On January 15, the Constitutional Reform Commission (CRC) — one of the six reform commissions set up by Bangladesh’s interim government following the ouster of the autocratic Sheikh Hasina regime — submitted its report to the Mohammad Yunus-led government. The CRC has made recommendations to prevent the concentration of powers in the hands of the prime minister, as happened under Hasina’s rule, and to ensure that autocratic rule does not return to Bangladesh. While retaining democracy as a fundamental principle in the Preamble of the Constitution, it calls for the inclusion of the principles of equality, human dignity, social justice, and pluralism, even as it recommends dropping three other principles. The CRC’s recommendation that “secularism” be dropped as a fundamental principle has evoked concern in some quarters.

In an interview with The Diplomat’s South Asia editor Sudha Ramachandran, Ali Riaz, who heads the Constitution Reform Commission, argued that secularism as professed and practiced by the Hasina regime was “limited to toleration of religious diversity.” According to Riaz, the CRC recommended pluralism is wider in scope and “more encompassing.”

The Constitutional Reform Commission recommends retaining just one principle (democracy) of the four guiding principles of the current Constitution: socialism, secularism, nationalism, and democracy. What is the rationale behind this?

The Commission has recommended that the constitution incorporates the founding principles of the country articulated in the Proclamation of Independence on April 10, 1971. The Proclamation laid out three principles: equality, human dignity, and social justice. All of these were disregarded by the framers of the 1972 Constitution within months of the War of Independence. It was surprising that these founding principles were pushed to oblivion in favor of four principles that were laid out by the Awami League in February 1972 even before the constitution-making process began. The Commission and many stakeholders recommended that the country return to its founding principles, befitting to pay homage to the millions who laid down their lives.

Democracy has been included, not because it was there before, but to reflect the aspiration of the long-standing struggle of the people of Bangladesh, particularly the 2024 July uprising against the personalistic autocracy of Sheikh Hasina. It is the democratic aspiration of the people of Bangladesh that was trampled by Sheikh Hasina after she came to power in 2009.

The fifth principle was added to reflect the diversity of the country. Bangladesh’s long tradition of pluralism – cultural, linguistic, religious, ethnic – needed to be underscored and should be included as a state principle.

The autocratic rule of Hasina, like her father Mujib, was legitimized under the guise of........

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