1. Abolition of the Caretaker Government System: The abolition of the caretaker government system was Sheikh Hasina’s first mistake. She came to power with massive public support thanks to the caretaker government. However, after assuming power, she successfully abolished the caretaker government provision with the aim of manipulating public opinion and the people according to her whims. This paved the way for her to establish dictatorship and become an autocrat, making it smooth, easy, and encouraging. She thought no one could suppress her anymore. Rightly so, I believe that the successful abolition of the caretaker government was the first step that made Sheikh Hasina’s tragic downfall inevitable. She transformed from a symbol of democracy into an extreme autocrat. By conducting one-sided elections, she turned the people of the country and the Western world, including the United States, into enemies. After forming the government by winning two-thirds of the seats in the election on December 29, 2008, she did not want to leave power and did whatever she wanted, no matter how unjust, to stay in power. This became one of the main reasons for her fall.
2. Excessive Arrogance: Sheikh Hasina was arrogant. This was her husband’s words. After abolishing the caretaker government, she became even more arrogant. She began to consider herself as the supreme sovereign and invincible. She started speaking whatever came to her mind without consideration, like an uneducated loud-mouthed woman. As a prime minister of a country, she forgot the personality and discretion essential for making unrestrained statements. As a result, something as delicate as personality turned into something as despicable as arrogance. The people gradually distanced themselves from her. Even if they didn’t say anything face-to-face out of fear, in private, even her close associates developed a hateful attitude towards Sheikh Hasina. Statements like “My Bangladesh, my own Bangladesh, my father gave independence”—such arrogant utterances not only made her unpopular but also ridiculous and unacceptable at the same time.
3. Excessive Self-Confidence: Successfully accomplishing some difficult tasks according to her will without hindrance after coming to power created immense self-confidence in her mind. Applause from followers in every word, unquestioning obedience from officers, unwavering support from neighboring India, etc., made her reckless. As a result, she started considering the impossible as possible. This was one of the reasons for her fall. Excessive self-confidence was also one of the main reasons for her father Bangabandhu’s fall. Due to this self-confidence, she paid no heed to the opposition parties. She thought they couldn’t do anything.
4. Elections and Election Commission: Through long efforts, elections and the Election Commission in Bangladesh had reached a position of public trust. Under this process, Sheikh Hasina won through fair elections supervised by the Election Commission. However, after assuming power, Sheikh Hasina rendered the Election Commission ineffective and turned it into her puppet. Elections and the Election Commission became a matter of mockery. The people’s right to vote was snatched away by Hasina’s iron grip. As a result, public trust in her gradually shifted towards distrust. In various ways, the Sheikh Hasina government completely destroyed the acceptability of the Election Commission. This is another reason that made Sheikh Hasina’s heart-wrenching fall inevitable. She completely destroyed Bangladesh’s democracy.
5. Selection of Advisors/Ministers: Appointing H.T. Imam, identified as involved in the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, as an election advisor and later as an advisor on public administration was one of Sheikh Hasina’s fatal mistakes. Moreover, by assigning important responsibilities to many such people, she weakened her surroundings while trying to strengthen them. Sheikh Hasina appointed personality-less sycophants to important positions. If ministers or advisors spoke the truth or gave appropriate advice in context, and if it didn’t please her, instead of rewarding them, she scolded and punished them, which became one of the reasons for her fall. In appointing ministers and advisors, she considered only loyalty, not merit, wisdom, experience, expertise, integrity, courage, foresight, etc. As a result, a strong opposition circle formed around her.
6. Criticism: Inability to tolerate criticism and harassing anyone who made the slightest criticism in various ways was a powerful reason for the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government. She would become furious if she heard even the slightest criticism against herself or the Awami League. This fury gradually turned her into an aggressive and irritable person. As a result, the love or respect people had for her turned into fear, disrespect, and hatred.
7. Behavior Towards Opposition Parties: Opposition parties are called the unpaid teachers of the ruling party. The opposition points out the government’s mistakes and warns it. The ruling party learns from it and corrects itself. That’s why it’s said that in a country without a strong opposition, the ruling party becomes weak and makes mistakes at every step. But Sheikh Hasina was the complete opposite of this fact and an extremely hot-headed leader. She did not trust the opposition and considered whatever they said as a conspiracy against her. Thinking this, she always suppressed the opposition fiercely and did not hesitate to take all measures to destroy them. She was somewhat successful in this initially. As a result, there was no one left to point out her mistakes. Rightly so, she became even more arbitrary.
