Another Mutiny in Bangladesh

Bangladesh had another brush with mutiny as Border guards rebelled this week apparently over poor pay and working conditions. Even though the revolt has been put down it has brought to fore the inherent weakness of the south Asian state where poverty reigns.

Conspiracy theories notwithstanding, the development has turned the spotlight once again on the country’s need to strengthen its socio-economic infrastructure as well as step up its war on poverty to ensure political stability.

Some 200 members of the Bangladesh Rifles guards (BDR), commonly known as the country’s first line of defence, have been arrested from the barracks of Dhaka where they went up in arms. Search is on for plotters, especially officers who believed to have fled, and the country’s border with India has been shut. The unfortunate aspect of the standoff has been the shootout between the regular troops and the guards, which resulted in the death of 22 men in uniform.

Bangladesh, which has been home to political instability and economic chaos for long, has a turbulent history of mutinies and revolts. Moreover, its geo-strategic proximity to India and Nepal places it in a vulnerable condition, where the thrust of ensuring security and checking cross-border infiltration lies on the shoulders of security forces. In such a scenario, Dhaka cannot afford to see unrest among the rank and file 
of the soldiers, be that on political or on economic grounds.

It is a good sign that the government has tried to deal with the mutineers with restraint by offering general amnesty. It is prudent of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajid that she has avoided resorting to indiscriminate use of force to crush the uprising. Perhaps, the government and the military authorities have kept in view its possible repercussions as the BDR has nearly 70,000 men stationed at 42 camps across the country, including 40,000 on the borders.

The extraordinary event, however, will have profound political implications for the infant government of Prime Minister Hasina Wajid. Apart from a host of other socio-economic and political riddles, the government cannot overlook the aspect of economic discrimination in the military’s rank-and-file. Of equal concern to the government will be how a dispute over pay and work conditions could have led to a total law and order breakdown across the country. Complaints that the border guards had been mistreated by their officers, who are seconded by the regular army, perhaps need to be investigated. The Bangla leadership perhaps needs to do some soul searching, by learning from the country’s checkered history of military interventions.