By P Kharel
Refugee in New Delhi for two years since resigning and fleeing her country, former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina made a virtual address to Bangladeshi people made on August 5. Although Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s advisor expressed the government’s concern over the announced programme to the Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka, the latter’s response was that Indian government had nothing to do with it.
India’s External Affairs spokesperson denied the Indian government was involved with Hasina’s event, and pointed out that the event was “organised by a private media entity”. The private entity he referred to was South Asian Foreign Correspondents’ Club of South Asia. Dhaka does not seem to be convinced. It might note how Delhi directed the decade-long Maoist movement in Nepal, calling the rebels terrorists but hosting their topnotch leaders with all the trappings of VVIPS in India.
Wanted for a death sentence issued by the country’s International Crimes Tribunal last November, Hasina, went ahead with her scheduled speech that might not have created any flutter beyond curiosity in the international community. Going by press reports, it drew mixed reactions at home—largely condemnation but a ray of hope among her banned Awami League supporters, who lie low to avoid the embers of, mass wrath.
The gist of the much-anticipated press meet was, “I will return to my people.” She hinted dissatisfaction with the army’s role during and after the 2024 mass rallies, which she saw as “not protests” but organised “regime change”. Her son Sajeeb Wajed Joy’s remark that “Bangladesh has become another Pakistan” might please the ears of his family’s hosts in India, underscoring the dramatic shift in Bangladesh’s foreign policy. People at home, however, might not be as receptive. Noted Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen, exiled for 31 years, commented: “Now she [Hasina] knows the pain of exile.”
POLITICAL TEST: The speech is to test the political waters before for the 78-year-old condemned former five-time prime minister decides on her plan to submit herself to the court in Dhaka in December. The Tarique government had directed the Bangladeshi news media not to carry the speech.
About 1,500 people were killed in the crackdown order Hasina issued to the security forces during the summer Revolution led by Gen Z. Apart from convictions on several corruption cases, the five-time former prime minister declared guilty of mobilising lethal force and inaction in preventing atrocities in the course of the youth movement. Families of those killed during the protests want “justice”. Their views seem to be echoed by one of their members: “Justice will be done only when Hasina is hanged.”
Daughter of the country’s first prime minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Hasina made her prime ministerial debut from 1991 to 1996. The next four consecutive terms were from 2009. The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) boycotted the 2024 election accusing the ruling party of suppressing political opponents and framing false charges against its members. Out of the 300 seats in contest, Hasina’s party obtained 224 while 32 “independent” candidates, known for their political proximity to the ruling party, also made it to the parliament.
BLISTERING BOYCOTT: Voter turnout was only 40 per cent of the more than 125 million eligible voters carried ominous signs. Hasina failed to gauge the growing intensity of the mass dissensions. In her blind complacency, she refused to open talks with the opposition. Public fury found way through a campus protest on June 5, 2024.
Two months later, when more than 1,400 protestors had died and the mass protestors in the capital Dhaka proceeded toward the prime minister’s residence, the country’s men in brass briefed her about her grave security situation, with a hint that she had no more than an hour to decide. She acted by resigning and fleeing on a helicopter and then reaching neighbouring India’s capital on a military aircraft.
There are many reasonable ifs and buts in Hasina’s political case. During her long rule, she did employ heavy-handed means and distributed favours to please interest groups, win elections and retain power. The last four consecutive poll victories gave her the illusion of invincibility, oblivious to the law of odds and especially anti-incumbency factor. After all, the main opposition, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), whose president, the late Begum Khaleda Zia, was the first elected prime minister in 1991 after President HM Ershad was compelled to step down and agree to political reforms.
CAUTIOUS POSITIONS: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended an invitation to visit India to his Bangladeshi counterpart Rahman after the latter attained the high office in February. He has yet to visit New Delhi but is also extended an invitation to impending BRICS summit scheduled for next month in New Delhi.
During her tenure in office, several retired army personnel were given death sentences for their role in a 1975 military coup, in which Hasina’s father and the country’s first prime minister was assassinated along with most of his family members. A section of the Bangladeshi army was believed to have been unhappy about the court verdict being carried out. Call for state pardon was not entertained.
Prime Minister Tarique’s father Ziaur Rahman, was the country’s elected president when he was assassinated in office during a military coup in 1981. His wife Begum Khaleda had led the BNP for a decade when she was elected prime minister for five years in 1991 and served a second term in 2001.
Tarique is Bangladesh’s first elected head of government after the 2024 Gen Z “Revolution” just as Nepal’s Balendra Shah is the first prime minister to be elected after the country’s 2025 Gen Z movement. He will weigh carefully and think thrice before deciding on personally attending next month’s BRICS meet.
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