Sheikh Hasina, the deposed Prime Minister of Bangladesh who had to flee the country after the job quota protests intensified and transformed into a clarion call for her removal as the country's head of state, resigned and came to India in a military helicopter, and per multiple media reports, will soon travel to London for asylum.
Her fall has been nothing short of a Shakesperean tragedy. Once hailed as the harbinger of democracy and a staunch supporter of governing the country on secular lines, she is now a 'dictator' in the public's eyes, whose fall from power is being seen as a fresh start for the South Asian country that has lost around 300 lives in the job quota protests.
Follow latest updates on the Bangladesh crisis right here!
Hasina, who was labelled "a dictator, a general, controlling everything" by Nobel Laureate Mohammad Yunus in an interview with The Print, had also jailed her chief political opponent and leader of the Bangladeshi Nationalist Party Khaleda Zia after a corruption trial (which was called "a political ploy to remove the leader of the opposition from the electoral process" by the US)
Even before Zia, Tarique Rahman, her son with former Bangladesh President Ziaur Rahman, was convicted in a 2004 grenade attack case that injured Hasina and took the lives of 24 Awami League supporters. These charges led to Tarique fleeing the country and taking asylum in the United Kingdom. His official reason for leaving Bangladesh was medical treatment.
Now, post the deposition of her government, the tables have turned on Sheikh Hasina. She now is looking for a safe haven which will ensure she does not meet the same fate as her father or of Mujibur's assassins, a number of whom were sentenced to death once she came to power. And it is London once again which is emerging as the numero uno place to offer shelter to the 76-year-old. Reports suggest that she might also go to Finland from India where she is currently at, since New Delhi might not want to keep her long, which could in turn disturb India's relationship with it's neighbouring country's new government.
With Hasina now out of the picture and the President of Bangladesh ordering the release of Khaleda Zia from prison, the BNP will look to capture the political narrative in the country. Tarique, who reportedly took the interview of the party's nomination seekers for the 2018 national elections through Skype, can also now return home.
Published 06 August 2024, 06:05 IST