Shahidul Alam 

25 July 2025 

The denial of repression in Bangladesh 

The word ‘dalal’ is a very useful word in Bangla. I’ve not come across an exact equivalent in English. They combine the qualities and some of the functionalities of a lobbyist, a pimp and a shameless sycophant all rolled into one. You get them in all shapes and forms. You have dalal media, dalal intellectuals, dalal business leaders and dalal bureaucrats. If you need to get something done in a corrupt government office, the first person you contact is a dalal. Since all government offices are corrupt, you always go through a dalal. Filthy though the mechanism is, the system works.  

There is a hierarchy amongst dalals. There is the common or garden variety, or just the plain dalal. ‘Uchu dorer’ dalals are generally advisers to the government, high officials in embassies, and spokespeople at international platforms. Then there are ‘chhechra’ dalals who do menial tasks and are low down in the political hierarcy. The talk shows on TV generally have the mid-level dalals, but chechra dalals also have a presence. There are instances when chhechra dalals work their way right to the top into ministerial positions too. Uchu dorer dalals are often well spoken, sometimes sophisticated. You could imagine having a reasonable conversation with them on art or philosophy. Politics becomes a bit difficult as that is where the inconsistencies show up. Balanced discussions suddenly become very partisan. Often to the extent that they lose all sense of perspective and turn into essentially chhechra dalals, pretty much mimicking the party line no matter how ridiculous it sounds. The plain  dalals and chhechra dalals appear every day, as ‘experts’ on TV, as political analysts, sometimes as representatives of civil society or even ordinary people. Parroting the government propaganda, they spew out the spin and the vitriol. They too must be desperate. Knowing the sentiment in the street, to lie so brazenly must take courage. Or perhaps, having sold their soul to the devil, they are prepared for the hell that must follow. 

The standard practice that the government has adopted towards anyone who questions government policy to be ‘anti liberation’ and ‘terrorist’ is deeply insulting to people who are committed to the principles of egalitarianism, social justice and democracy which had been the underlying principles behind the war of liberation of Bangladesh. It is precisely because the current government has strayed so far way from those principles, that the students questioned the regime. For the government to turn around and accuse the protestors of being ‘traitors’ hurts to the very core.  

It was the PM’s comments that the protestors were ‘razakars’ (collaborators of the Pakistani army), that had enraged them. The state minister for information calling Abu Sayeed, the heroic protester who was brutally killed by the police, of being a  ‘junkie’ because he was brave enough to be defiant, points to the depth to which the regime has sunk. Only a party bereft of all values can be so insulting about a young man who  is a shahid (martyr) and gave his life defending the rights of his fellow students. Abu Sayeed’s working class parents have lost their loving son. His mother’s  wail was directed at the PM. “So okay, you  wouldn’t give my son a job,  but why did you have to kill him?” I suppose she might be asking the minister. “OK you killed my son, but why did you have to defile him?” This is reminiscent of the transport minister in 2018 who had laughed when students had protested the deaths of their fellow students Abdul Karim Rajib and Dia Khanam Mim during the road safety movement. Thirty three people have died in an accident in Maharashtra. No one there’s making a fuss about it. 

So faced with student deaths, we have a PM who calls them ‘razakars’, a transport minister who sneers and an information minister who calls them  ‘junkies’. This is the sensitivity they have towards the public. The values they represent. I won’t be surprised if a new surge of violence and yet more deaths result from this callous comment. The PM wanted to know who the instigators of the violence were. She should point to the mirror and to her fellow cabinet members. The uchu dorer dalals. Her gangster cadre and police, were merely foot soldiers fanning the flames. 

The students had been on a peaceful protest, making, by the government’s own admission, reasonable demands which they themselves agreed with. The gazette the government hurriedly passed through on Tuesday, could have been done in 2018. The verdict issued by the Supreme Court on 21st July 2024, could have been given before the violence began. The government could have admitted their mistake and promised to make amends instead of the PM making her callous faux pas. Unleashing armed goons, backed by police, defies all logic. ‘We have absolute trust and confidence in you and will do the needful,’ media dalals say glibly. ‘We want you as PM for life,’ businessmen dalals coo. And she, basking in dalal culture, smiles. 

The long convoy of APCs in Dhanmondi and the helicopter flying in between buildings  are designed to instil fear. The side wall of the helicopter  was completely removed. It was battle-ready. Who were they fighting? Having lost both the ethical and the intellectual battle, muscle is the government’s only weapon left.  

Terrorising the public their only defence. The security forces will protect the citizens, says the home minister. The citizens are the ones the security forces are terrorising.