A three-body problem confronting Bangladesh

Mistakes made by the interim government in Dhaka have left the country divided and fatigued

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Such is the impudence of Sheikh Hasina’s death sentence that it puts irony to shame.

It does not require a legal genius to comprehend that the trial of an autocrat with a well-documented portfolio of violations would have led to a guilty verdict. But judicial independence, procedural integrity, and stronger defence counsel could have delivered lasting justice. It may even have opened pathways for political reconciliation instead of privileging public catharsis. But Hasina was tried in the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) that she herself created and compromised; the chief prosecutor is a political figure who once defended Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) leaders unfairly sent to the gallows by the same sham court.

Even if one accounts for chief advisor Muhammad Yunus’ inheritance of a diminished administration and struggling economy and discounts his promise of reforms as circumstantial political rhetoric, this moment offers a pause. If there was one thing the interim government had a resounding mandate drawn in blood for, it was to hold Hasina to account. It floundered. Why? To be sure, there is understandable anger against Hasina and India’s decision to host her is a veritable thorn in the bilateral. But the noise around Hasina’s exile distracts from how acute Bangladesh’s crisis is on its own merit — a crisis the next government will inherit.