BAKSAL: Death of Democracy by Mujib

The year was 1975. Mujib had been ruling Bangladesh for the last three years, but it had been a terrible three years of ruling. Famine, his own incompetence, bureaucratic corruption, rigged elections, riots, and revolutionary attempts by Gonobahini all resulted in a miserable era for the newly independent country of Bangladesh. For Mujib, the solution to all these problems was making a national government composed of some other left-aligned and leftist parties and consolidating power under one ruler and one party. This party was born with the name Bangladesh Krishok Sromik Awami League (BAKSAL).
Background

After Mujib became the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, the student leaders around him initially felt that he was going to make real changes in the country, and they believed in him. Sirajul Alam Khan especially thought Mujib would transform Bangladesh into a socialist state. However, what followed was Awami League members doing corruption, not fulfilling the promises that were made in their eyes.

So an insurgency started to oust the Mujib regime, and it intensified after the 1973 Bangladesh General Elections, which were rigged to ensure a consolidation of power by the ruling party, Awami League. The Bangladesh government, in response, created the Jatiyo Rakkhi Bahini to crack down on the JSD-led Gonobahini. While they killed several Gonobahini members, the Rakkhi Bahini also engaged in human rights abuses, which made the situation even more chaotic in the newly independent country. Jatiyo Rakkhi Bahini became a name of fear amongst the masses, and they started to resent the ruling government for allowing such a paramilitary force to exist.

The famine in 1974 showed the true incompetency of the government even more. Since a mass famine resulted in the true unmasking of the bureaucratic corruption within the country.


Interparty factions

One of the questions that many ask is that the Awami League already had enough parliamentary power and had complete control of the state's institutions—what was the need for the formation of BAKSAL?

The answer lies in the fact that the Awami League had a lot of members who did not align with the vision Mujib had for the country; BAKSAL was a way to purge these members from the government and for Mujib to keep his own loyalists who shared the same ideological vision.


First of all, it was the US lobby within the Awami League; these members were from the Suhrawardy era of foreign policy, who themselves had a very pro-US stance in geopolitics. However, the new socialist trend of the country alienated these members of the Awami League. Among these factions, a fringe

group was determined to reverse this process, even if it meant eliminating

Mujib from the picture.

There was a second group who wanted the democratic process in Bangladesh to be followed and felt extremely alienated by the government’s increasing authoritarian actions. This faction was a minority, but they did want to remain in the fold of the Awami League and wait for an outcome.

The Army Problem
The army was another branch of the government that Mujib sought to control but couldn't properly. Jatiyo Rakkhi Bahini’s other purpose was to serve as a deterrent to them. Mujib wanted his own loyal paramilitary force that was loyal to him before anything else since he could not completely trust the army.

BAKSAL’s formation gave Mujib an opportunity to control the army and the factions that were growing increasingly agitated at him. Among these factions, there was a group who had valiantly fought in the Liberation War of 1971 but found themselves at odds with the vision of the new country as they believed in the ideals of pro-Westernism and Islamism—the ideologies that were present in the Pakistani army. The idea of Soviet-style socialism was a threat to them and the military hierarchies present in the army.

There were also left-wing army members who were against the direction Mujib was taking the country, as to them it was a form of a new bourgeois government where the riches of the country were being looted by the Awami League instead of being redistributed to people. These would contribute heavily to the military wing of Jatiyo Samajtantrik Dol, Gonobahini. Bir Uttom Colonel Abu Taher and Major Jalil would be responsible for leading the Gono Bahini.
The Opposition Problem

Awami League leadership thought they had eliminated the opposition problem with rigging the elections in 1973. However, this made their opposition go through more extreme lengths to ensure a democratic process within the country. JASOD, after the 73 election results, went on a full-swing revolutionary attempt to oust Awami League from power, with Gonobahini having frequent clashes with the Jatiyo Rakkhi Bahini.

Elsewhere, a group of Maoist revolutionaries led by Siraj Sikder, who called themselves “Sorbohara, were a group that did not believe in electoral politics; they wanted to get rid of the Awami government, who in their eyes was acting as a proxy government for India. “Sorbohara” aimed to create a true socialist society and complete the revolution from their point of view. This group gave Mujib a lot of trouble, and they were classified as terrorists by the regime. Siraj Sikder was a freedom fighter himself during the war.

There was also the third column of opposition of Islamist parties, pro-Pakistan parties like the Muslim League, PDP, and Jamaat-e-Islami, who were banned by the government but had a sizable support base, so the government was wary of them. Another group, while not that huge in numbers, who were anti-Mujib at the time, were the pro-Pakistani Maoists of 1971, who followed China’s foreign policy to support Pakistan in the war.

Formation of BAKSAL

“Leader, it does not look good that the father of the nation will be serving as merely a prime minister under a president. We request you to change the parliamentary system to a presidential one and remain the president of the country till death.-Sheikh Mani, nephew of Mujib and the person who came up with the name of Bangladesh Krishok Sromik Awami League in a private meeting with Mujib.

These ideas and encouragement to form a national government by Mujib’s own colleagues and family to combat what the Awami League perceived as chaos and opposition within the country led Mujib to decide upon the formation of BAKSAL. He adopted the organisational structure of an executive committee and subcommittees observing similar national governments in socialist countries in the world.
Mujib addressed the formation of BAKSAL at a public meeting in Dhaka on March 26, 1975, with the aim of “changing the society of the poor.”

