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[🇧🇩] The Nexus Between Awami League and India

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G Bangladesh Defense Forum

India pressed US to go easy on Hasina: report

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PHOTO: FIROZ AHMED

A year before she was deposed on August 5 in a student uprising, Indian officials began to lobby their US counterparts to stop pressuring Sheikh Hasina, the ironfisted prime minister of neighboring Bangladesh, The Washington Post said quoting US and Indian officials.

According to its report, US diplomats had publicly harangued the 76-year-old Hasina for jailing thousands of her rivals and critics ahead of an election scheduled for last January. The Biden administration had sanctioned a Bangladeshi police unit under Hasina's command accused of carrying out extrajudicial abductions and killings and had threatened imposing visa restrictions on Bangladeshis who undermined democracy or committed human rights abuses.

But in a series of meetings, Indian officials demanded that the United States tone down its pro-democracy rhetoric. If the opposition were allowed to gain power in an open election, Indian officials argued, Bangladesh would become a breeding ground for Islamist groups posing a threat to India's national security.

"You approach it at the level of democracy, but for us, the issues are much, much more serious and existential," said an Indian government adviser who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private talks. "There were a lot of conversations with the Americans where we said, 'This is a core concern for us, and you can't take us as a strategic partner unless we have some kind of strategic consensus.'"

Ultimately, the Biden administration substantially softened its criticism and shelved threats of further sanctions against Hasina's government, disappointing many in Bangladesh. US officials say it was a calculated decision that had little to do with Indian pressure. Many details of the bilateral discussions and US deliberations have not been reported previously.

Now, after protesters defied the army's curfew orders and marched on Hasina's official residence, compelling her to flee to India, policymakers in both New Delhi and Washington are forced to confront whether they mishandled Bangladesh.

"There is always a balancing act in Bangladesh, as there is in many places where the situation on the ground is complicated and you want to work with the partners you have in a way that is not inconsistent with what the American people expect," said a US official, who like several others interviewed spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter's diplomatic sensitivity.

In the months leading up to the January election, divisions emerged within the US government over how to handle Bangladesh. Some in the US State Department, including then-Ambassador Peter Haas and other embassy officials, argued for a tougher stance against Hasina, particularly since President Joe Biden had campaigned on a foreign policy plank of restoring democracy, people familiar with the matter said. Haas, who has since retired, declined to comment.

Other US officials felt there was little to be gained from further alienating Hasina and risking the safety of US diplomats, including Haas, who had received threats from Hasina's followers.

Some White House officials also considered the downside of antagonising India, which made a series of appeals to the US that it moderate its pressure on Hasina, including when Indian Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar and Defense Minister Rajnath Singh met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in November in New Delhi, according to the people familiar with the matter. Indian national security adviser Ajit Doval also played a key role in presenting the Indian case during a visit to Washington that autumn, one of those people said.

For India, the dramatic developments in Bangladesh have turned a spotlight on its decade-long, all-in bet on Hasina, even as she grew autocratic and unpopular. For the United States, the episode has highlighted a growing dilemma: While India is seen by the Biden administration as a crucial partner in countering China, India itself is increasingly viewed by its smaller neighbors in South Asia as a meddling, aggressively nationalist power under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In January, after Hasina claimed victory in a one-sided election with many of her opponents in jail or in hiding, Indian officials endorsed the election results, fueling calls from the Bangladeshi opposition for a boycott of Indian imports. Last year, in the tiny Indian Ocean country of the Maldives, Mohamed Muizzu rose to power as president by campaigning on an "India Out" platform. And in Sri Lanka, anti-Indian sentiment flared this year after Modi claimed on the campaign trail that his opponents gave India's rightful territory cheaply away to Sri Lanka.

"The US has built its relationship with India and has this tendency to defer to its wishes in the region, and probably nowhere was that more evident than Bangladesh," said Jon Danilowicz, a retired US diplomat who served as deputy chief of mission in Dhaka. "But the risk is like Iran 1979: If you're seen as colluding with the dictator, when the dictator falls, you're left playing catch-up." (The United States strongly backed the autocratic shah of Iran before he was overthrown during the Islamic Revolution.)

