament. Absent any electoral risk from right-leaning events, the present conservative shift in Bangladeshi politics is perplexing, particularly contemplating the AL’s electoral and govt alliance with some leftist events.
This paradox leaves observers questioning why leftist events have did not exert their affect and reverse the nation’s rightward shift and creeping authoritarianism. In right this moment’s Bangladesh, these events have been relegated to what one skilled known as a “microscopic situation.”1 Though not monolithic when it comes to nature and beliefs, leftist events in Bangladesh share institutional and ideological constraints that curtail their talents to emerge as dominant political actors.
This text analyzes thirty-nine skilled interviews, 4 focus group discussions with college students on the College of Dhaka, and qualitative content material evaluation of the get together platforms, manifestos, and publications of 4 leftist events to elucidate these events’ failure to help democratic consolidation in post-1990 Bangladesh.2 It begins by tracing the historical past of leftist events to the colonial period, inspecting the function of the nation’s authoritarian previous and the way the events’ habits of appearing inside bigger events limits leftist politics. Then, the article identifies ideological and organizational challenges that impede get together success and grassroots mobilization, together with leftists’ popularity of being “elitist” and “atheist,” their incapacity to interact civil society networks, and intraparty feuds. Lastly, the piece closes with a dialogue on the way forward for leftist events in Bangladesh.
Historical past of Leftist Events in Bangladesh
Leftist events within the Indian subcontinent have a well-documented historical past of collaborating in anti-colonial actions towards the British. Within the post-partition period, Bangladeshi leftists performed an influential function in anti-authoritarian mobilization towards Pakistani dictatorship. Although these events weren’t allowed to function brazenly, some labored via the AL. After the get together spearheaded the liberation battle in 1971, nevertheless, leftist events suffered from inner feuds and confrontation with the ruling AL. Even when leftist events grew to become the one viable possibility for opposition politics when religion-based politics was banned in 1972,3 these events nonetheless couldn’t agree on how one can provoke a socialist revolution. The navy coup in 1975 eliminated the AL from workplace, however opposition politics had been nonetheless restricted. After fifteen years of navy dictatorship, the 2 centrist events together with smaller leftist events mobilized the nation and reinstituted parliamentary democracy in 1991.
Nonetheless, leftist events battle in nationwide elections. Properly-known events like Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JASAD) and the Employees Get together of Bangladesh (WPB) have some parliamentary illustration, however their constituencies and subsequent vote shares are very small. Focus group discussions (FGD) performed amongst college students on the College of Dhaka indicated that these events have turn into so irrelevant that almost all younger voters can’t even title greater than two leftist events or their leaders. Members additionally admitted that they’ve little or no or no clue concerning the political ideology of those events, save those that often find yourself as a part of the governing coalition. Though on no account consultant of the whole voting inhabitants, remarks by scholar contributors in FGDs point out that leftist events in Bangladesh undergo from a legitimacy disaster. In the end, this disaster has been a results of authoritarian rule and the left’s failure to popularize their agenda.
