In July-August last year, Indians were quite shocked at the scenes of street violence in Bangladesh, as police and armed forces strained to quell an unprecedented mass uprising against then prime minister Sheikh Hasina. What began as a students’ protest against the reimposition of hated quotas for families of ‘freedom fighters’ (of the 1971 war of liberation) turned into a all-out battle between forces for and against Sheikh Hasina. Lakhs of angry protesters moved their target from ‘quotas’ to her autocratic governance – and dragged India in, for propping up her unpopular regime.