Now, Danilowicz added, "New Delhi and Washington have to show some humility and acknowledge they got Bangladesh wrong by not siding with the Bangladeshi people and their democratic aspirations."

After Hasina's ouster, which followed weeks of unrest in which hundreds of protesters were killed, Indian officials have publicly changed tack and expressed willingness to work with whoever comes to power. Last week, Modi sent his "best wishes" to Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Prize-winning banker who took charge of Bangladesh's interim government, even though he criticised India for backing Hasina. Yunus has called for new, free and fair elections once stability is restored in the country.

The State Department endorsed Yunus, with spokesman Matthew Miller saying the United States hoped to see "the Bangladeshi people decide the future of the Bangladeshi government."

Aside from the United States, India had simultaneously warned other Western governments about the dangers of the opposition Bangladeshi Nationalist Party (BNP) returning to power. "It was intense," recalled an official from a Western country allied with the United States. "They started briefing Western governments that Bangladesh could become the next Afghanistan, that the BNP could lead to instability, violence and terror."

Indian officials say they have reason to feel burned by the Bangladeshi opposition. During the rule of Hasina's rivals, the BNP, in the mid-2000s, militants smuggled weapons to attack northeast India and trained in camps inside Bangladesh with the help of Pakistani intelligence, Indian officials say. Indian and US officials say this experience with BNP rule explained why India had been so adamant on keeping Hasina in power for 15 years.

BNP leaders, who could win if elections are soon held, say they have met Indian officials in recent years to mend ties and assure them that India — and Hindus in Bangladesh — would be safe if India stopped propping up Hasina and the BNP returned.

"We've been in touch with India, trying to tell them, 'Don't put all your eggs in one basket,'" said Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, a senior BNP leader. "We have tried to assuage whatever concerns India has. It would be stupid for both sides to carry the baggage of the past."

As India grapples with the shock of suddenly losing one of its closest allies, Indian foreign policy circles and media have been awash with speculation that Washington orchestrated the removal of Hasina, who has long had a chilly relationship with the United States. US officials have staunchly denied the claim.

Others in New Delhi say India was to blame for propping up an autocrat for so long. A former senior Indian national security official said it made sense, in theory, to support Hasina, but New Delhi did not grasp the situation on the ground.

"Everybody who came from Dhaka were giving the same feedback that anti-India feelings are at an unprecedented level, yet we calculated that she has full control over the administrative and coercive arms of the state," the former Indian official said. "We thought repeated attempts to destabilise the government have failed, so she will manage again. The truth is, the whole thing just needed a spark to set the whole house on fire."​
 

Ex-Bangladesh PM Hasina becomes diplomatic headache for India
Agence France-Presse . New Delhi 02 September, 2024, 22:27

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Sheikh Hasina. | File photo.

Four weeks after ex-premier Sheikh Hasina fled Bangladesh by helicopter during a student-led revolution, analysts say she has become a diplomatic headache for her hosts in India.

Hasina’s iron-fisted tenure came to an end last month as protesters marched on her palace in Dhaka after 15 years characterised by rights abuses and opposition crackdowns.


Bangladeshi students who led the uprising are demanding she return from India, her biggest benefactor before her ouster, to be tried for the killing of protesters during the revolt.

But sending the 76-year-old back risks undermining India’s standing with its other neighbours in South Asia, where it is waging a fierce battle for influence with China.

‘India is clearly not going to want to extradite her back to Bangladesh,’ said Thomas Kean of the conflict resolution think-tank International Crisis Group.

‘The message that would send to other leaders in the region who are close to New Delhi would not be a very positive one that ultimately, India will not protect you,’ he said.

New Delhi last year saw its preferred presidential candidate in the Maldives lose to a rival that immediately tilted the strategically placed luxury tourism destination towards Beijing.

