Bangladesh Nationalist Party, the arch-rival of ousted Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League, on Friday said her decision to stay in India was entirely hers and that of the Indian authorities but cautioned that the people of Bangladesh “will not see it in a good light.”
Hasina resigned and fled to India on Monday following the political turmoil in Bangladesh. Back home, 84-year-old Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus was sworn in on Thursday as the head of an interim government. His government is expected to announce fresh elections after bringing the law and order situation under control following the deadly anti-government demonstrations against the Hasina government that had led to massive violence, now abating.
Senior Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader and party spokesman Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury told PTI, “Right now, she (Hasina) is the most wanted person in Bangladesh to be exposed to justice for numerous crimes – from murders and forced disappearances to massive corruption like siphoning out of billions of dollars.” Chowdhury, however, said, it was a “matter of decision by Hasina herself and the Indian government whether she should stay in the neighbouring country” and added that BNP did not have any say in this issue.
“Yet, the people of Bangladesh think, the Indian authorities should take into account their feelings as eventually ties between the two neighbouring countries depend on relations between two peoples and not between a country and an individual or quarter,” Chowdhury, a member of BNP’s highest decision-making Standing Committee, said. “The people (in Bangladesh) will not see it in a good light (Hasina’s stay in India),” Chowdhury said.
Hasina, 76, resigned and fled the country following widespread protests against her government over a controversial quota system in jobs. She flew to the Hindon air base, near Delhi, in a Bangladesh military aircraft on Monday. Prime Minister Modi on Thursday extended best wishes to Yunus as he took the oath as the head of an interim government in Bangladesh, hoping for an early return to normalcy and ensuring the safety of Hindus and other minority communities in the neighbouring country.
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal on Thursday said that it is up to former prime minister Hasina to decide on her future travel plans. “As far as former prime minister Sheikh Hasina is concerned, we do not have an update on her plans. It is for her to take things forward,” he added. Hasina’s initial plan was to seek asylum in London. Chowdhury said being a former commerce minister, he worked hard to develop ties with India.
“You can get rid of your wife but not the neighbour” but a meaningful sustainable relationship develops only when two sides respect each others’ dignity and acknowledge mutual benefits, he said. His party, the BNP which is headed by Hasina’s arch-rival Khaleda Zia, had boycotted the January 2024 elections amid fears of rigging and demanded for a caretaker government to conduct the polls.
Chowdhury said, Hasina herself earned her political fate but regretted the vandalism and destruction of national property that took place during the past weeks of unrest which has continued even after her ouster. “In such situations, some opportunists take the advantage.”
Asked about the demolition of the statue of Bangladesh’s founder and Hasina’s father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the devastation of the Bangabandhu Museum, Chowdhury said, “Nobody approves of it but the overdoing of someone (Hasina regime) caused the overreaction.” “It was she herself who was responsible for the defamation of her father … you can’t force anyone to respect you, you need to earn it,” he said.
“The entire nation is now eagerly waiting” to see the actions of the just installed interim government to arrange in the shortest possible time an election for restoration of democracy after the “ouster of the autocracy,” he said.
When questioned on some analysts’ fear that an immediate election could elect BNP with a huge majority due to the anti-incumbency and could likely give birth to “another autocracy,” he said, “if that happened, the future government would face the same (Hasina’s) fate.” “But even a political government has tenure and the interim government must have a time frame … our 31-point political framework for ‘repairing the country’ kept no scope for the reappearance of any autocracy,” Chowdhury said.
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