Sheikh Hasina, the present Prime Minister of Bangladesh and the eldest daughter of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib - the founding father and architect of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh virtually remained away from politics while her father was the President, Prime Minister and President, respectively during the period of 1972 - 75.

In 1975, while Bangabandhu along with all members of the family were killed, Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana were outside the country. That saved them from the onslaught of the killers. It was perhaps a miracle and gift of God which now enable Hasina to lead the nation to apparent pinnacle of glory. On receiving the saddest news, she was mentally shattered but kept on pursuing the effort to return home. Anticipating retaliation, she migrated from Europe to India and spent about 6 years in Delhi from where she kept contact with the leaders of the party. The party was divided into several factions although many leaders secretly visited her in Delhi and received useful advice and information from her. Then, in 1981 she returned home with the greatest risk of annihilation by the autocratic military rulers in the country in order to salvage the party and save the nation from the clutches of the anti liberation forces. The day she returned home, lakhs of people arrived to receive and greet the daughter of their beloved leader at the airport in heavy showers. There is strong sentiment in Bengali life that the rain is fore-runner of good luck. Perhaps that is gradually coming true.

After her return, she was unanimously elected the President of the Bangladesh Awami League at the age of only 34. She then started re-organizing the party in the face of hundreds of evils and odds and faced the challenges of being killed several times. Despite of all these, she was equally head-strong to steer the craft toward its ultimate destination. Just after returning home, she launched movements against the military and autocratic rulers. In an effort to restore democracy, she fought the national assembly election and emerged, for the first time, as the leader of the opposition in 1986. But, finding herself incapable of restoring democracy, she resigned in 1988 and came down on the street with movement to oust the autocratic ruler. The 15 party alliance was formed and she was picked up as its leader who played the most significant role to oust Ershad in 1991 and bring back the parliamentary from of government. At that time, she was at the peak of her popularity and the party was almost destined to assume power after 15 years of the death of the father of the nation. But some mis-calculations on the part of her powerful colleagues and ugly games of election commission, kept her behind in terms of number of seats in the parliament while obtaining the highest number of votes altogether. Thus, she was deprived of the coveted position of the first women Prime Minister of the country and the nation was deprived of the leadership of the ardent supporter of the spirit of the Liberation War. The nation once again started paying a heavy price for it.

It was in 1991, Jamat-i-Islami elected Ghulam Azam as its Ameer. He was implicated in the act of instigating mass killings of freedom fighters, eviction of general people, loot, arson, rape and large scale destruction of human abode and collaboration with Pakistani forces in perpetuating their heinous genocide in Bangladesh after the declaration of Independence and launching of the liberation war. The selection of Ghulam Azam, a national of Pakistan until that time, sparked off serious reaction and a movement under the banner of the National Coordination Committee for the Trial of the Killers and Collaborators of 1971 and for Implementation of the Spirit of Liberation War gained momentum due to the direct patronization of Sheikh Hasina. She was instrumental in electing the convener Mrs. Jahanara Imam and member Secretary Professor Dr. Abdul Mannan Choudhury of the said Committee briefly called Coordination Committee. Ghulam Azam was tried in people’s court and the implementation of the verdict was pressed in the parliament by the leader of the opposition Sheikh Hasina along with 100 members of the parliament. She also came forward openly for averting the trial of 24 so-called traitors who organized the People’s Court. Her role made her once again dear and popular to the younger generation, freedom fighters and the members of Martyred families.

Side by side, she started concerted movement to nullify the Indemnity Law which prohibited trial of the killers of Bangabandhu, and for restoration of democratic process through the Care-taker Government in the country.

It was in the early part of 1996, she came nearer to assumption of power. Due to farcical election, she did not participate in that election but kept alive the movement. That caused the government of that time to dissolve the parliament and hold election under a Care-Taker Government. The election, scheduled on 12 June, 1996 saw lot of conspiracy including an abortive coup. However, her relentless movement compelled the Care-Taker Government to hold the election on 12 June 1966 which brought her to power after 16 years of her return home and 21 years of assassination of the father of the nation. The assumption of power paved the way for her to start emerging as a statesman from a politician. She remained in power for full 5 years and brought significant changes in the political, economic and social arena in line with the spirit of the liberation war.