Hasina’s toppling lost India its closest ally in the region.

Those who suffered under Hasina in Bangladesh are openly hostile to India for the abuses committed by her government.

That hostility has smouldered through megaphone diplomacy waged by Hindu-nationalist Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and directed towards Bangladesh’s caretaker administration.

Modi has pledged support for the government that replaced Hasina, led by 84-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhummad Yunus.

But Modi, who has made championing the Hindu faith a key plank of his tenure, has also repeatedly urged Yunus’s administration to protect Bangladesh’s Hindu religious minority.

Hasina’s Awami League was considered to be more protective of Bangladesh’s Hindu minority than the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

Modi used his annual Independence Day address from atop the 17th century Red Fort to suggest Bangladeshi Hindus were in danger, and later raised the matter with US president Joe Biden.

Some Bangladeshi Hindus and Hindu temples were targeted in the chaos that followed Hasina’s departure in attacks that were condemned by student leaders and the interim government.

But wildly exaggerated accounts of the violence were later reported by pro-government Indian news channels and sparked protests by Hindu activist groups loosely affiliated with Modi’s party.

Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, a top leader of the BNP, said India had put ‘all its fruit in one basket’ by backing Hasina, and did not know how to reverse course.

‘The people of Bangladesh want a good relationship with India, but not at the cost of their interests,’ Alamgir, one of thousands of BNP members arrested during Hasina’s tenure, said.

‘The attitude of India unfortunately is not conducive to creating confidence.’

Such is the atmosphere of distrust, when deadly floods washed through both countries in August some Bangladeshis blamed India for the deaths that resulted.

Bangladesh’s interim government has not publicly raised the issue of Hasina taking refuge in India with New Delhi — her last official whereabouts is a military airbase near the capital — but Dhaka has revoked her diplomatic passport, preventing her from travelling onwards.

The countries have a bilateral extradition treaty first signed in 2013 which would permit her return to face criminal trial.

A clause in the treaty, however, says extradition might be refused if the offence is of a ‘political character’.

India’s former ambassador to Bangladesh, Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty, said that the bilateral relationship is too important for Dhaka to sour it by pressing for Hasina’s return.

‘Any mature government will realise that making an issue out of Hasina staying in India is not going to give them any benefits,’ he said.​
 

India wants AL in power to dominate Bangladesh: Rizvi
FE Online Desk
Published :
Oct 13, 2024 22:25
Updated :
Oct 13, 2024 22:41

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Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed on Sunday said India wants Awami League (AL) and its cohorts in power to dominate Bangladesh.

"In the recent past, whatever Bangladesh said, India echoed the same thing that it wants AL and its cohorts in power so that it can dominate Bangladesh. India does not need support and friendship of Bangladesh and its people," he said.

Rizvi was talking to the journalists after paying tributes to BNP founder Shaheed President Ziaur Rahman by placing wreaths at his grave at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, BSS reports.

Flanked by many BNP leaders-activists including BNP Chairperson’s Adviser M A Maleque, he also offered fateha there seeking eternal peace of the departed soul of Ziaur Rahman.

He said India made tyrant and democracy-killer Sheikh Hasina as their guest in Delhi.

India showed its hatred towards the people of Bangladesh when it was seen that teenager Swarna Das, hailed from Moulvibazar, and Felani Khatun were shot dead by Border Security Force (BSF).

But, on the other hand, so many leaders of AL easily crossed the Bangladesh's border and reached India, he said, adding that AL leaders were seen shopping in Indian markets and someone is visiting the Mazar of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya in India.

Thus, it has been proven that, India's policymakers do not like people of Bangladesh rather they likes AL and its leaders, he added.

People like AL leaders and AL-backed police, including Shamim Osman and additional inspector general of the Bangladesh Police Monirul Islam are visiting many places in India so easily that creates impression that these people may not need passport and Indian visa, he added.

But, when it comes to normal citizens of Bangladesh, they (Bangladeshis) need visa, passport and also they need to maintain many procedures, Rizvi added.

