Indo-US Consensus on Hasina: Absurd Claim Sends a Boat Sailing Up a Mountain

 Mobayedur Rahman

An English proverb says, “A drowning man catches at a straw.” A person sinking in deep water will try to grab even a small piece of grass to survive. The Awami League is in this state today. The party sinks further each day, so it grabs at anything it sees before it goes under completely.

This is not the first time we hear that Ms. Sheikh Hasina will return home. She said only recently that she would return by December. She has said this many times before, and her mentors, the Indian authorities and Indian media, have said it even more often. In my personal view, the Indians are ruining her mind day after day, and the Indian media is making it worse.

Senior journalists such as Mr. Goutam Lahiri, former president of the Delhi Press Club, Mr. Subir Bhowmik, a former BBC journalist, Mr. Chandan Nandi, chief correspondent of North East, and Mr. Amal Roy, executive editor of The Wall, run campaigns day and night. Their claims could unsettle any healthy mind. Some say the Awami League has 40 percent support, and others say 20 percent. They also say that the misdeeds and corruption of the government of Dr. Mr. Yunus in one and a half years went beyond Ms. Sheikh Hasina’s fifteen years.

When BNP took power, these voices first went soft on the BNP government. They thought the government of PM Mr. Tarique Rahman might let the Awami League do politics. They even said openly that the government would go easy on the Awami League to stop Jamaat e Islami and other Islamic forces, whom they call militant forces.

In the early days, Awami League offices suddenly opened in some places. Some offices raised the party flag, and in some places ten or fifteen Awami leaders and workers held quick marches. The Indian media blew these events out of proportion. They said the popularity of the government of PM Mr. Tarique Rahman was falling and the Awami League was rising.

Some YouTubers in Bangladesh fuel these wild stories from Indian media. You know some of them. I will not name them, because I do not want to make them more popular.

Now Indian supporters and their Bangladeshi followers have a new slogan. They say America and India have reached an understanding. Earlier, they claimed that the American Deep State caused the July revolution in Bangladesh, which they call the July movement.

Media outlets that back the BJP go even further. They say that Al Qaeda and Pakistan’s Lashkar e Taiba carried out the “sabotage” during the July movement. They claim these groups entered the marches. India has had no military coup in the past 78 years, and it has held regular elections.

Unlike Bangladesh, India has no record of a language movement, an autonomy movement, the mass uprising of 1969, a liberation war, the mass uprising of 1990, or the July revolution of 2024. So they do not know what a mass uprising or revolution really is. When people pour onto the streets like a flood that breaks its dam, terror and foreign hands become useless.

Indians hold elections, and those elections do reflect public opinion. But what people call “The awful majesty of the people” shows itself in a mass uprising or revolution. Because they have no experience of this, they search for a foreign hand behind every movement in Bangladesh.

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This same India once cursed America, saying the American Deep State ousted Ms. Sheikh Hasina from power. Before that, India used to boss Bangladesh around. But during the July revolution, America did not let India interfere in Bangladesh’s affairs.

That same Indian media now sings a new tune. The writer recalls a famous song by Ms. Protima Bandopadhyay, in which a foreign bird begins to sing in a grove of champa trees. In the same way, Indians now sing that America and India have come together on Ms. Sheikh Hasina and the Awami League.

On Sunday, September 27, Indian media and several Bangladeshi newspapers printed a claim. They said a senior officer of the American State Department stated that India and Bangladesh will sit together and decide whether Ms. Sheikh Hasina returns or whether the Awami League can do politics.

What can I say? I recall Rabindranath’s line in Hingting Chhot about an old idea being sold as a new discovery. Some Indians have always had fertile minds. But those minds read only the headline and draw conclusions. They do not read the story closely. So what did the Americans really say? Let us read the original report.

On Sunday, September 27, The Daily Star ran a report on this matter. Its second headline read, “Washington Signals confidence in BNP, frustrating AL loyalists.” The report said a senior US State Department official briefed journalists last Friday, September 25. The briefing was titled “US Policy in Support of a Stable, Prosperous, and Sovereign South Asia.”

Dear reader, note that the briefing covered South Asia as a whole. Journalists asked questions afterward, and Bangladesh came up. A reporter asked the senior official about Ms. Sheikh Hasina. The official replied that America has taken no formal position on this matter.

He said America knows the issue has become a major dispute between Bangladesh and India. So America hopes the two countries will talk and reach a solution on their own. He said America has not decided anything specific about Ms. Hasina.

The Daily Star wrote that many people expected much more from America on this issue. But the Hasina issue is the thorn in the relations between Bangladesh and India, so the two countries should solve it. Note that America did not lean toward either side.

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The officer was then asked about the ban on Awami League activities. He said this is an internal matter of Bangladesh. He said America now has deep ties with Bangladesh. He noted that America recently signed a deal with Bangladesh on buying Boeing aircraft, and also signed a civil nuclear agreement. He said Washington wants to work with the elected government in Dhaka.

The officer said the American government has excellent ties with BNP and with the BNP government. He said he did not want to comment on Bangladesh’s internal affairs. He said America wants to work with the elected government. He added that the US government strongly backs the Bangladesh government’s efforts to make the country safe and strong. He said America will make every effort to help Bangladesh grow more prosperous, so this is not the time to comment on internal matters.

The American statement contained no request that BNP allow others to do politics without disruption. It also contained no request that BNP soften its stance. According to The Daily Star, the officer’s words will strengthen BNP’s position. They will also disappoint more Awami League workers who are trying to lift the ban on their party.

After BNP came to power under PM Mr. Tarique Rahman, there was a small hope of better ties between Bangladesh and India. Nearly all Indian media, along with their Bangladeshi followers, now spread twisted and false propaganda. This propaganda is killing even that small hope.

Only recently, they claimed that work was going on behind the scenes for a visit by PM Mr. Tarique Rahman to India. But on Sunday evening, September 27, while I wrote this column, I saw news of a different plan. PM Mr. Tarique Rahman will visit three countries in October and November. These countries are Japan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

What Bangladesh and India need most right now to improve their relations is a change of heart in India. Its habit of acting like a big brother will destroy even the faintest chance of better ties.