She took steps to institutionalize democracy by even giving the Chairmanship of Parliamentary Standing Committee to the members of the opposition. This committee functioned even though the opposition avoided attending the parliament session for most of the time.

Immediately after assuming power, the parliament nullified the most hated Indemnity Law and opened the way for the trial of the Killers of the father of the nation. Most of the members of the parliament and intellectuals of the country advised her to try the killers in special speedy trial court which she defied. Instead, the matter was taken to normal civil court and concluded during her regime but remained unexecuted in the next eight years when she was out of power. Her act of trying the offenders in the normal court instead of special tribunal earned her world wide appreciation.

After the parliamentary election, the second tier of the local government i.e. the Upazilla (Sub-district) election was held in order to strengthen the local government. The elections of the first tier of the local government were also held. She injected transferency and accountability at all tiers of government and ensured these through making intensive use of information and communication technology. For the first time in the country, the PC were cheaply available and broad band and mobile phones were brought to the purchasing capability of the common people.

The government of Sheikh Hasina, then resolved two most intricate problems in the country. One of them was concerned with mitigating the insurgency in the hill tract districts of the country and the other was connected with the Ganges water sharing with India. These were very old problems and the resolution of the first problem brought her international awards and honourary doctorate degrees from renowned universities and institutions. She was expected to win the Nobel Prize for peace which did not materialize but her model was imitated elsewhere which earned Nobel Prize for two Irishmen. Her own university also conferred her honorary doctorate degree.

During her first tenure of office, the longest bridge in the country and 11th longest bridge in the world was constructed. This bridge was inaugurated on 23 June 1998 by completing of the work within that shortest period of time. The bridge has connected the most distant and most neglected districts of the country in the main stream of development. So was the resolution of hill tract insurgency.

She excelled in both Macroeconomic and Micro-economic management of the economy that caused her government to maintain uniform growth of above six percent without much inflation. These helped to sustain the economy while the so called tigers of the East Asia collapsed miserably. Because of the effective macroeconomic management and of putting a break to bad culture of loan defaulting, the international bodies including the IMF started pouring funds vigorously in the development activities of the nation. During that period the banking sector functioned smoothly. Tender floatings were made digital and lottery system instead of arbitrary political decisions were made to conclude many economic deals within the country.

Her government achieved miracle in food production. A country known historically as a food deficit area was made self sufficient. The government apparently made the Malthusian Theory of population and production of food grains a myth. It was described by Malthus - a clergyman and economist, that population increases in geometric progression whereas production of food grains increase in arithmetic progression. This means population growth will always supersede the food-grains production and many people would be the victim of natural calamities in order to bring a balance. This has been proved false in Bangladesh. The population in the country increased by hundred percent and the land area for cultivation decreased by not less than 33 percent, over the last four decades, yet the country attained food autarky because of scientific farming, land reform and introduction of one home-one farm. It is worth noting that when she came to power in 1996, the country had a food deficit of 4 million tones of food-grains but when she handed over power in 2002, the food surplus was about 2.5 million tones, part of which was rather exported.

During that period, percapita food intake as well as calorie intake increased whereas the rate of mortality of mother and child reduced drastically because of increased food, better health, hygiene and supply of pure drinking water.

Despite limited internal resources and constrained foreign fund, her government surprisingly introduced a number of social security measures, free primary education and liberal subvention of education at the post primary levels heralding a revolution in the education sector. The salaries and house rent of the teachers were increased, the number of primary, secondary & tertiary educational institutions went up significantly.

She introduced schemes for the betterment of the women, distressed widows and income less people in the rural areas. Moreover, her government paid due regard and respect to the freedom fighters and to their dependences including the grandsons and granddaughters of each freedom fighter. Many other economic and social benefits were meted out to them including burying them with gun salute.

