In a nation still reeling from the chaos of 2024’s July uprising, where hundreds lost their lives in a frenzy of arson, looting, and targeted killings, one would expect the interim government to prioritise healing, justice, and a return to constitutional order. Instead, we witness a grotesque spectacle: an unelected regime, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, aggressively campaigning for a “Yes” vote in the February 12 referendum on the so-called July National Charter.
At the forefront of this undemocratic farce stands American citizen Professor Ali Riaz, Yunus’ special assistant and chief coordinator for referendum awareness, who has the audacity to declare that government employees have a “moral duty” to propagandise for “Yes.” This is not leadershipโit’s a blatant abuse of power, a betrayal of democratic principles, and a dangerous slide toward authoritarianism disguised as reform.
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Riaz’s remarks, delivered on January 19 during a divisional meeting in Mymensingh, are nothing short of chilling. He framed the referendum as a sacred reflection of the “July uprising’s spirit,” built on the “sacrifice of countless martyrs,” and insisted that public servants must actively campaign for “Yes” to prevent a return to “fascist rule.” He dismissed critics as spreaders of “confusion” with “ulterior motives,” while claiming legal consultations confirm no prohibition on such advocacy.
But let’s be clear: this is not about morality or martyrdom. It’s about weaponising state machinery to ram through an unconstitutional agenda that indemnifies the very rioters responsible for July’s bloodshed, erodes Bangladesh’s foundational identity, and mocks the 1972 Constitution that birthed our nation from the ashes of liberation.
As a citizen who cherishes the secular, democratic ethos of our Liberation War, I am appalled by Riaz’s failureโnay, refusalโto halt these biased campaigns. An interim government, by definition, exists to ensure fair elections, not to play partisan politics. Yet, under Riaz’s coordination, officials are being mobilised like foot soldiers in a one-sided war.
District administrators, police superintendents, and department heads attended his Mymensingh rally, where he urged them to “educate” voters on ballot mechanics while promoting the “tick mark” as the symbol of “Yes.” This isn’t awareness; it’s indoctrination. When the state spends taxpayer money on leaflets from the Chief Adviser’s Office touting 11 “benefits” of “Yes”โwhile ominously warning that “No” yields “nothing”โit crosses into outright manipulation. Such tactics “manufacture consent,” as social theorists would say, pressuring citizens into compliance rather than allowing free choice.
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The referendum itself is a constitutional abomination. Bangladesh’s 1972 Constitution provides no mechanism for such a plebiscite; it’s an extra-legal invention by an interim regime lacking any electoral mandate. Senior journalist Masuda Bhatti rightly warns that this “meticulously designed” vote is an ominous mechanism to alter the Constitution while granting indemnity to the “conspirators and perpetrators” of July’s anarchy and the August 5 takeover.
The 84-clause July Charter, bundled into a deceptive four-question ballot, would erase “Bengali” national identity, replacing it with a bland “Bangladeshi” label that dishonours the Language Movement and Liberation War’s cultural ethos. It swaps our core principlesโBengali nationalism, democracy, socialism, and secularismโfor vague platitudes like “equality” and “communal harmony,” a formulation echoing Pakistan’s theocratic model and risking a regression to pre-1971 divisions.
Worse, the Yunus administration’s recent approval of the July Mass Uprising Protection Ordinance grants blanket immunity to uprising participants for “political resistance,” shielding acts of murder, arson, and looting. This echoes the darkest chapters of our history: the 1975 Indemnity Ordinance that protected Bangabandhu’s assassins or the 2002 Operation Clean Heart’s impunity for extrajudicial killings.
As constitutional scholars argue, it violates Article 27’s equality before the law and contravenes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. How can Riaz, a supposed academic, justify coordinating campaigns for a charter that celebrates “July heroes” who boasted of police murders and station burnings? Over 230 Awami League members were killed between July 16 and August 4, 2024, with hundreds more dying in prisons or through mob “justice.” Yet, the regime labels these killers as saviours, while jailing 400,000 opposition figures on fabricated charges.
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Riaz’s moral grandstanding rings hollow amid these violations. He invokes “martyrs” who resisted “authoritarianism from 2009 to 2024,” but ignores the current regime’s own authoritarian drift: 85 extrajudicial killings since August 2024, skyrocketing poverty (from 17% to 28% in a year), and unchecked violence against minorities, women, and girls, as noted by Human Rights Watch. Yunus himself urged “Yes” votes in a January 19 video, promising a “new Bangladesh” free from oppressionโironic, given the government’s suppression of dissent and economic mismanagement fueling South Asia’s worst inflation crisis, per UN reports.
International voices, from US lawmakers to the British Parliament and the Commonwealth, decry the exclusion of the Awami League as undemocratic, warning of flawed polls without inclusivity. Sheikh Hasina, from exile, slams the referendum as a “license for genocide,” urging boycotts and condemning Yunus for glorifying rioters while denying justice to victims. Even allies like Jamaat-e-Islami, implicated in the silent killings of Awami League prisoners, benefit from this chaos.
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