Second Revolution (Bangladesh)

Second Revolution (Bengali: দ্বিতীয় বিপ্লব) was a political hypothesis presented by the founding father of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The hypothesis included a series of reforms in the three pillars of a state: administrative, judiciary and legislative system. The reforms were generalised as the Second Revolution and were enacted through the fourth amendment of the constitution of Bangladesh. BAKSAL was formed as the decision making council to carry out the revolution.

The 'revolution' as it was called by the Awami League leadership ended with the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on 15 August 1975.

With the emergence of Bangladesh as an independent nation in 1971, Bangladesh became a people's republic which enabled both democracy and socialism as state policies with Bangalee nationalism and secularism. And within one of the independence Bangladesh got its constitution.

Bangladesh introduced a parliamentary democracy as the legislative system with 300 constituencies, where every member of parliaments needed to be elected by direct vote by the qualified voters. And in the 1973 general election, Awami League emerged as the single largest party of the country to govern the nation winning 291 seats out of 300.

Amid political success, Bangladesh was facing difficulties with the condition of economy after the independence. In 1974–75 fiscal year, after three years of independence, Bangladesh hardly registered a 2pc growth in GDP while the population grew by 3pc, a much embarrassing statistics for a government. Almost all the private ventures were nationalised according to the state policy and private entrepreneurship was discouraged. Though Bangladesh was seemingly advocating socialist ideologies, one of the prime priorities- the land reforms- seemed a far cry.

The slower progress in economy, dysfunctional production system, smuggling of good through the border and syndication among the traders who had been enjoying substantial support including licenses from the ruling Awami League since independence led the country to a famine in 1974 that claimed at least 1.5 million lives. Estimates from some renowned economists including Dr. Amartya Sen however suggest the death toll much larger. A sudden flood in the same year made the situation much worse leaving hundreds to die of starving.

With the failures, the government started receiving criticism from the opposition parties and the newspapers. The government had decided to deal the political opposition in hard hand. Political figures like Siraj Sikder, Mosharraf Hossain, Badal Khan and almost thirty thousand political activists either extrajudicially killed or disappeared in three years due to Jatiya Rakkhi Bahini excesses and police actions. Opposition parties started protesting the government repressions and some of them opted for arms struggle to defend themselves. At least four members of parliament got killed.

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