According to The Washington Post, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi lobbied President Joe Biden, Washington toned down its criticism of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
The former PM’s strained relationship with the U.S. has fed into unsourced claims that Washington was behind her ouster.
Hasina and Biden had a frosty relationship
Each time the United States opposed her government on any front, Hasina interpreted it as a sign of an attempt to oust her from power.
Following the controversial January 7 elections, which were marked by low voter turnout and a boycott from the main opposition, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the U.S. government said that the polls were neither free nor fair. The U.S. State Department expressed concerns over reports of voting irregularities, condemned the violence that took place, and lamented the lack of participation of all political parties.
Even earlier, in November 2023, tensions between Bangladesh and the United States escalated, drawing international attention.
At that time, Hasina and the U.S. President Joe Biden were involved in a public dispute following large-scale protests in Bangladesh.
Opposition parties, clearly dissatisfied with the status quo, demanded Hasina’s resignation and the formation of a caretaker government to ensure fair elections in January. Hasina’s refusal to step down, naturally, led to a standoff.
The U.S. ambassador in Dhaka later met with Bangladesh’s chief election commissioner to emphasize the importance of transparent elections and to urge dialogue among all political parties.
Many media accounts have credited the toppling of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government almost entirely to a student-led uprising. Unmentioned are either the army’s role in the overthrow, including packing the corrupt and autocratic Hasina off to India, or the military’s return as the final arbiter in Bangladeshi national politics.
The appointment of Muhammad Yunus as the “chief adviser,” or the head of the interim administration, has only helped mask military rule. The 84-year-old Yunus, a longtime friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton, received the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for pioneering microcredit, or giving small loans to rural families to help alleviate poverty.
The duration and scope of the interim administration’s powers are undefined, so its advisers work essentially under the direction of the military brass, especially the army chief, Gen. Waker-uz-Zaman, the power behind the throne. The advisers include two students who led the protests, and two retired army generals, one of whom is tasked with restoring law and order in the country.
Student protests that killed thousands
Frustrated by shortages of stable jobs, students across the country have been demanding an end to a quota system that reserved 30 per cent of government jobs for relatives of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s War of Independence in 1971.
Protesters wanted to abolish this system, which they said was discriminatory and benefited supporters of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League Party, which led the independence movement.
They want it replaced with a merit-based system.
As the protests spread, mobile internet was cut, a curfew was imposed across the country, and the army and police were deployed.
This is the biggest challenge Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has faced since she won a historic fifth term in power in January.
Those elections were boycotted by the main opposition, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and were also marred by deadly protests.
Last month, Bangladesh’s Supreme Court scrapped most of the quotas and ordered 93 per cent of the government jobs to be allocated on merit.
But the protests have continued, now reflecting broader frustrations about the economy, corruption and the authoritarian turn under Ms Hasina’s government.
At least 32 children have died during student protests that engulfed Bangladesh last month, the UN’s children’s agency has said.
The youngest child killed had yet to turn five years old, a Unicef spokesperson said, adding that most of those who died were bystanders.
They were among more than 2000 people who were killed during demonstrations against job quotas in the civil service, according to figures verified by BBC Bangla.
Modi helped India’s corruption ring in Bangladesh
India has strong trade relations with Bangladesh, among its top 10 export destinations. In the last financial year, it sold goods including textiles, tea, coffee, auto parts, electricity, agriculture, iron, steel and plastics worth $11.1bn and imported readymade garments, leather and leather products, among other items, for $1.8bn.
When Hasina landed at an air force base near New Delhi, she was received by none other than Ajit Doval, the head of the Indian security establishment who oversees the external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), which has been accused of meddling in the internal affairs of Bangladesh and other neighbouring countries.
The events that led to Hasina’s overthrow are perceived as a major setback for India, which shared strong diplomatic and trade relations with Dhaka under Hasina, and in whom India had invested a lot in recent years.
Security cooperation increased between India and Bangladesh and Hasina helped India quell rebellion in the northeastern Indian state of Assam by refusing to provide safe refuge to rebels from across the border.
Although Hasina had an excellent relationship with China, too, she managed to convey to India that its interests came first. She had recently said, for example, that she preferred India over China for a $1bn river development project.
However, a deal struck between Hasina’s government and the Indian Adani Group in the power sector really tightened the relationship between India and Bangladesh.
The agreement would see Bangladesh receive coal-based power from a $1.7bn plant in Jharkhand, India. But the deal generated unease within the opposition, as Bangladesh would be paying higher tariffs than what it would pay for other sources.
Moreover, there was disquiet over the deal as any agreement with Adani was also seen to earn favour with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
With Hasina now out, India has lost influence in the country and it would prefer for there to be no elections for now. That may not happen with exiled BNP opposition leader Tarique Rahman due to return to Bangladesh, according to his party.
The US denied any role in ousting Hasina
The White House said on Monday that the United States had no role in ousting Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who recently quit her position and fled the South Asian nation. It called allegations of U.S. interference “simply false.”
The U.S. previously sanctioned Bangladesh Rapid Action Battalion, General Aziz Ahmed, for significant corruption and human rights violations, then completely stopped sanctioning the Hasina regime under pressure from Narendra Modi.
The US administration has sanctioned a Bangladeshi police unit, which, under the Awami League’s leader, was accused of carrying out extrajudicial kidnapping and killings and also threatened to impose visa limitations on Bangladeshis who undermined democracy or committed any human rights violations.
“We have had no involvement at all. Any reports or rumors that the United States government was involved in these events is simply false,” White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said at a press briefing about reported claims of U.S. involvement.
Hasina went to New Delhi after leaving Bangladesh, ending her uninterrupted rule of 15 years.
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