Politicking By Larger Events: Erosion of Get together Energy
Most consultants interviewed by the creator argued that Bangladeshi leftist events lack a distinguishable voice in comparison with their reasonable counterparts. Traditionally, leftist events averted the wrath of authoritarian rulers by politicking via extra mainstream events. Dictatorial rule and authorized limitations necessitated their collaboration with mainstream events to realize frequent targets—similar to independence from Pakistan and the top of navy dictatorship—however this technique additionally meant leftist events existed below the shadow of their mainstream counterparts. Following the top of navy rule in 1991, coalition politics exacerbated this dependency, additional compromising leftists’ skill to push their agenda. A veteran leftist politician defined:
There are some advantages and income of coalition politics. In concern of dropping these advantages and income, [leftists] someday take a softer strategy in talking towards oppression and unfairness and in favor of fixing legal guidelines. I’ll name this an opportunist tendency. Due to this opportunism, generally they don’t come off as energetic within the discipline, inside and outdoors the parliament, on the road as one expects them to. That is one shortcoming of forming an alliance with larger events.4
These explanations exhibit that leftist events in coalition usually turn into much less capable of maintain centrist events accountable and push for different coverage proposals. The main events, too, benefit from this dependency by not taking leftist coverage proposals into consideration.5 In its “political program” (রাজনৈতিক প্রস্তাব), JASAD acknowledges that regardless of being a coalition associate of the AL, it isn’t handled nicely. Its official program reads,
Leaders-activists-supporters of JASAD aren’t proud of the variety of seats it acquired for being a part of the 14-party alliance and the grand alliance prior to now. All ranges of get together leaders-activists-supporters consider that the variety of seats supplied to JASAD because of electoral coalition will not be respectable for the get together. We undoubtedly need this example to vary. Nevertheless, actuality is brutal. No matter injustice has been achieved to the get together when it comes to seat distribution has occurred due to get together’s personal weak spot. Our personal weak spot has pressured us to just accept this compromise over seat distribution.6
Reputational Harm: The “Elitist” and “Atheist” Picture
Each FGD respondents and consultants emphasised that leftist politicians within the Indian subcontinent have a popularity for being elitist. Marxism grew to become fashionable in nineteenth-century Bengal amongst a small however highly effective part of educated, younger Hindus generally known as Bhadraloks. This enlightened group was liable for the Bengali renaissance within the nineteenth century however was additionally perceived as snobbish and clueless about the true world. This notion deepened after the 1947 partition when a minuscule variety of Hindu communists selected to remain in East Pakistan as a substitute of migrating to West Bengal, India, resulting from fears of communal violence. Those that stayed behind had been largely lecturers, limiting leftists’ promotion of communist concepts throughout the “petty-bourgeoisie or lower-middle lessons, and to college students” and solidifying their elitist popularity. Authorized restrictions additional prevented these events from working freely in united Pakistan’s navy dictatorship, eroding any likelihood to develop their platform past these lessons.
Leftist politicians and intellectuals are nonetheless considered this manner by college students on the College of Dhaka in Bangladesh. When requested about leftist politicians and activists, FGD respondents described them as “snobbish” and “elitist.” A professor of economics on the College of Dhaka discovered the tendency to speak about revolution from the snug city setting as one of many largest causes behind the leftists’ failure to emerge instead political pressure. In his phrases:
They can not sacrifice on a day-in day-out foundation like Sheikh Mujib[ur Rahman, the founder of Bangladesh] did. . . . Their tendency is to do good with out difficult the established order as a lot as potential. The mindset is like this: ‘I can’t compromise [with my beliefs], however I can’t sacrifice [for my cause] both. I can’t take dangers.’ Right here by compromise I imply tactical compromise. However there is no such thing as a such dedication as leaving the swimsuit [that is, upper-class elite status] behind and discover Bangladesh from one finish to the opposite for six months.7
FGD responses point out that this allegedly elitist perspective of the events may need spilled over into scholar fronts of leftist organizations as nicely. This notion of younger leftist activists maybe comes from a deeply ingrained perception that not all individuals are equally able to comprehending their political message, and therefore their efforts ought to give attention to the actually ones. Due to this fact, even inside their historic space of operation—public universities—leftists haven’t been capable of garner a lot assist.
One leftist politician, nevertheless, contradicted this stereotype, claiming that the younger era of his get together’s activists are nonetheless energetic within the countryside the place they mobilize peasants and downtrodden folks.8 Whereas grassroots mobilization may not be on the stage it reached in the course of the Eighties, the custom has not completely died. The politician did admit to a leftist proclivity to ahamika, the Bengali phrase for conceitedness, which causes reputational harm and alienates leftist politicians from the folks.
Leftists in Bangladesh even have a popularity for being atheists. This label makes constructing robust grassroots networks and a steady constituency troublesome, given current anti-atheist stigma within the nation. In Bangladesh, “if you happen to go to the countryside and inform folks that you’re an atheist, they may take a look at you want they’ve seen a snake. Bengali Muslims are petrified by the time period atheism.”9 Authoritarian rulers each earlier than and after Bangladesh’s independence performed propaganda campaigns towards leftists, branding them as impious nonbelievers. One veteran leftist politician remarked that “this label [atheists] can’t be eliminated. It has at all times been there, nonetheless is, and can at all times be.”10 The FGD contributors confirmed his frustration; most of them used phrases similar to “hedonist,” “immoral,” and “atheist” to explain leftist political events.