8. Administration: Promoting only sycophants at various levels of administration was one of Sheikh Hasina’s major weaknesses. She only promoted and assigned important responsibilities to those who followed her orders without question, no matter how unjust. In this way, she became overly dependent on them. She couldn’t say anything even if those through whom she got these tasks done committed wrongs. As a result, the entire administration became riddled with corruption. Murders, injuries, and disappearances increased. This gradually became her habit. Using the administrative machinery for party and personal interests at any time turned the administration into a stagnant and people-devouring monster.
9. Appointments to Important Positions: In various government departments, party affiliation had severely entrenched itself in appointments to important positions, even peon posts. Unofficially, categories like G Cadre or Gopalganj Cadre, Relative Cadre, Party Cadre, Money Cadre were created. Considering these, appointments deprived the administration of real merit. She got a group of loyal sycophants, and the nation got a foolish administration. Contract-based appointments were even more disgusting.
10. Police Administration: The main task of the police force is to protect public safety and maintain law and order. Sheikh Hasina snatched the police administration from its state duties and built it into a force serving her purposes. Those who did not willingly accept her illegal wishes were either dismissed from service, made OSD, or assigned to unimportant places. To fulfill her illegal wishes or suppress opposition forces, some Frankenstein-like monsters were created in the police. Ultimately, these Frankensteins became one of the reasons for her such fate. Sheikh Hasina used some officers to assist in her illegal activities. For this purpose, she gave them excessive power and unwritten instructions to do whatever they wanted. Moreover, even if they committed wrongs, instead of ignoring them, they were rewarded as justified. These activities took the country to extreme anarchy. Murders, injuries, attacks, and false cases increased. Using the police administration for political purposes and to suppress opposition parties was one of the reasons for her fall.
11. Continuity of Power: Coming to power for the third time through vote-less elections in the same manner after two consecutive terms became another reason for Sheikh Hasina’s shameful fall. She should not have done such a thing at least for the third time. Even if she didn’t win that time, she could have won the next. She should have known that Bengalis do not want to see one government for too long. No one likes the same curry for too long. Bengalis are very sensitive about this.
12. Neglecting the People: Although she talked about the people, Sheikh Hasina did not trust the people of Bangladesh at all. She considered reliance on some officials created at various levels of administration and party cadres safer than the people. Neglecting the people, not paying attention to them, using Chhatra League as an auxiliary force to the police, giving them illegal weapons, etc., were reasons for her hateful fall. She neglected the people not only for herself but also for her family members. During movements, keeping public vehicles stopped on roads for hours irritated the people to the extreme. She did not think about the people’s condition at all.
13. Spread of Corruption: Not being strict in suppressing corruption, but rather encouraging it in some cases; exaggerating or minimizing based on her convenience, seeing her people’s wrongs as small, etc., took corruption to an extremely intolerable state. The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) was her plaything. The organization was used more to harass opposition forces rather than to suppress corruption.
14. Judicial System: Sheikh Hasina turned the judicial system into her plaything. She destroyed the judicial system. No judge could give a verdict outside her words in important cases or those of her interest. If they did, they were harassed. Even the Chief Justice was not spared from such tyranny. She forced judges to give verdicts as she wished.
15. Cheapening Bangabandhu: No matter the differences of opinion, people had a special respect for Bangabandhu. Sheikh Hasina’s actions turned even an undisputed leader like Bangabandhu into an object of controversy, hatred, and neglect. Publishing thousands of books by famous and unknown authors and institutions in Bangabandhu’s name, erecting sculptures everywhere, naming countless infrastructures; naming state important establishments after family members who had no visible national contribution, just considering them family—such actions made Bangabandhu very cheap, easily available, and trivial. These actions not only cheapened Bangabandhu but also reduced Sheikh Hasina’s popularity and accelerated her fall. Through thoughtless actions, she plunged the sky-high respected person Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman into the abyss like herself.
