India in a wait-and-watch mode, unlikely to press former Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina to leave early

New Delhi: Even as Sheikh Hasina’s prolonged stay in India may complicate its engagements with the emerging interim government in Bangladesh, New Delhi is unlikely to put any pressure on the former prime minister of the neighbouring country to leave immediately.

New Delhi has made it clear that Sheikh Hasina had asked for and had been granted approval to come to India “for the moment” after stepping down as the prime minister of Bangladesh on Monday. While her stay in an undisclosed location in the National Capital Region of India is being projected by the government as a temporary arrangement, New Delhi is unlikely to prod the Awami League supremo to shorten its duration.

India, according to the sources, would rather wait and watch if the interim government could hold on and restore normalcy in Bangladesh.

Sheikh Hasina’s plan to travel to the United Kingdom and the United States soon after arriving in New Delhi did not work, with the informal responses from London and Washington DC being less than welcoming. Her aides were purportedly in touch with the governments of Finland, Norway, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates as well as some Central Asian nations to work out her next destination.

The way Sheikh Hasina’s government responded to the agitation has undoubtedly made her extremely unpopular and created space for her opponents to regain political space in Bangladesh.

But New Delhi is keen to wait for some time more before giving up on her Awami League, which had played a key role in liberating East Pakistan into Bangladesh in 1971 and since shared a close bond with India, often drawing flak from its political rivals.

A source in New Delhi said that the Awami League should be given some more time before being considered a spent force in the politics of Bangladesh. Given India’s historic ties with Bangladesh, particularly with the Awami League and its first family, New Delhi would extend the due courtesy to Sheikh Hasina and make her feel welcome as long as she would be staying in the country, the source told DH on Wednesday.

Sheikh Hasina, her sister Sheikh Rehana, and some of her aides had flown onboard a military aircraft to the Indian Air Force base at Hindon near New Delhi on Monday – shortly before protesters stormed into her official residence – Gana Bhavan – in Dhaka.

Her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy was quoted by the Daily Star newspaper of Bangladesh that Sheikh Hasina would stay in India for a while.

Nobel laureate economist Mohammed Yunus, is likely to lead the interim government, which will also include representatives of the radical Jamaat-e-Islami and the Bangladesh National Party. 

New Delhi would not nudge Sheikh Hasina, the daughter of Bangladesh’s founder Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahaman, to cut short her stay in India, but would like her to decide on her next destination before any legal proceedings were initiated by the new interim government in Dhaka. Any request from Dhaka to New Delhi to send her back to stand trial in Bangladesh might put India in a tight spot, added the source.