Roving Periscope: PM Hasina leaves for a “safer place;” B’desh may return to the army rule

Virendra Pandit

New Delhi: When Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed, whose Awami League won a massive 288 of the 300 parliamentary seats to return to power for a fifth overall term in January 2024, disclosed a “plot” in May 2024 to carve out a Christian country from her homeland and adjoining Myanmar, the attempts to topple her government may have started.

Soon after the polls, Kamal Hossain, leader of the main Opposition alliance, declared the vote “farcical” and rejected the results, allegedly setting in motion the campaign to unseat the Hasina government.

The Supreme Court’s recent ruling to continue the job quotas granted to the descendants of the Mukti Bahini warriors of the 1971 Liberation War, fueled the latent fire. After the death of nearly 300 people in the “students’ agitation” that followed with support from Jamaat-e-Islami and other Islamist outfits, PM Hasina’s government appeared tottering on Monday.

According to the media reports, while PM Hasina, 76, left her residence in Dhaka for a “safer place,” Bangladesh army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman was set to address the nation after 98 people were killed in the deadliest riots after anti-government demonstrations on Sunday, triggering fears that the military boots may return to rule the Islamic nation once again.

“She and her sister have left Ganabhaban (the Prime Minister’s official residence) for a safer place,” reports quoted the sources as saying.

“She wanted to record a speech. But she could not get an opportunity to do that.”

In May, PM Hasina, who has been ruling Bangladesh since 2009, stirred a hornet’s nest by stating she was offered a hassle-free re-election if she allowed a “foreign country” to build an airbase in Bangladeshi territory, the media had reported.

Her party secured a fifth overall term in the largely one-sided election in January, which was boycotted by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) led by former PM Khalida Zia, wife of ex-army chief and dictator-president Ziaur Rehman (1977-81).

“If I allowed a certain country to build an airbase in Bangladesh, then I would have had no problem,” “The Daily Star” quoted PM Hasina as saying.

She, however, did not name the country that had made the offer to her but emphasized that the “offer came from a White man.”
“It may be aimed at only one country, but it is not. I know where else they intend to go,” she said, adding that this is why her Awami League party-led government is always in trouble.

“There will be more trouble. But don’t worry about it,” she said.

About her response to the “White man”, the PM said she made the same reply as she did in 2001 when the US offered to sell the country’s gas to India.

“I’ve clearly said that I’m the daughter of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. . . we won our Liberation War, I don’t want to come to power by renting part of the country or handing it over to some other country and I don’t need power,” she said.

PM Hasina said she would only come to power if the people wanted, and wouldn’t if they did not want her to be seen as the premier.
She said trade and commerce have been going on in the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean since ancient times.

“Many have their eyes on this place. There is no controversy in this place and no one has conflict in it. I won’t let that happen. This is also one of my crimes,” she said.

She said she was fighting a battle everywhere, both at home and abroad, and the “conspiracies are still on” to carve a new country out of Bangladesh.

“Like East Timor…they will carve out a Christian country, taking parts of Bangladesh (Chattogram) and Myanmar with a base in the Bay of Bengal,” Ms Hasina said without providing any details.

She said that conspiracies were being hatched to topple her government and that she might have to face the same consequences her father, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, had faced, “The Daily Star” reported.

The Bangabandhu was assassinated on August 15, 1975, along with most of his family members except for his two daughters, including Sheikh Hasina, who had been staying abroad at that time.

PM Hasina said that conspiracies did not bother her and she would never bow down to pressure.

Bangladesh would not purchase anything from countries that imposed sanctions on it, a top leader of the 14-party alliance quoted PM Hasina as saying in a closed-door meeting, the media reported.

According to some reports, the ‘proposed’ Christian country may include parts of Northeast India as well, particularly from the volatile Manipur and Mizoram. These fears emerged after a section of the US influencers supported the Christianized Kuki immigrants from Myanmar, who settled down on the hills of Manipur, and are struggling against the native Meitis for a separate state. These clashes led to dozens of deaths in the last one year.