© REUTERSIndia advises its nationals in Bangladesh to stay indoors amid massive anti-quota protests.
At the centre of the protests are the demands to reform the country's quota system for the civil service positions that the protesters claim benefits some specific groups including descendants of those who participated in the 1971 war of independence against Pakistan. The Bangladeshi quota system reserves 30 per cent of jobs for family members of the freedom fighters.
WHAT FUELLED THE ANTI-QUOTA PROTESTS?
The anti-reservation demonstrations in Bangladesh started in June 2024 when the high court overturned a 2018 decision by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government to scrap the quota system and reinstalled it.
The Supreme Court then suspended the high court order after the Bangladesh government challenged it, setting August 7 as the new date for hearing the case.
The protests flared when the students clashed with members of the student wing of Sheikh Hasina's Awami League party. The protesters claim that the quota system is likely to favour the Awami League supporters that spearheaded the Independence movement.
Since the beginning of the protests, six persons have died and hundreds have been wounded; police have resorted to firing rubber bullets, and hurling sound grenades and tear gas shells to disperse the demonstrators.
The result was:
1) no local economy developed and stabilized.
2) educated individuals had no job opportunities.
3) gov employment became the only game in town.
The results follow the same outcome over all Africa. The gov hired preferred, then began to shut down hiring. Various tactics were used. the educated were referred to out-of-country teaching jobs, required to take admission test for gov jobs that were required but consistently delayed,
These tactics are now seen everywhere in Africa, with the discontented more actively opposed to the current regime.
The promise of development did not occur to benefit the citizens. The development stopped short after foreign capital exploited natural resources.
Why was this allowed?