Written by Dr. Aanmona Priyadarshini
When the unelected Chief Advisor, Dr. Muhammad Yunus, speaks in the language of empire—words laden with binaries and hierarchies — to sanctify the July Charter, it becomes evident that this Charter is neither of the people nor for them. Rather, it is a ghost in the machine—a spectral mechanism designed to preserve and deepen the very divisions and inequalities it claims to overcome.
Nobel laureate Dr. Yunus may deem the people of Bangladesh “foolish,” but the true folly would be his own to forget that the people have always known how power breathes, how the state maneuvers, and how governments script their games of grace and deceit. His interim government and the National Consensus Commission must understand that removing religious neutrality from the constitution does not create “civilization” — it resurrects religious domination. They should apprehend the fact that reducing women’s representation in Parliament to five percent does not elevate the nation; it enshrines systemic discrimination. They must recognize that denying Adivasi identity does not fortify national unity—it merely perpetuates the state’s long-standing project of othering and exclusion.Political parties that sign this charter, which silences women’s voices, erases class, ethnic, and religious diversities, and excludes those who led the uprising — the common people — must recognize their act as an act of betrayal: a betrayal of the nation, its people, and the martyrs who laid down their lives for freedom.
People in Bangladesh did not rise to build a racist, classist, sexist, and orthodox replica of colonial “civility.” They fought to build an anti-discriminatory Bangladesh — where no voice is silenced, no faith denied its light, no life is deemed unworthy. And we will remember this collective betrayal, just as we will remember the first reasons we dared to dream of freedom.
Dr. Aanmona Priyadarshini is an anthropologist, writer, and visiting lecturer at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, USA.
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