The 2024 American Contribution To Destabilizing Bangladesh, & Similarities To Bangladesh’s Independence Movement of 1971

2024 Bangladesh Crisis: A Modern Replay of 1971's Struggle, Examining U.S. Influence Amid Global Power Shifts and BRICS Confrontations.

Bangladesh's student protest has metamorphosed into a religiopolitical uncertainty, threatens to push the nation into an abyss and destabilize the entire region. What was supposedly a disagreement between students and the government in 2018 over reservation quota for descendants of the Bangladeshi freedom fighters who fought for liberation against Pakistan, is now a violent religio-political movement with genocidal intentions that conveniently suits American strategic interests. 

American agencies are well-reputed for carrying out both overt and covert regime change operations across countries of the Global South as well as acting as venture capitalists for cultivating armed militia and Islamist Terrorist Forces from the ground up.

Destabilizing A Nation: The American Way

How To Destabilize A Nation?

Establishing an American base in any part of the world is often preceded by destabilizing factors like engineered mob violence in the name of free speech and democracy, acts of gruesome public executions of minority communities, and then establishing a stooge, sometimes residing in the colonial UK or the neo-colonial US, as the next national leader tasked with furthering democracy. Albert Einstein Institute — an NGO based in East Boston, Massachusetts, specializing in regime change operations by creating civil unrest lists 198 Methods to topple any government. Like many other regime change operations of the past, the events in Bangladesh align perfectly with the methodology propagated by this Institute.

Why Bangladesh?

Bangladesh has a friendly and cordial relationship with both India and China — the Asian giants and civilizational nation-states that are viewed as adversaries by the neo-colonial hegemon. The geographical location of Bangladesh gives the nation access to the Indian Ocean region and any instability in Bangladesh creates complications for India & China, as well as offers the US an excuse to sneak into the region to establish its presence. Presently, the Indian Navy is a key maritime security provider of the region and the Americans don't have any active presence or a base in the Bay Of Bengal area of the Indian Ocean.  

Is Bangladesh the Next Front in the War Against BRICS?

The Bangladesh crisis appears to be part of a broader strategy by the United States and the Collective West, aimed at confronting the BRICS bloc both directly and indirectly. It is important to recognize that Bangladesh's membership in the New Development Bank, commonly referred to as the BRICS Bank, is not a mere coincidence. When viewed in conjunction with other areas of tension, such as the Russia-Ukraine war, the Israel-Gaza conflict near Egypt (a new BRICS member), and the ongoing efforts to escalate tensions with Iran (another recent member), or the potential conflict scenario between China and Taiwan fueled by Western media, and the recent unrest involving Venezuela (a prospective BRICS member and close neighbor of Brazil), the pattern becomes evident. The alignment of these crises is hardly accidental, revealing a clear strategy at play, don't you think?

American Covert & Overt Attempts To Oust The PM Of Bangladesh

Overt Attempts 

Former Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, in a recent speech, said “I could have remained in power if I had left St. Martin’s and the Bay of Bengal to America,”, Firstpost reports.

St. Martin Island is a small coral reef island on the Bay of Bengal with an area of 3 square kilometers that gives direct access to the Strait of Malacca. An American base on this island can aid surveillance activities against China, India, and Myanmar.  

In May 2024, then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina alleged that a ‘White Man’ approached her with an offer to build a military base in a certain unknown country on St. Martin’s Island in return for her smooth 2024 re-election. News18 quotes Sheikh Hasina saying, “Like East Timor… they will carve out a Christian country, taking parts of Bangladesh (Chattogram) and Myanmar with a base in the Bay of Bengal”.

Covert Attempts

American covert attempts at destabilization and toppling governments are much more subtle and take place over some time with consistent institutional efforts. Years before installing people with strong ties to the West as leaders of destabilized nations, western collectives tend to prop them up as visionaries on public platforms and media publications. Some common methods include the use of felicitations like the Nobel Peace Prize or Magsaysay awards, invitations to speak at renowned Western universities and College campuses to influence young minds to join demonstrations (to be seen along with the 198 Methods of Regime Change by Albert Einstein Institute mentioned above), promoting dubious social welfare schemes, etc.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, the 84-year-old Bangladeshi economist and founder of Grameen Bank — an institution providing micro-credit facilities, was chosen to lead the Interim Government of Bangladesh. Anthony Blinken, US Secretary of State was quick to welcome this decision publicly but conveniently chose to ignore the violence against Bangladeshi Hindus and other religious minority groups. Ironically, Blinken is part and parcel of the US State Department which releases politically motivated indices on religious freedom in other countries.

