Interview: Nearly a year after revolution, is Bangladesh back to square one?

As the first anniversary of Bangladesh’s student-led revolution dawns, does the country find itself back at the start?

On August 5, 2024, Sheikh Hasina resigned as prime minister and fled Dhaka, ending her 15-year grip on the country only months after a sweeping victory in the widely disputed election held in January.

As Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus took charge of an interim government to oversee fresh elections, Bangladesh was set to chart a new beginning – a “rebirth” as student leaders called it.

But a year on, there is a growing political divergence – between the interim government and the Bangladeshi army and importantly, on the political front.

“It was felt that this government would stay only as long as it is necessary to hold an election,” veteran journalist and author Kallol Bhattacherjee told Scroll. “Instead of that, the interim administration has started this whole process of ‘reforms’ – reforms that are extremely elaborate and structural in nature and have no clear timeline.”

There is one school which believes in the 1971 liberation movement and that’s found in both the leading political formations – the Awami League as well as the Bangladesh Nationalist Party,

At the same time, the National Citizens Party, launched by the supporters of Yunus and...

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