He said Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) forcibly disappeared one of the BNP standing committee members for two months and then he was found in India.
India did not spare him instead he faced cases and later, was sent to jail there, he said.

Criticizing India’s partiality, he said that India played one-sided policy with Bangladeshi people except AL and its cohorts.

About Durga Puja, he said it was heard that the neighboring country thought Durga Puja would not be celebrated peacefully in Bangladesh.

He said in various ways, media and policy makers of the neighboring country wanted to tarnish the image of Bangladesh raising question about the harmony among the people of the country (Bangladesh).

However, the Bijaya Dashami of Durga Puja was celebrated peacefully because the communal harmony always prevails in this country, he added.

Besides, BNP, its allied organizations and other parties sincerely tried to maintain stability during the Durga Puja festival such as they guarded mandirs and puja mandaps round the clock, he said.

Whereas, during the regime of AL, the agents of killer Hasina attacked brutally mandirs and puja mandaps but shifted blame to BNP and other organizations, he said.

Mentioning that BNP Chairperson's Adviser and the United Kingdom (UK) unit BNP leader M A Maleque recently came back to the country, Rizvi said Maleque could not return to Bangladesh for 17 years because he always protested the misrule of Hasina, who is a symbols of fascism, cruelty and misrule, when she went to visit European countries.

Staying abroad, Maleque came to the streets, waged movement and criticized Hasina's oppressions towards her people by taking away their democratic rights, he said.

Due to dedicated leaders of BNP like Maleque, the oppression, misrule and torture of Hasina, who became Prime Minister without people's mandate, were highlighted before the international arena, he added.​
 

Mohiuddin Ahmed’s column
Awami League’s politics rings hollow

India’s political forces want Bangladesh to remain subservient to them. Hasina had been fulfilling this for the past 15 years. She had no love for the country, only love for power. She gave India whatever they wanted. In fact, she even gave them what they hadn’t asked for

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RMG workers demonstrate, attack police line and block highway in Gazipur Prothom Alo

The talk of the town this week was Awami League’s sudden announcement of a programme to take to the streets. A recording of a phone call went viral on social media, though it has not been ascertained whether it was actually Sheikh Hasina speaking. In the past we’ve seen technology being used to modify voices on social media.

Anyhow, many Awami Leaguers sitting abroad have been using Facebook and YouTube to spread all sorts of propaganda. Awami League’s Facebook page announced that they would hold a showdown on 10 November, Noor Hossain Day.

Noor Hossain was martyred during the anti-Ershad movement. Awami League was not in that movement alone. Three alliances were in that movement and so was Jamaat-e-Islami. In our country if anyone dies in a movement, all the parties claim proprietorship. Various parties claimed they owned Noor Hossain too. Later it was found out that he was a Jubo League leader in his locality and so he was Awami League property!

Using Noor Hossain Day to take to the streets is sheer hypocrisy on the part of Awami League, the party that was topped in the student-people’s uprising. It is a sheer duplicity. Noor Hossain was shot dead by the police during Ershad’s rule. Many would call Ershad a ‘killer’ back then. Yet we watched in amazement how that very same Ershad became Awami League’s best friend. Sheikh Hasina herself made Ershad a special envoy. She fully rehabilitated him in politics.

Goebbels was like an infant compared to those who ran the information ministry during Awami League’s rule. They churned out huge amounts of lies, propaganda and rumours.

Awami League was looking for a chance. They tried to use Noor Hossain Day to take to the streets. But this was just a hollow sound of Awami League.

Goebbels was like an infant compared to those who ran the information ministry during Awami League’s rule. They churned out huge amounts of lies, propaganda and rumours. If they were criticised, they would use their laws to arrest dissenters on charges of spreading rumours, they would punish them, even subject them to enforced disappearance.

After 5 August social media has been running rife with rumours. They even spread the rumour that Bangladesh flag wasn’t raised during the in the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Those spreading such rumours are of little intelligence. And those who believe all this, are simply fools.

