Exclusive: Returning to Bangladesh is not about power but standing by the people, says former PM Sheikh Hasina

Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina says she will return to her country by December, arguing that her return is about standing with the people rather than regaining power.

In her first telephone interview with Indian media, Hasina challenged the Bangladesh Nationalist Party government’s decision to link her extradition to a possible visit to New Delhi by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman. Speaking to Hindustan Times from an unspecified location, she said she had addressed a press conference at an international forum and questioned why that should affect relations between Bangladesh and India.

Hasina also drew a comparison with Rahman’s political activities in London. She said Rahman had undertaken not to engage in politics when he left Bangladesh for Britain in 2007, but later participated in political and party meetings by video conference. Hasina said she had never asked the British government to prevent him from doing so.

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I am going back to my own country. I have to return to my country, to my own people.

She accused the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus, followed by the BNP government, of persecuting Awami League leaders and supporters. She alleged that homes had been attacked, people killed, arrests and cases had taken place daily, and men, women and elderly people had been assaulted and harassed. She cited the killing of four members of a family in Rangpur and the killing of a youth-wing member in Bogura as examples.

“I am going back to my own country,” Hasina said. “I have to return to my country, to my own people.” She argued that relations between India and Bangladesh are harmed not by truth, but by the destruction of democracy, the rise of extremism, insecurity among minorities, risks to regional security and the use of state institutions for political revenge.

Hasina also questioned the BNP government’s decision to pursue a $2.3 billion deal for Chinese combat jets while Bangladesh faces electricity and gas shortages, fertilizer shortages and a cost-of-living crisis. She said a stable, democratic, secular and development-oriented Bangladesh matters to India’s security as well as to Bangladesh.

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India-Bangladesh relations are not damaged by truth. They are damaged when democracy is destroyed, extremism is allowed to rise, minorities feel unsafe, regional security is put at risk, and state institutions are used for political revenge.