For the first time, the country officially recognizes that females are also human beings. The position of mother in the society was upgraded by introducing a system of recording mother’s name along with the name of the father. The women saw inflated attractions and opportunities in jobs. They were also employed in the non-traditional job for them such as Bangladesh Navy.

During her first tenure of governance, the celebrated 21 February, the day of super sacrifice of Bangalees to uphold their mother-tongue, was made the International Mother Language Day by UNESCO on initiative of Rafiq and Salam and prompt actions of her government. It may be mentioned Rafiq was a member of Mujib Bahini & his brother Safu was also a Mujib Bahini fighter who embraced martyrdom in the direct fight with Pakistan army. Sheikh Hasina started building the International Mother Language Institute which was stalled by the subsequent government. The subsequent government also halted the construction of the Liberation War Memorial.

During early part of her rule, it was anticipated in the international press that flood and other natural calamities would claim a big toll, which she made a myth by her prompt and efficient management. The famine of 1973 was in her mind and so she even employed the highups to distribute reliefs and food grains.

She started her premiership first time without any experience of state craftsmanship. Most of her ministers were equally inexperienced and fairly senior to her in age. The country witnessed a highly non-cooperative and oppressive opposition and a highly anti-people and in-efficient bureaucracy. Yet, she was highly successful in the state craftsmanship and therefore, was highly optimistic of her stage back to power. But, her dream was shattered by crafty manipulation of the election by the then care-taker government.

The election result landed her and her party in a shambles that battered description. Several attempts were made to assassinate her including the dastardly grenade attack on 21 August 2004. In that attack not less than 24 party leaders and workers including the wife of President Zillur Rahman were killed. Sheikh Hasina narrowly escaped death and perhaps survived for the betterment of the nation. She was also at the point of annihilation previously where score of her supporters died. It is to be mentioned here that she did not turn vindictive afterwards and followed the due process of law in trying the offenders.

From 2002 to 2008, she had a tormented journey along with her party and supporters including the minorities of the country. She did not back out. There were efforts to defranchise her, send her out of the country and keep her out of politics. She was even put behind the bar in an unceremonious manner and obstructed to land at Dhaka airport while she returned home after treatment. None of these could deter her from the mission. She steered the party and the people in the most desirable manner.

The nation rewarded her by returning her with vast majority to power in 2009. Before coming to power for the second term, she did home work especially in the areas of setting vision and mission for her forthcoming government and beyond, and for completing the tasks she initiated during her first tenure of government. During the election of 2008, the younger generation overwhelmingly supported her for her commitment to change the order of the day, execute the verdicts given against the killers of Bangabandhu and commitment to try the killers and collaborators of 1971. She nominated those people for election who were mostly in unison with her in the above issues and constituted the cabinet with mostly younger members. For the second time, she put members of other parties in the ministry, quickly reorganized the parliament standing committee with members of both ruling and opposition parties. No minister was made Chairman of any standing Committee to ensure check and balance.

Her vision for celebrating the 100 birth anniversary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib in 2020 and transforming the country into a country of middle income by 2021 the year of the Golden Jubilee of Independence, was largely shared. She also reduced corruption, terrorism and injustice from the society as well as enhanced efforts to institutionalize democracy once again. Her slogan of malice to none and friendship to all was meticulously implemented.

At breakneck speed, she mounted efforts to execute the previous verdict against the killers of Bangabandhu and attained unprecedented success. Thereafter, she amended International War Crime Act 1973 to bring it in line with the demand of the obtained circumstances and passed it un-animously as the International Crime Act 2009. As many as two tribunals were constituted to try the heinous criminals against humanity in 1971. By now 9 out of 10 of the offenders were given capital punishment and one of them was executed. The international arena vis-a-vis the offenders in league raised obstacles but her government did not bend. Recently the international arena apparently accepted the verdict when they asked for the protection of the witnesses against the criminals. The trial for the grenade attack is yet pending. However the trial of 10 truck arm haulage has been concluded. In all these cases, due process of laws have been duly observed. That is why, they took long time. Her government also showed due respect to the leader of the opposition in the process of framing charges against her and her family members.