Such defamation grew stronger when the Shahbagh motion, which demanded capital punishment of 1971 battle criminals and a ban on non secular politics, emerged in 2013. Leftist college students on the College of Dhaka acquired criticism from right-wing political events for selling a secularism tantamount to anti-Islamism. The time period “atheists” got here for use to establish anybody sympathetic to the secular motion, though solely a handful of activists concerned had been self-proclaimed atheists. The sort of assault on leftist politicians has continued right this moment; well-known non secular preachers label politicians as “atheist” for his or her sympathy towards minority sects. These leaders are known as “murtads” (apostates), “atheists,” and “enemies of Islam” as a result of their model of secularism requires respect for all teams.
Leftist political events understand they need to discover a stability between staying true to their ideology and avoiding offending prevailing non secular sensitivities. As an alternative of offering conceptual readability of secularism and making it Bangladesh-oriented, most leftist politicians have opted for the technique that the AL has been utilizing since mid-Nineties, showcasing the piety of their leaders to offset anti-religious allegations.
The FGD responses reveal that public shows of piety, like embarking on the holy pilgrimage to Mecca or referring to Islamic paperwork in political speeches, don’t assist the leftists a lot in eradicating the notion that they’re anti-religious. Relatively, these methods give the impression that leftists are solely attempting to attain political factors. For instance, one respondent commented, “We’ve seen these leftist events, similar to JASAD and BASAD, counting on a leftist vocabulary in protest demonstrations and rallies. Nevertheless, after they take part in actual politics, which means election, they attempt to play the faith card as nicely. We’ve seen that leftist politicians, from Hasanul Haq Inu to Rashed Khan Menon presenting non secular points of their election manifestos, even utilizing non secular phrases like ‘Allah is probably the most highly effective’ of their posters.”11 One other respondent additional defined that “their core ideology could be Marxism. However in addition they have the opportunist tendency like all different [political] events. Since Bangladesh is a Muslim majority nation, they attempt to use faith to serve their pursuits.”12
Mobilizational Limitations: Lack of Concern and Organizational Linkages
Because the successes of leftist events in Greece, Portugal, and Spain over the past decade counsel, linkages with like-minded teams and civil society organizations assist smaller events garner assist.13 Linkages present these events with legitimacy to ascertain themselves as integral to the get together system and reinforce get together messages. Events have the selection to create, penetrate, and collaborate with civil society organizations to make themselves extra “credible within the eyes of the voters” and foster grassroots mobilization.
Traditionally, commerce unions are the strongest ally of leftist events within the civil society area. Nevertheless, leftist events’ linkages with this very important civil society group have progressively diminished over time because of the authoritarian-era legacy that restricted entry to commerce unions. After partition, East Pakistani jute and textile industries had been dwelling to left-dominated labor unions till Normal Ayub Khan rose to energy within the Nineteen Sixties. To exert management over the working class and perform an anti-communist marketing campaign, Khan launched factory-level unionism that benefited corrupt union leaders near the regime. In unbiased Bangladesh, the politicization of commerce unions continued: the AL administration (1972–1975) nationalized key industries and included all labor unions inside one single group.
Navy rule additional exacerbated this pattern in two methods. First, Ziaur Rahman’s regime made it obligatory for all registered political events to declare their very own labor fronts.14 This measure launched fractionalization inside unions, and leftist events misplaced their hegemonic entry to the working class, their core constituency and base for mobilization. Second, the successor Hussain Muhammad Ershad regime intensified the denationalization of the economic system, and the rising personal sector was towards union actions. This additional shrank the room for maneuver for leftist events via unionism.
