New Delhi/Dhaka: The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)-led agitation against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise has received support from the National Citizen Party (NCP) of Bangladesh.
It was the NCP which led the “Students Against Discrimination” movement that ousted former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
NCP convener Nahid Islam took to X and posted: “To the youth and democratic forces of India, We stand in firm solidarity with the young people of India demanding electoral accountability and defending their democratic rights. Recent detentions of peaceful protesters, organizers, and journalists in New Delhi, alongside internet suspensions and restrictions at Jantar Mantar, directly threaten fundamental freedoms. Concerns regarding electoral integrity and institutional independence require transparent answers, not barricades and censorship.”
“This struggle is not yours alone”, he wrote.
In his message expressing solidarity for the agitation in New Delhi, Nahid said: “From Dhaka, we stand with you as friends bound by a common demand for accountable power, democratic institutions, and human dignity.”
He recalled the 2024 student-led movement that resulted in the collapse of the then-Sheikh Hasina Government.
“We know this struggle intimately, because we have lived it. In July 2024, our student led movement against recruitment quotas transformed into a nationwide uprising against 15 years of authoritarian rule. The state responded with live ammunition. The United Nations later estimated that as many as 1,400 people were killed during the uprising and its suppression. We deeply remember and honor the solidarity shown by Indian students, writers, and independent voices during our uprising,” he posted.
Though the 2024 movement in Bangladesh was launched by the NCP, it was soon taken over by Islamists. In the general elections of 2026, the NCP was an alliance partner of the Jamaat-e-Islami and managed to win only six of the 30 seats it contested. The Jamaat won 68 seats, which was a record.
“We recognize India’s rich traditions of democratic resistance. The women of Shaheen Bagh defended equal citizenship through a Delhi winter, while generations of students at JNU and Jadavpur University have sustained organised dissent. These remain invaluable democratic inheritances. Today, we once again see the courage of young Indian women on the streets. In Bangladesh, women were also at the forefront of the July Revolution; their courage and sacrifices helped secure our victory,” Nahid said.
The shared future of India and Bangladesh must be rooted in “communal harmony and social justice, irrespective of religion, caste, gender, or class”, he insisted.
“Hindutva majoritarianism, fascism, and every form of religious supremacy must not define the future of South Asia. We reject authoritarianism, communal hatred, and political intolerance in India just as we reject them in Bangladesh. Our shared future must rest on communal harmony and social justice, irrespective of religion, caste, gender, or class. No society is truly democratic while minorities live in fear, dissent is criminalized, and citizenship is conditional on identity,” Nahid said.
“We call upon Indian authorities to respect the right to peaceful assembly, disclose the whereabouts and legal grounds for detaining protest organizers, immediately release those held for exercising their rights, and ensure journalists can report without intimidation or equipment seizure”, he added.
The Bangladeshi outfit stressed that “our struggles are interconnected”, based on demands for equality, accountability, and sovereignty, as reported by News18.
“Today, many young leaders have been unjustly detained. Sharjeel Imam and Umar Khalid continue to be kept behind bars for years without trial. We regard all of India’s young protesters and prisoners of conscience as comrades. Their courage inspires young people across South Asia”, Nahid wrote.
“Our struggles are interconnected, extending to unresolved issues of border killings, water sharing, environmental protection, and national sovereignty. We seek a South Asia where nations treat each other as equals, governments remain accountable, and sovereignty is never an excuse for domination”.
“To the democratic people of India: from Dhaka, and from the unfinished democratic aspirations of our July generation, we stand with you. Stand firm, protect one another, reject communal hatred, and refuse to surrender the future of South Asia to fascism and division”, he added.