16. Mouth: Sheikh Hasina’s mouth or words were one of the reasons for her fall. Unrestrained words at the beginning of the anti-discrimination student movement further accelerated her impending fall. The tongue is soft, but the word-arrows shot from it are extremely harmful. Like many of her things, she could not control her tongue. She mocked the people’s poverty or purchasing power. She advised eating piyaju with sweet pumpkin. She made ridiculous or mocking comments without giving importance to public demands. ‘Razakar’s child’, ‘Let them get tired from the movement, then I’ll talk’—such words from the mouth of a prime minister of an independent country are utterly childish.
17. Bangabandhu, Sheikh Hasina, Awami League and Its Affiliates: Sheikh Hasina was more dependent on her father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman than on herself. Even if not dependent, she projected it that way. She always said—my father did this, did that. Just as she was dependent on her father, Awami League and its affiliates were dependent on Sheikh Hasina. In front of Sheikh Hasina, with the power of government machinery, the leaders and workers of Awami League and affiliates would jump around, but they were actually like makal fruit, greedy, cowardly but cruel—fitfat on the outside, rotten inside.
18. Murders, Disappearances, Atrocities: The number of people murdered or disappeared after Sheikh Hasina came to power is undoubtedly unprecedented. Not only those whose loved ones were murdered or disappeared, but even those who heard about it started considering Sheikh Hasina cruel. People did not see love in her, they saw ferocity. To them, she became a tyrant ruler, an autocrat. For very minor reasons, she inflicted inhuman suffering on many wise people, killed them in detention.
19. Loans, Money Laundering: Many say she did a lot for the country, developed a lot; but truthfully, I see nothing. In Chittagong’s regional language, there’s a saying, “No police in the belly, but honey in the middle.” Which can be said as, actually no mortar, but canopy in the pounding house. Instead of arranging food for starving people, she took projects like satellite projects that have set the country back at least a hundred years. Building some infrastructure with loans is not development, but degradation. By taking billion-dollar loans, she pushed the country backward in the name of advancing it. Yet, she did nothing production-oriented. As a result, unemployment increased in the country. If even a fraction of the amount of money laundered abroad during Sheikh Hasina’s rule had been spent on establishing production-oriented factories, there wouldn’t be such intense cries of unemployment. Instead of that, she fed ghee with loans to spread corruption and benefit some people.
20. Lying: Sheikh Hasina rarely spoke the truth to the people. She only looked at her side and tried to please the people or exonerate herself by lying accordingly. She thought the people were pleased, believed her words—but she didn’t know that the people were smarter than her. Due to such behavior, she lost public support slowly at first and very quickly in the end. Her lying made her hated not only as a head of government but also as a human being.
21. Greed for Power: She was a sadist and extremely power-hungry. Intense greed for power completely destroyed her sense of right and wrong. For power, to stay in power, she could do all humane and inhumane acts. Such immoderate greed stimulated all other elements of her fall. This excessive greed gave birth to one after another of her other crimes/mistakes. As a result, her shameful fall became inevitable. Staying in power for a long time was another reason for the decline in her popularity and fall.
22. India Appeasement: Sheikh Hasina was an extremely India-dependent, cunning but dependent woman. Mother India was her protective deity. She thought that if India was in her favor, the people of the country couldn’t do anything to her. Due to this excessive India appeasement, a large number of people in the country became averse to her. This is one of the main reasons for Sheikh Hasina’s such fall.
23. Media and Civil Society: Another reason for Sheikh Hasina’s fall was the media and civil society operated as her slaves. She used the media and so-called civil society to cover up her misdeeds (murders, injuries, corruption, injustice, neglect of people, atrocities). She bought some with money and intimidated others. The people did not take this well. Such actions created hatred and distrust among the general public towards Bangladesh’s media and civil society. Like the government administrative machinery, she destroyed these two important sectors as well.
24. Relationship with Followers: Sheikh Hasina could create fear, greed, gains, debts, cruelty, etc., in her followers’ minds, but she could not create genuine love for her. She encouraged party people in terrorist activities to suppress opponents, rewarding those who were more terrorist. As a result, they gradually became terrorists—they could not become people-friendly. For this, the general public was forced to distance themselves from her. Because of the terrorists, people could not board Sheikh Hasina’s boat, could not approach her. As a result, a huge distance was created between the leader and the people. Which was one of the reasons for her humiliating fall. Awami League and affiliate people feared her as the supreme leader, showed heart-breaking love face-to-face, showed intense devotion to get something, but did not love her at all. As a result, seeing danger, they fled leaving the leader unprotected to save themselves. A leader must be established as a mother figure to followers; Sheikh Hasina could not do that. As a result, in her danger, party people did not get the inspiration, desire, or courage to come forward with filial affection to protect her.