During her previous regime, Sheikh Hasina effectively handled the age-old famine situation in certain part of the country especially during certain months of the year. This situation called Monga and the Monga has become part of history during her second tenure of office. The food autarky has been regained; the life history of some food and cash crops have been uncovered, the intensive cultivation and short duration crops have been reintroduced and pursued respectively. These brought apparent revolution in agriculture.

Her government finished the process of establishing International Mother Language Institute and construction of the Liberation War Memorial during her second regime. The renovation and reconstruction of Bangla Academy along with its own order for the first time have seen the light of day. The government is now promise bound to create cultural belt in and around Sahrawardy Uddan where Bangabandhu delivered historic 7th March speech and Pakistan Army unconditionally surrendered on 16 December 1971.

On the second month of her tenure, there was a revolt which cost the valuable life of 57 senior Army Officials. It was handled very tactfully and about 8000 offenders were tried for the offence of whom 152 have been given capital punishment. This is unique in the world history. Such an identical uprising by Hafazat-e-Islam to dethrone the government was dealt promptly with minimum loss of life almost at the end of her regime. The apparent uprising after the announcement of verdict of offenders against humanity were systematically dealt with. The families of the BDR officials were given generous financial aid and resettled in Dhaka Cantonment. She introduced fair, equitable and unbiased system of recruitment and promotion in the defense forces.

Her socio-economic management contributed to the achievement of almost all the goals of the millennium development even before they fell due. This has earned her South-South awards twice.

The efficient macro-economic management has started giving result. Despite worldwide depression and man-made disorders within the country, the economy has been maintaining uniformly 6% growth of the GDP.

During her second tenure of office and in the face of hundreds of odds, the growth rate was more than six percent, the per-capita income increased from $735 to $1044. As many as 50 million people switched from poverty level to middle class. The poverty level went down to 26 pc from around 40 pc. The mortality rate of children and mothers has gone down. These along with the supply of drinking water have overcome the level achieved even by India. The health-care, sanitation, checking of adulteration in food and free distribution of food among the destitutes have pushed the age level to around of 70 years which was only 27 years during the first decade of Pakistani rule. Bangladesh is now rated as one of the top happiest countries of the world. The growth of the population has equally been well-managed. With the richer section of the community, the two-child norm is now the reality.

There has been drastic changes in employment level. Apart from significant growth in the RMG and other sectors, the country has attained remarkable record in earning foreign currency through export of the manpower. The foreign reserve has touched the 20 billion levels. There was a time when the export of man power was left at the mercy of the unscrupulous man power dealers. Government has taken effective control of this sector. Now the migrant workers are selected on the basis of lottery, they are charged nominal fees; and generous financial assistance is provided to meet the initial expenses through Overseas Development Bank.

It has been estimated that in average 10 million people are provided gainful employment at home and abroad each year. The armed forces are not only maintaining peace and tranquility in foreign countries but also earning hard foreign currency. At present, Bangladesh stands second in terms of manning the U.N.O. Peace Keeping Forces.

Significant over-hauling has been caused in the civil and military bureaucracies. The process of restructuring, reorganizing and increasing the number and level of posts in each cadre as well as changing the promotional policies and increasing salaries and dearness allowance have been found to be functional. New and unique pay-scale has been introduced in some sector, like the judiciary. The retirement age for both freedom fighters and others have been increased by at least two years. The retirement age of university teachers has been pushed to 65 years for all universities. It was only prevalent previously in Dhaka University.

The purchasing power of every person has increased with less than corresponding increase of inflation. At present the minimum wages of the all workers except garment workers is TK 4175, but it is TK 5300 for the garment workers. The maternity leave for all categories of employees has been increased to six month. The paternity leave issue is under consideration.