Within the post-authoritarian period, commerce unions began mirroring polarization in Bangladeshi politics. The 2 larger, centrist events, the BNP and AL, took turns working the nation. Whereas in energy, every get together promoted their very own labor fronts and union leaders as a substitute of letting the working class set up their very own pursuits. By this time, leftist events had been organizationally so weak that their presence in these unions couldn’t match BNP and AL energy. BNP and AL fronts outranked leftist ones, and leftist events misplaced the flexibility to steer on essential points associated to labor rights and welfare. This weak spot has turn into painfully seen in recent times on problems with minimal wage and first rate working situations for readymade garment employees in Bangladesh.
It could be unfair to counsel, although, that leftist events don’t pay sufficient consideration to their core constituency. Official paperwork from 4 leftist events present a transparent dedication to the betterment of the situation of the working class, with a selected give attention to minimal wage and office situations. Nevertheless, the restriction of commerce union actions makes it troublesome for these events to understand these targets. One leftist politician stated that regardless that commerce unionism has been significantly hampered by stricter legal guidelines of entry and the introduction of “dalals” (middlemen) and the “commerce union mafia,” leftist events are nonetheless attempting to work via unions. From his standpoint, leftists are additionally not solely targeted on mobilizing manufacturing unit employees. For the reason that khet-mojurs (farm laborers) represent a overwhelming majority of working-class folks within the countryside, leftist events now solid their web extra broadly. Nevertheless, he additionally acknowledged that grassroots mobilization stays lower than splendid in current day Bangladesh. No leftist chief has been capable of impress and encourage youthful activists via an indication impact.15
Leftist events additionally share a number of targets with different members of Bangladeshi secular civil society, targets starting from poverty alleviation to the betterment of human rights. Nevertheless, the events and civil society organizations disagree over how one can obtain these targets, so there may be hardly any formal or casual cooperation between them. Their relationship can also be strained by political events’ animosity towards civil society organizations for his or her interference in political processes. A seasoned leftist politician remarked that these civil society organizations have tried to “depoliticize” politics by bypassing political events. Such sentiments don’t bode nicely for collaboration between the 2 kinds of actors.16
In leftist circles, suspicion of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), which type the majority of secular civil society in Bangladesh, is strengthened by these NGOs’ dependence on overseas funding. Leftist events in Bangladesh typically view these teams as puppets of imperial forces. The next excerpt from the political proposal adopted on the eleventh get together congress of the Communist Get together of Bangladesh, for instance, explains why NGOs aren’t considered as credible companions in social reform:
In the present day, NGOs are working an enormous marketing campaign within the nation. Broadly talking, NGOs are working because the “safety web” for imperialism to offset the social unrest created by poverty, inequality, and unemployment borne by the anti-people insurance policies of the exact same imperialism. . . . Within the title of poverty alleviation, they’re providing micro-credit within the countryside. The excessive rate of interest of those credit score applications is forcing the debtors to take a mortgage from one NGO to pay again the mortgage from one other NGO. As an alternative of eliminating poverty, rural individuals are getting caught in a vicious cycle of debt. Due to this fact, the variety of poor, careworn, loan-defaulting folks has elevated within the nation. Nevertheless, the NGOs which are concerned on this enterprise of micro-credit are making big income. NGO-led reform actions may carry some advantages within the brief time period. Though there is no such thing as a purpose to oppose these “reforms,” it’s our obligation to struggle towards this reform-ism. We’ve to recollect this concerning the NGOs. So it’s protected to say that contemplating all the pieces, NGOs are a unfavorable and harmful actor.
