The Shahbagh Movement of 2013 and its Impacts on the Politics of Bangladesh: A Modest Review

Abstract

A hotchpotch political system exists in Bangladesh. Ruling party in the name of strengthening democratic system corners the opposition and politicizes all machineries of the government including the judiciary. Awami League led 14-party alliance due to her failure found her self alienated from the people in the second half of 4^th year in office. In order to restore government’s declining support government played a drama with regard to the verdict of alleged war criminal Abdul Kader Mollah and gave birth to the so called Shahbagh movement. The first couples of weak Shahbagh gathering died down the failure of government, and ongoing opposition movement faced huge set back. But anti-Islamic blog writings by the organizers of Shabagh created another movement of religious masses. Uncensored support for and protection of these bloggers, and brutal massacre against the religious people washed away AL led government’s deeming chance of gaining power back. In this article the researcher analyses the genesis, working, success and failure of Shahbagh movement with an insight view, and at the end its consequence on AL led 14-party alliance government in electoral politics.

Keywords: Shahbagh Gathering, War Crime, Anti-Islamic language, Bloggers and Online Network Activist, Hepajat-e-Islam