Conspiracies, mindgames, personality cult: Manash Ghosh's book Mujib's Blunders 's shows how from Mujib to Hasina the Bangladesh story is unfolding

New Indian Express

7 days ago

From your book, there was a Sheikh Mujib who went to jail, and another who came out of it. He didn't seem to know his friends from his enemies.
He had many character frailties. He used to be surrounded by sycophants. He allowed his ears to be poisoned with all kinds of things, especially about people like Tajuddin—the conspirators knew Tajuddin was onto their game, and so he had to be kept away from Mujib at all costs. Pakistani then premier Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who released him from jail, also played mind games with him, suggesting that while he still languished in jail, his trusted lieutenant had already made himself prime minister with Indira Gandhi's help. The seeds of suspicion were thus sown in Mujib's mind about the people whom he should have trusted more. His nephew, Sheikh Moni, strengthened those suspicions as he had ambitions of being Mujib's successor; he insinuated that Tajuddin was growing 'too ambitions'. The truth is that Tajuddin came over to India on Mujib's instruction, and sought Mrs Gandhi's help when Pakistan started the military crackdown in East Pakistan. Mujib had already made him the head of an interim government.
One of the readings of your book seems to be that Tajuddin would have been a better first prime minister of an independent Bangladesh.
He was, indeed, the first prime minister of independent Bangladesh, and it's wrong to say that he was the prime minister of an interim government, as that interim government was, in fact, the de facto first government of independent Bangladesh, and he was its prime minister. He had great organisational ability – the ability to bring together people of all political hues and effect unity among all the pro-liberation forces. He said he was the Bharata of the Ramayana, carrying out the duties of Rama – i.e., he was filling in for Bongobondhu [as Sheikh Mujib was called] till his return.
Would you say that the repatriation issue and the clash of interests among former senior Pakistan government personnel and out-of-turn promotions of mukti jodhas [freedom fighters], many of them with no proven administrative skills, were among the key reasons why the Mujib government, which assumed power on a huge wave of goodwill, was eventually set on disaster mode? Would you say that was one of his key blunders?
Fidel Castro had warned Mujib: 'I hear that you are you are putting the repatriates from Pakistan in key government positions. This is a dangerous precedent. You are setting the country up for counter-revolution. When I threw Batista out of power in Cuba, I weeded out all his trusted men and replaced them with my own men.' Mujib felt there will be a change of heart if he gives them responsibilities and gives them space. He, in fact, made the intelligence chief of Pakistan, his vigilance commissioner—the net result was that he was able to spy on him better and pass on crucial information to his former Pakistani masters so that the conspiracy was able to fructify.