This sentiment has been echoed by the WPB in its 2018 election manifesto. The get together pledged to “save the peasants and agriculture from the fingers of loans of rural cash lenders and NGOs, by taking sensible and efficient steps.” Paperwork from the leftist get together Gana Samhati, too, painting NGOs as mortgage sharks preying on poor rural folks. In its blueprint for motion, the get together declares its obligation to “save the peasants from the multinational firms promoting fertilizers, seeds, pesticides and in addition from the debt-traps of rural NGOs and mahajans [money lenders].”17 Some consultants point out sure cultural organizations, similar to Udichi or Chhayanot, because the true civil society of Bangladesh. They see prospects for collaboration with these teams, particularly in reversing the rightward shift in politics and society. Nevertheless, these consultants additionally acknowledge that deliberate state coverage in the course of the dictatorial interval promoted a conservative model of cultural Islam, limiting secular civil society’s skill to repeatedly and persistently mobilize supporters.18
Fractionalization
Consultants establish intraparty feuds and a scarcity of inner democracy as two of the largest weaknesses of leftist events. Within the 1971 battle for an unbiased Bangladesh, there was a break up in leftist assist for the AL. In the present day’s leftist politicians remorse the lefts’ incapacity to unite at this defining second of nationwide politics. In post-independence Bangladesh, debates over the suitable type of social revolution and character clashes amongst get together management solely entrenched divisions. The dearth of a coherent imaginative and prescient concerning the future course of politics grew to become much more evident with the navy’s 1975 intervention into politics. One leftist politician who was energetic on the time defined how this period additional eroded the collective policy-shaping energy of the leftists:
With the navy intervention in Bangladesh, the leftists virtually grew to become extra marginalized. They fell into the entice of disagreement over whether or not to interact in a powerful anti-dictatorship motion or a considerably tepid one. . . . Just about all leftists in Bangladesh suffered from this hesitation/indecision from put up ’75 period via the whole decade of Eighties to 1990. A few of them supported Ershad whereas others supported Zia. Some even defected from the get together to hitch Ershad’s get together. On the finish of the day, the leftists got here out as probably the most broken ones.19
Leftist events carried the legacy of factional politics into post-authoritarian Bangladesh as nicely. Some consultants opined that get together disagreements are nonetheless largely private clashes masked as ideological rivalries. Additionally they recognized a scarcity of inner democracy, an incapacity to accommodate different views throughout the get together, and an absence of strictly enforced get together self-discipline as the explanation why private disputes turn into intractable, reinforcing fractures amongst leftist events. Nevertheless, one skilled dissented and claimed that the capitalist media amplifies the division throughout the leftists and presents them as feeble to the voters.20 Nearly all of consultants claimed fractionalization has affected leftist politics in 3 ways: it fragmented their voter base, lowered their organizational power when it comes to each manpower and cash, and diminished leftist events’ particular person and collective bargaining energy vis-à-vis the centrist events in energy.
What Lies Forward?
Leftists aren’t oblivious to the challenges they need to overcome to reassert their politics. See extra from the Communist Get together:
Despite so many makes an attempt and successive efforts it was not but potential to institute a construction of left unity. The affect and mass mobilization energy of the vast majority of the left events is weak. Apart from, a lot of them have many defects, deviations and confusions. One a part of the left is a associate of the “Mohajote”21 and subsequently they nonetheless stay part of the federal government. Alternatively, some left events are affected by the varied sorts of weaknesses like, left sectarianism, revolutionary phrase mongering, confining oneself to ivory tower theorization utterly estranged from mass folks. . . . Until now there may be additionally no seen influential, progressive, massive, sincere and patriotic political pressure outdoors the left who may unite with the left and type a left-democratic alliance.
But not many consultants interviewed for this mission had been hopeful a few leftist resurgence within the close to future. Lots of them noticed a puritan, ritualistic model of Islam gaining prominence within the nation, making a secular, leftist ideology unpopular and a reversal of assist for right-wing events unlikely.22 One leftist chief expressed frustration over the youthful generations’ unwillingness to take up the mantle of leftist ideology. From his perspective, an infusion of consumerist tradition in Bangladeshi society and the normalization of conservative Islamic practices have led to a scenario that makes leftist ideology unappealing to this era.23 A number of consultants predicted the rise of a 3rd pressure and the collapse of the 2 extremes on the political spectrum.24 Nevertheless, when requested in the event that they see any leftist political get together in present-day Bangladesh which may remodel into that third pressure, they may not provide a constructive reply.
