Sharif Osman Hadi's martyrdom and the outpouring of grief and sympathy that his assassination aroused among the public has been, in a word, historic. The masterminds behind his killing might have thought that they had succeeded in removing him from public memory forever. But their killing mission backfired on them. The hundreds of thousands of mourners who converged on the Manik Mia avenue on Saturday (December 20) afternoon to attend Hadi's namaz-e-Janazah (funeral prayer) clearly demonstrated that he was not just another contestant for Dhaka-8 constituency in the upcoming general election scheduled for February next year. Neither was the notion correct that as one of the standard-bearers of the July 2024 uprising, he was like, (as the perception was growing among some), one of those about- to-be-forgotten lot. And, so they thought, by just bumping him off in revenge for overthrowing the autocracy, they would be able to silence the voice of July revolution. But that was a miscalculation based on the mistaken idea that the July 2024 uprising was purely an accident of history and, so, the angry generation who led the revolution has by now got off track and are busy with their career in politics and other profitable occupations and not with any ideology of selflessness. Some said they would soon meet the fate of the rebels of Arab Spring. Notably, Arab Spring was a series of anti-establishment rebellions in the Middle East and North Africa inspired by the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi, a street vendor of Tunisia, in December 2010. His sacrifice sparked a wave of pro-democracy protests against authoritarianism. Abu Sayed of Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur (BRUR), too, on July 16, 2024 embraced the police's bullets with his arms outstretched in protest against authoritarianism.
But, it appeared, the people have forgotten Abu Sayed and with him the July revolution. But have they? In his death, Hadi has again proved that the flame of the July uprising kindled by Abu Sayed has been far from extinguished. But are our traditional politicians in a mood to accept fact? Since July 2024's uprising, a disturbing tendency of belittling those who spearheaded the July movement has been observed among the leaders of some traditional parties, the old guard. True, the July revolutionaries were not an organised force. But once the few protesting student leaders began to brave the autocracy's bullets, the masses of the people found their leader in them and joined the struggle. Small wonder that their mass struggle could take a revolutionary turn forcing autocracy to bow to people power and flee. But once the authoritarianism was over, there was a power vacuum in the country. The students had to take charge. They helped cobble together an interim government headed by Dr. Muhammad Yunus as its Chief Adviser. Obviously, it has not been a perfect set-up and so it has its strong critics. Meanwhile, the student leaders seemed to have lost purpose and become a spent force. Members of the public who extended support during the bloody upsurge appeared to have distanced themselves from the July heroes. So, their arch enemies in the fallen autocracy targeted them thinking they are individuals isolated from the people. Hence was the attack on Hadi of Inqilab Moncho. Through his ultimate sacrifice Hadi proved that the real power of the July uprising did not lie in any organization, but in the people's love for the revolution and its leaders.
Most politicians who are now busy campaigning for the next general election are not ready or willing to accept the fact that the common people do not want to return to the old political order. They want to see a change. Hadi and his July comrades have shown that path to change.
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