The fourth amendment of the constitution had passed, which made Mujib the absolute ruler of the country and restored the presidential system. The existing Parliament had been dissolved, and a new national government had been made, which had some opposition members as well from the NAP (National Awami Party) and BCP (Bangladesh Communist Party).

Jatiyo Samajtantrik Dal, Purba Banglar Sarbahara Party, Purbo Bangla Sammobadi Dal-Marxbadi-Leninbadi (East Bengal Communist Party Marxist–Leninist), East Pakistan Communist Party, and Bangladesh Communist Party (Leninist) were invited, but they did not join as they did not agree with the idea of BAKSAL no matter what their feelings about a national government were.

Mujib after this had control over the judiciary, executive, and the legislature—all three branches of the government. Thus he cemented a one-party, one-person rule in the country finally in a constitutional way. Mujib said all of these were an attempt to complete the revolution and initiate a second revolution in the country.


Immediate Effects

Some of the things the newly made authoritarian government did after taking power were to consolidate that power even more and prevent other political parties from existing.

The era of multiparty democracy was over. Newspapers were all banned by June except four national newspapers that all would print the same news. The newspaper ban was a reaction to the already existing newspapers of Weekly Hok Kotha run by NAP and Gonokontho run by JASOD, which used to have the most criticisms of the existing Awami regime, unlike other papers of the time.

Crackdowns on Gono Bahini members and Sorbohara members would still continue to happen. The corruption issue in the country that BAKSAL promised to solve was an empty promise at the end of the day since many of the members of BAKSAL were engaging in such said corruption.

The policy changes BAKSAL made included making 61 districts with their own individual governors and local elections, making cooperatives, and five-year plans. Bhashani, a socialist and leader of the NAP, decided to support Mujib’s BAKSAL proposal on 8 March 1975 in a speech at Tangail. Together with Mujib, however, he refused the offer to join the government. One of the biggest ironies of BAKSAL was when they rehabilitated a pro-Pakistani politician called Ataur Rahman Khan and accepted him among their ranks in BAKSAL.


Violence by Jatiyo Rakkhi Bahini and Abuse by the Government

While the name of the party had changed, the governing system had changed—members were purged, and the same old abuse that happened during the last three years of Awami League rule continued.

Crackdowns persisted on Gonobahini and Sorbohara members in the most violent way. Press freedom being snatched away made it easy for the government to hide their misdeeds from the public. Poor local mismanagement had continued. Jatiyo Rakkhi Bahini continued its abuse of civilians and opposition members who they didn't like. Instead of a second revolution, what Bangladeshis were experiencing was a second round of oppression.

The End of BAKSAL

A group of soldiers dissatisfied with the Mujib regime staged a coup on 15 August 1975 and assassinated Mujib alongside his family. Thus the rule of Mujib had come to an end in Bangladesh. However, this would not eliminate BAKSAL, as Khondokar Moshtaq, the president after the coup attempt installed by the assassins, insisted on continuing the same policies. Moshtaq was the finance minister in the previous BAKSAL government, and he agreed on many things ideologically with Mujib, and thus the old BAKSAL governance system continued with all the laws made before. Another coup to oust them seemed imminent. On 3 November 1975, another military coup would take place by Major General Bir Uttom Khaled Mosharraf and Colonel Shafat Jamil, which would result in the resignation of President Khondokar Moshtaq Ahmed and thus end the chapter of BAKSAL in Bangladesh.

Aftermath and Revival Attempts

Bangladesh would lose its democracy several times after the fall of BAKSAL as other governments would try to replicate the same autocratic structure. Mujib’s own daughter, Hasina, in a way, made her own national government when she rigged elections and made the opposition quit elections to establish and consolidate her own rule from 2008-2024. Her terms from 2014-2024 have been described as a second BAKSAL by several political observers.

There was a party called the Bangladesh Krishok Sromik Awami League in the 80s to early 90s, formed by exiled Awami League members such as Abdur Razzak, and they participated in two elections in 1986 and 1991 as well. Later, they merged with the main Awami League party.


Legacy

Mujib was the first autocrat of this country, and that is his undeniable legacy. Over time, numerous governments have tried to whitewash his legacy, but his missteps and crimes of BAKSAL remain recorded in history books. According to political observers, BAKSAL would set the stage for future governments to declare national governments in the name of establishing peace and order in society while engaging in the corrupt state apparatus themselves.

Hasina would follow her father’s footsteps, albeit disguising herself as a participant in parliamentary politics. Mujib was ousted on 15 August 1975, and Hasina was ousted on 5 August 1975. It seems for now Mujibism is a dead ideology, but the future of this ideology is uncertain as Bangladeshi politics enters one era after the other.


Sources:
1)Hamid, M. A. Tinti Sena Obvutthan O Kichu Na Bola Kotha. Hawladar Prakashani, 2013
2) Bangladesh: A Legacy of Blood by Anthony Mascarehans
3)Mia, MA Wazed (1993). Some events around Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib and Bangladesh. University Press Limited. pp. 197–198
4)Ahmed, Salahuddin (2004). Bangladesh: Past and Present. APH Publishing Corporation. p. 213