25. Islamic Parties and Two Boats: Sheikh Hasina was secular in principle. She came to power committed to running the state in this light. After assuming power, she banned some Islamic parties. On the other hand, to stay in power, she stunned everyone by unexpectedly pulling Hefazat into her lap with unlimited opportunities. This was betrayal against herself, the party, and her commitments. Such actions by Sheikh Hasina cracked the goodwill and deep trust she had with secular groups from the beginning. Again, as soon as she saw the risk of her interests being harmed, she started taking cruel measures against Hefazat. As a result, almost all Islamic parties became her fierce enemies. About 87% of Bangladesh’s citizens are Muslim. Rightly so, most people started turning against her. On the other hand, many in the secular groups could no longer trust her as before. Which truly made her weak and unprotected. Mixing secularism with religiosity made her government artificial and fragile.
26. Division: Awami League vs. Razakar: The actions of Sheikh Hasina and her followers divided Bangladesh’s people into two opposing camps—the first Awami League and the second anti-Awami or other parties or those who do not do what Awami League does. Those who did not do Awami League or were anti-Awami were called Razakar, anti-independence. As a result, the strength of Sheikh Hasina’s party gradually decreased. By labeling opponents or those with different opinions, especially those associated with Islamic parties, as Razakar, traitors, anti-independence, etc., negative terms, Sheikh Hasina indirectly enraged the majority of the country’s people against her. What more is needed for the fall of a head of government than this!
27. High Court Verdict: The verdict given on July 11, 2024, by the bench consisting of High Court Justice K.M. Kamrul Kader and Justice Khizir Hayat was the main source of the anti-discrimination movement. This movement caused Sheikh Hasina’s fall. In that verdict, it was said, “In the context of Writ No. 235 of 2012, the verdict and order issued by the High Court, and the verdict that was upheld in the Appellate Division in modified form through Leave to Appeal No. 2062/2013, in light of that verdict, the directive is given to reinstate the quota for children and grandchildren of freedom fighters, and at the same time, the directive is given to keep quotas for districts, women, disabled, tribes, small ethnic groups, and if any others, in place.” After this verdict was published, the student movement began.
28. Quota or Anti-Discrimination Movement: Failure to provide a satisfactory solution to the quota or anti-discrimination movement was the ultimate reason for Sheikh Hasina’s such disgraceful fate. She failed due to her arrogance and excessive confidence. Her natural mocking comments towards the protesters, addressing them as Razakar, etc., made her fall inevitable. The more power one has, the more humble and tolerant one must be; Sheikh Hasina was the opposite. As her power expanded, her aggression increased, her mentality to belittle others increased. She considered everyone in Bangladesh except herself and her family members as worthless garbage. As a result, the people also started thinking of her similarly.
29. Mass Killings: She committed many mass killings. She temporarily escaped through various tactics. However, even if she got temporary escape, the dissatisfaction against her in the public mind gradually increased. The latest indiscriminate killing of students in the anti-quota movement made Sheikh Hasina’s fall certain. This action created such intense hatred and dissatisfaction at home and abroad that even the army stood against her. As a result, despite having or creating so many favorable elements for so long, Sheikh Hasina had to flee the country like discarded garbage.
30. Army: Due to one or more of the reasons described above, Sheikh Hasina’s popularity plummeted to the abyss and due to intense public isolation, the army expressed unwillingness to use force against the protesters. As a result, her fall occurred.
31. Ingratitude: Thanks to the caretaker government, Sheikh Hasina got the opportunity to assume state power. Therefore, she should have remained eternally grateful to the caretaker government; keeping this system in place to safely ascend and stay in power. But instead, like an ingrate, she abolished the caretaker government system. Actually, that day the seed of her tragic fall was sown. That seed slowly grew into a giant tree and in 2024, crushed her into the ground. Not only that, she behaved ungratefully with many senior leaders in other matters as well. Those who advised or tried to advise her to refrain from dangerous actions, she forgot their past favors and behaved rudely, insulted them. The fate of the ungrateful is always this cruel.
Credit: Dr. Mohammad Amin