In 2010 Yunus was entangled in a legal case, allegedly for embezzlement of $2 million (approximately 252.2 million Bangladeshi Taka) reports News18. In addition to the allegations of misappropriation of funds, and corruption charges, Yunus was also sentenced to six months imprisonment in January 2024 over violations of labour law reports the Economic Times. He was granted bail on the labor law violations after he chose to challenge the decision in the Supreme Court. 

Creation of Bangladesh, American Support To Genocide in East Pakistan, & The Link To DeDollarization

The present-day nation-state of Bangladesh was historically part of the Bengal Province of India, even before the British Colonial period. The Bengal Province in the east and Punjab Province in the west were partitioned by the British and renamed East Pakistan and West Pakistan in 1947 before India gained its independence. Between 1947 and 1971, the West Pakistan establishment — a long-standing ally of the Americans, systematically engaged in the ethnocide of the Bengali people. The Pakistani Army massacred around 3 million Bengalis and raped around 400,000 women in their genocidal efforts, as per a Guardian Publication.

During the peak of the humanitarian crisis in East Pakistan in 1971, the then Prime Minister of India — Indira Gandhi, decided to intervene despite America’s warnings. The US feared that its ally, West Pakistan, might lose its stronghold in the Bay of Bengal if the Bangladeshi were able to secure their liberation from the Pakistani Army. Neo-colonial America led by President Nixon at the time, dispatched the 7th fleet of the US Navy led by the largest nuclear aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, India Today reports. Colonial UK tagged along with the dispatch of the HMS Eagle. The British and American support for the genocide of Bengalis in East Pakistan was stopped by the timely intervention of the Soviet Navy with nuclear-armed ships, atomic submarines, cruisers, and destroyers. They conceded defeat when a British commander told the American counterpart “Sir, we are too late. There are Russian atomic submarines here, and a big collection of battleships”. 

Uncanny Co-incidences: 1971 & 2024

On 15th August 1971, when India was celebrating its 24th Independence Day from the British occupation, President Nixon removed the US Dollar (currently the global reserve currency of the world) from its gold standard. This prevented the convertibility of the US dollar into gold and marked the start of a fiat dollar. 

The violence in Bangladesh erupted on June 4, 2024 — the exact date when the widely popular and democratically elected Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was sworn in for his third term. PM Modi is an active participant with President Putin, and President Xi in the Dedollarization process led by the BRICS countries. Modi is also the conceiver of the grouping called Voice of Global South — a collective of 120+ countries with a common objective of De-colonising historically oppressed nations and democratizing international bodies.

Western colonials and neo-colonials were supportive of radical Islamist groups perpetrating ethnic cleansing both in 1971 and 2024 while claiming its alignment towards ideals like democracy, human rights, religious freedom rights of minorities, etc. Of course, this specific point is a standard policy of the Western governments and behavioral patterns of their media houses and can not be labeled as a one-off coincidence. 

Between 1947 & 1971, both East and West Pakistan jointly held elections, and the winner administered both territories despite the vast geographic divide. In 1970, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was the first candidate from East Pakistan to win the elections. However, West Pakistan which was predominantly under the control of the Army, and continues to remain so even today, refused to acknowledge Rehman’s victory. At the time, the USA chose to side with the dictatorial Pakistani Army and against the democratically elected leader.

In the 2024 elections political rivals of Sheikh Hasina — the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, voluntarily chose to boycott the elections and presented the US with an excuse to label the government as dictatorial and interfere in the internal affairs. 

Bangladesh 2024: A Nation at the Crossroads of History and Global Power

In light of the unfolding events, it is evident that the 2024 crisis in Bangladesh is not an isolated occurrence but rather a calculated maneuver within the broader geopolitical chessboard. The striking parallels with the 1971 independence movement serve as a stark reminder of the persistent foreign interventions that continue to shape the destiny of nations in the Global South. As Bangladesh stands at the crossroads of history once more, the echoes of the past warn us of the dangers ahead, while the strategic interests of powerful global actors cast a long shadow over the nation's future. The question remains: will Bangladesh forge its own path, or will it once again become a pawn in a greater game?