We saw so many rumours about Saint Martin’s island too. I worked as a consultant for a water resources ministry project in 2004-05. The project was about coastal region planning and it came up with several recommendations to protect the biodiversity of the coastal region. The government gave its approval. Long before that project, quite a few areas including Saint Martin’s were declared to be endangered zones.

Who will India groom up after Hasina? In recent times we see certain leaders of BNP desperate for the election to be held

Saint Martin’s is a small island with limited fresh water sources. Unplanned tourism is pushing the island towards destruction. We had recommended controlled tourism at Saint Martin’s. And effort was started up to control tourists, but when Awami League came to power the project was abandoned. Now with the interim government at the helm, considerations are being made about protecting Saint Martin’s island. And Awami Leaguers are spreading the rumour that the island is being handed over to the US. This is cheap propaganda.

In the meantime, Sheikh Hasina who fled to India is saying all sorts of things. Hasina’s spokesperson is her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy. No other leader of her party is visible. This proves that Awami League is completely a one-family party. But the party also had a lot of slavish loyalists. A group of opportunist cronies was formed over the years. These people sold their souls to Awami League in exchange of posts, jobs, plots of land or bank loans. It is only natural that the intellectuals, journalists, university teachers, bureaucrats, police and persons in the administration, of the Awami League camp, will not try to muddy the waters.

The reaction to Awami League’s announcement of a gathering was that on 10 November all anti-Awami League forces including BNP, Students against Discrimination and others, took to the streets. They paid attention t the matter. But I feel they over reacted. Awami League’s announcement proved to be a damp squib. We did see a few being beaten up. We have no idea what they were doing there.

Some India media had headlines reading, “Yunus’ men assault Trump supporters.” Since after 5 August, some news media in India have been continuously reporting in favour of Sheikh Hasina and against the Yunus government. Much of this is misinformation. There is a consensus about India’s left, right and centre political parties about keeping Bangladesh in control. India’s political forces want Bangladesh to remain subservient to them. Hasina had been fulfilling this for the past 15 years. She had no love for the country, only love for power. She gave India whatever they wanted. In fact, she even gave them what they hadn’t asked for. Sheikh Hasina’s children live abroad. She used Bangladesh to wield her power and for her underlings to loot and plunder.

What possibility is there of Sheikh Hasina returning to politics? There is some possibility is India becomes aggressive in this regard. We have seen at various times how India grooms some of its agents. At one time they groomed Hussain Muhammad Ershad. Ershad was in power for 10 years. Even after being toppled in a mass uprising, he remained staunch in politics till death. India used Jatiya Party as their buffer. At one time JSD was called India’s “second defence line”, though this was spread by pro-Peking political parties.

The question now is, who will India groom up after Hasina? In recent times we see certain leaders of BNP desperate for the election to be held. BNP had seen a downfall after 1/11. After that, they tried to win India’s favour.

BNP’s top leader Khaleda Zia visited India in 2012. She met with India’s prime minister, president and opposition leaders. BNP tired t convey the message that they no longer nurtured their previous hard-line against India. BNP can be an alternative to Awami League. India would have no problems if they went to power.

Given past experience, there can very well be suspicions of a political game. The debate that looms large at present is, which comes first, reforms or the election? The government says that the commissions that they have formed will submit her reports within three months. Then they will hold dialogue with the political parties. BNP is a big party and is upbeat about the election. They can wait for some time more. Why do they repeat themselves time and again at press briefings and rallies?

What does BNP want? Some within BNP contend that reforms are the task of an elected government. But the thing is, it has been seen that elected governments do not carry out reforms. On one hand the Awami League leaders and activists are talking big from their hiding places. On the other hand, BNP and other political parties are becoming restive. Then again, certain advisors of the government seem to have become a bit inactive. There are apprehensions that the people may grow frustrated. If the people are frustrated, the political waters will become murkier.

* Mohiuddin Ahmad is a writer and researcher​
 

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