July unity now divided into groups, its spirit remains elusive

In July 2024, students and citizens from every walk of life stood together against authoritarianism, discrimination and corruption, transforming a quota-reform protest into a mass uprising that ended more than 15 years of Awami League rule. Two years on, that unity lies in ruins and the question haunting Bangladesh is a deceptively simple one- who exactly owns July?

The battle over credit
Before ending August 2024, the scramble for ownership of the uprising had begun. Dhaka University academic Samina Lutfa observes that because the students at the movement's forefront lacked a formal political organisation, political parties and student organisations moved swiftly to claim the credit for themselves. 

Certain factions presented themselves as the uprising's "sole initiator" or "real owner". In this context, political analyst Kazi Mohammad Mahbubur, a Professor of the Department of Political Science at Dhaka University, said, "We must remember that none of those who led the people's uprising of 1969, the great liberation war of 1971, and the people's uprising of 1990 wanted to share power. But now we can see a different picture."

Interim Government’s Divide and Rule strategy
Professor Dr Muhammad Yunus, who returned from Paris on August 8, 2024 to take over as the Chief Adviser of the Interim Government, preached the message of unity but failed to live up to that rhetoric. The primary mandate of that government was to hold a free and fair election. Instead, it staged a ‘reform’ drama to prolong its tenure. While bringing in foreign experts in the name of state reform, it also pitted political parties against one another by raising contentious and impractical constitutional proposals that deepened political divisions.

Dr Yunus introduced Mahfuz Alam as the "mastermind" of the July-August uprising. Samina Lutfa thinks that this 'mastermind' rhetoric further widened the cracks in the united front. He was inducted in the Council of Advisers and given the charge of the important Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. 

Awami League and its alliance parties have been left out of the July Charter process, which was initiated by the National Consensus Commission (NCC),  headed by Dr. Ali Reaz, who is not a citizen of the country. He was given the authority of reforms of the country's constitution, a move now being termed as unconstitutional. Only 21 out of 52 registered parties were invited to dialogues at the meetings of the NCC, while 9 were unregistered. Even, seven of the parties participating in the dialogue including NCP, CPB, BSD, BSD (Marxist), JSD, Gano Forum, Rastro Sangskar Andolon, stayed away from the signing of the July Charter.

THE RISE OF THE FAR-RIGHT FORCES
The spirit of the July uprising had been eroded by political expediency and the growing influence of far-right forces. One of the front line July Movement activists Abdul Quader alleged that right wing groups sought to "establish Islam" and impose religion bias in politics and state affairs after July. Even they tried to compare the July spirit with the 1971 Liberation War spirit, which faced widespread protest, resistance and condemnation.

The post-July political vacuum enabled Islamist and far-right groups to expand under banners such as "Tawheed Janata" and "Sadharon Chatra Janata", leading to attacks on ethnic minorities, women, shrines, Bauls, cultural events and educational institutions, alongside the rise of "mob politics". The National Citizen Party (NCP) leadership remain silent on, legitimising or appeasing such incidents through populist politics. The NCP was formed and patronised by Dr. Yunus as 'Kings Party' and Nahid Islam, Adviser of Information Ministry, was made its Convenor. NCP's source of fund and its power on state administration remain unanswered.

The criticism intensified after the NCP joined Jamaat-e-Islami in campaigning for a ban on Awami League in May 2025, when slogans praising convicted 1971 war criminals including "In the Bangla of Golam Azam, there's no place for Awami League",  "In the Bangla of Nizami, there's no place for Awami League" were raised. Following that, the then adviser Mahfuz Alam wrote on Facebook, 'The question of 71 must be resolved. The accomplices of war crimes must apologize. If you want to do politics in Bangladesh, you have to give up Pakistanism.' 

Even the NCP's electoral alliance with Jamaat had triggered a deep internal split. Around 30 leaders reportedly opposed the move, calling it a betrayal of the July uprising's ideals. Senior leaders including Tasnim Zara, Tajnubha Jabin, Nusrat Tabassum, Samantha Sharmin, Manjila Sultana Jhuma and Azad Khan Bhasani either resigned, announced plans to quit or publicly warned of the political consequences. 

After resigning as an adviser, Mahfuz Alam also distanced himself from the NCP and later, initiated a platform called 'Alternatives'.

POWER, PATRONAGE AND THE POLITICS OF THE SPOILS
In February 2025, Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, once the uprising's unifying platform, gave rise to the NCP, a move many July stakeholders regarded with unease, sensing that the young leaders had been drawn into the very cycle of traditional politics, power and patronage, which they once opposed. Umama Fatema, one of the coordinators of the Movement didn't join NCP claiming, "The way they entered power-oriented politics after August 5 played an important role in creating a rift in unity."
 
Analyst Mohiuddin Ahmed points to the scramble to fill the post-Hasina power vacuum, as the BNP, Jamaat and former student leaders each moved to entrench their own influence. Political scientist Dilara Chowdhury offers a structural explanation saying, "80 per cent of those who participated in July Movement were working people and 20 per cent were of the upper class.

The 80 per cent returned home. Those negotiating over unity are the upper class and their interests lie elsewhere." 
A group of former Shibir figures, however, broke away from NCP to form 'UP Bangladesh'.

Beyond the NCP itself, more than two dozen political parties and platforms emerged including Bangladesh Mukti Dak 71, Bangladesh Jagrata Party, Bangladesh Gonotantrik Party (BGP), Aam Janatar Dal, Bangladesh Social Democratic Party (BSDP), Bangladesh Jana-Adhikar Party, Janatar Bangladesh Party, Janatar Dal, Bhashani Janashakti Party and the A-Aam Janata Party (BAJP).

A parallel constellation of single-issue platforms also took shape, each claiming a piece of July's spirit including the Anti-Fascist Coalition, Inquilab Mancha, Students Alliance for Democracy, Biplob Chhatra Parishad and the July Massacre Archive.
 
THE JULY SPIRIT TRADE
The morals of the July Movement soon drowned under the allegations of being commercialised and exploited for personal gain. A number of frontline leaders were accused of turning the Movement into a "money making machine".

Allegations include involvement in transfer trading, tender manipulation, extortion, case trading and collecting money from businesses by threatening to implicate individuals in murder cases linked to the uprising. Wounded July fighter Marufa Akhter (Maya), filed a petition before the Dhaka Cyber Tribunal against 10 people, alleging that she was subjected to cyberbullying and character assassination after refusing to participate in unethical tenders, commissions, land seizures and "case trade" conducted in the name of the July martyrs and injured.

The issue drew political attention as well. BNP lawmaker Akhtaruzzaman remarked, "Many of those who sell July spirit used to ride rickshaws one day, but now they ride Prado." Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed recently urged political actors not to use "the spirit of the July Movement" for "the political purposes of any single party or group or do business." 

With every change of power, a new July is written over the old one, yet the promised transformation of the state remains elusive. The uprising belonged to all who stood for democracy accountability transparency rights, but its shared sacrifice has increasingly been eclipsed by contests over credit, power and political ownership, leaving the dream of July still waiting to be fulfilled.