Some leftist politicians and civil society members had been hopeful concerning the creation of a brand new political agenda based mostly on the altering socioeconomic wants of the folks. They thought that local weather change and environmental degradation within the pure disaster-prone nation could be one problem on which the leftists may mobilize constituents. The safety and promotion of helpful pure assets like fuel and coal may very well be one other problem the place leftists may rally assist. Nevertheless, even probably the most optimistic observers made cautious predictions concerning the left’s skill to steer. One leftist chief’s recommendation to fellow leftists was, “Group! Group! Group!”25 He recognized being energetic and visual in politics and collaborating in elections as probably the most urgent obligations for leftists. Leftist publications analyzed for this mission additionally reveal this realization among the many events, the place they emphasize ideological solidarity and organizational power to remain related in Bangladesh.26
Nevertheless, nearly all consultants acknowledged that for leftists to do their job, procedural democracy via free and honest elections should be established in Bangladesh—the opposition needs to be allowed to function freely. To cite one left-leaning skilled, “We’ve did not create a viable different pressure, one thing that we wish. We should not have the form of pressure that you simply want for the minimal stage of democracy, secularism, and egalitarianism. You want social democracy, which is absent right here.”27
Notes
1 Interview performed on the skilled’s workplace in Dhaka on February 20, 2020.
2 The publications of the Communist Get together of Bangladesh (CPB), the Employee’s Get together of Bangladesh (WPB), Jatiya Samajtantrik Dol (JASAD), and Gana Samhati had been used for this objective. These 4 events had been chosen based mostly on their electoral power, fashionable recognition, and alliance historical past. The evaluation was accomplished between February 2020 and Could 2022.
3 Interview performed on the skilled’s residence in Dhaka on February 22, 2020. Article 38, paragraph 2 of the primary Bangladeshi Structure, enacted in 1972, acknowledged that “no particular person shall have the suitable to type or be a member or in any other case participate within the actions of, any communal or different affiliation or union, which within the title or on the premise of any faith has for its object, or pursues a political objective.”
4 Interview performed on the skilled’s workplace in Dhaka on February 21, 2020.
5 Ibid.
6 JASAD’s political proposal, adopted in 2018, p. 6.
7 Interview performed on the professor’s residence on February 19, 2020.
8 Interview performed over telephone on Could 18, 2022.
9 Interview with a professor of political science at College of Dhaka on February 20, 2020.
10 Interview performed on the skilled’s residence in Dhaka on February 21, 2020.
11 Focus group dialogue performed on the College of Dhaka on February 19, 2020. The creator didn’t come throughout any posters with that phrase printed by any leftist political get together throughout her analysis.
12 Ibid.
13 Myrto Tsakatika and Costas Eleftheriou, “The Radical Left’s Flip In the direction of Civil Society in Greece: One Technique, Two Paths,” South European Society and Politics 18, no. 1 (2013): 81–99, https://doi.org/10.1080/13608746.2012.757455.
14 Md. Abu Taher, “Politicization of Commerce Unions: Points and Challenges in Bangladesh Perspective,” Indian Journal of Industrial Relations 34, no. 4 (1999): 403–420.
15 Interview performed over telephone on Could 18, 2022.
16 Ibid.
17 Define for Gana Samhati Andolan, p. 6.
18 See Kazi Shahdat Kabir, “Islam as a Image of Ligitimization: The Islamization Venture of President Normal Ershad in Bangladesh,” Far Jap Financial Evaluation (April 16, 1982); and Muhammad A. Hakim, “The Use of Islam as a Political Legitimization Instrument: The Bangladesh Expertise, 1972–1990,” Asian Journal of Political Science 6, no. 2 (December 1998): 98–117.
19 Interview performed on the skilled’s workplace in Dhaka on February 21, 2020.
20 Interview performed with the skilled over telephone on Could 18, 2022.
21 Mohajote, or “grand alliance,” is the title of the AL-led coalition that received the parliamentary election in 2008 and fashioned a authorities in 2009.
22 Interview performed on the skilled’s residence in Dhaka, Bangladesh on February 22, 2020.
23 Interview performed on the skilled’s workplace in Dhaka, Bangladesh on February 21, 2020.
24 Interviews performed in numerous places in Dhaka, Bangladesh in February 2020.
25 Interview performed on the skilled’s workplace in Dhaka, Bangladesh on February 21, 2020.
26 Together with JASAD’s election manifesto from 2018 and CPB’s political proposal adopted on the eleventh get together congress in 2016.
27 Interview performed on the skilled’s residence in Dhaka, Bangladesh on February 19, 2020.