Apart from all these, the education sector has seen unprecedented progress. Huge number of primary schools have been established or nationalized. For the first time, teachers in the informal sectors were given higher salary & house rent. Generous financial support and school feeding along with the afore-said facilities have caused almost hundred percent primary school enrolment. There has been equally discernable changes in the other level of education. The religions and modern education have been integrated in a manner to ensure job opportunity and performance of religions rites. The number of colleges are increasing every day. Apart from colleges for general education, the number of medical colleges have shot up to 87 form barely three in 1971 and number of universities have increased to 104 from barely four.

Large sum of money has been pumped in to make higher education affordable and of quality. The education policy as said earlier, even received support from the country’s opposition politics although their year long political activities hindered desired progress. Ever then by second January of this year, the education ministry arranged 16 thousand trucks and distributed 320 million books to about 3.4 million students free of cost. Altogether during the last 5 years, government in fact distributed more than 1210 million books free of cost to the school goers.

Besides the aforesaid, the country has seen remarkable achievement in easing of the traffic jam through construction of several flyovers. Programs are under way to construct metro rail, under passes and of diverting traffic.

The above accounts do not necessarily indicate that the government of Sheikh Hasina did not have any flaws, failures and shortcomings. Many of her achievements have been blurred by the misdeeds of party layers and criminals. Some of the lamentable activities have been duly taken care. Some are rather not supported by facts. One such case is the corruption allegation in connection with the Padma Bridge. Of late, it has been found that many corruptions initiated in the earlier regime or perpetuated during this time have been taken care in the form of investigation by ICC or police and presentation for trial. The Rana Plaza incident has received utmost attention. Nobody has been or will be spared, it is assured. The Padma Bridge is envisioned to be completed in three years time.

The production of electricity has touched 10000 MW mark. About 500 MW electricity has been imported from India; an offer of 100 MW has been received from Agartala. Two more coal-fired electricity generation plants are under construction.

Sheikh Hasina promised digital Bangladesh by 2021. Like the millennium development goals, this goal has been attained largely by 2013. This has contributed towards education, business and towards minimizing corruption. More than 50% of the people in the country have come under mobile phone system; about 38.6 million people have been receiving internet service. The mobile services have seen introduction of 3G service. It has been planned to send the first satellite of Bangladesh soon. Now, it is anticipated even by the critics that Bangladesh may attain the target of middle income by 2021. The chances have become brighter with the greater control over the Bay and the sea. The settlement of dispute with Yangoon has opened up the possibility of quick economic emancipation. It is likely to be speedier when Bangladesh would gain similar access in the Bay on settlement with India during this year.

Another significant achievement of the government of Sheikh Hasina during the second tenure of office is the restoration of the basic principles ingrained in the constitution of 1972. She has also ensured election by the elected members of the parliament instead of unelected so called caretaker government.

The first election under the recently amended constitution and under a neutral and independent election commission was held on 5 January 2014. Some of the parties have boycotted that election and many unfriendly foreign powers have been critical of it. A cabinet with largely experienced and clean MPs’ has been formed; 36 of the ministries of the previous cabinet have been dropped and ACC initiated investigation against some of the ministers and MP’s.

Sheikh Hasina before assuming the power for the third time in 2014 declared the vision and mission as well as programs of her government. Most of these programs are targeted to institutionalize democracy, ensure reduction of unemployment and poverty with an aim to convert the country into a country of upper income bracket by 2041. She is dedicated towards uplifting of the lower middle class, destitutes, aged, the widows and especially the freedom fighters, their sons and daughters, grand sons, grand daughters and minority communities. It is hoped that if she can contain corruption, terrorism and provide the needed infrastructural facilities in the present tenure of office, she may emerge as the second charismatic leader next to her father, in the country.

The writer is a Freedom Fighter and Educationist - See more at: http://www.daily-sun.com/details_Sheikh-Hasina:-From-a-politician-to-a-statesman_857_2_5_1_0.html#sthash.DpkXx8M4.dpuf