Dhaka: The Bangladesh Nationalist Party, the key rival of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Awami League, has expressed frustration with India providing refuge to the 76-year-old leader after she was compelled to resign and flee the country after widespread protests. A senior member of the party said it would be difficult to cooperate with India if it continues to support the 'enemy'.
India has shared a troubled relationship with the BNP in the past as it faced multiple problems, particularly related to cross-border terrorism, when the country was last in power. Anti-India activities and attacks on the Hindu community also grew significantly under the BNP and its possible return to power after the recent chaos has threatened India's progress in ties with Bangladesh under Hasina. Zia was recently freed from house arrest after the Awami League was ousted following the recent unrest.
Veteran BNP leader Gayeshwar Roy, who was a minister of the government led by his party in 1991 and is currently a member of BNP's standing committee, told an India media organisation his party believed in India and Bangladesh's mutual cooperation. However, he said, "Indian government will have to understand and behave in a manner which follows that spirit. But if you help our enemy then it becomes difficult for that mutual cooperation to be honoured."
BNP on being anti-Hindu, terrorism
Roy remarked that India is shouldering the burden of Sheikh Hasina’s liabilities. "While Indian and Bangladeshi people generally get along well, should India be backing just one party rather than the whole nation?" he added while answering to BNP's perceived anti-India stance. He also refuted reports of the party's perception as anti-minority and anti-Hindu.
"BNP comprises people from various communities in Bangladesh and supports all religions... BNP is a nationalist party but we believe in the individual rights of all communities, When I was a minister in 1991, I started the system of donations for Durga Puja, and no subsequent government has discontinued it," he further asserted.
When asked about terrorists using Bangladesh against India, the BNP leader said his country cannot be against India as it played a role significance in its independence. "We are a smaller country, we need India for many things including medical facilities, other goods for our people, which also generate substantial revenue for India from Bangladeshis," Roy further said.
BNP on alliance with Jamaat-e-Islami
Roy further said that the BNP does not share an ideological relationship with the Jamaat-e-Islami but a tactical one in connection with electoral politics. He also said the BNP does not have any ties with Jamaat, which was once in an official alliance with Sheikh Hasina's Awami League.
Hasina and Khaleda Zia, the central figures of Bangladesh, became fierce rivals after the removal of military rule in the early 1990s. Their ongoing rivalry, often called the “Battle of the Begums,” has overshadowed Bangladeshi politics for decades. After Zia's term ended and the BNP boycotted the election in 2008, her stature was largely diminished as she never regained power since.
At least 17 members of Bangladesh's interim government took their oath at a ceremony in Dhaka on Thursday, Nobel laureate Yunus was sworn in as the chief of a team comprising 15 advisers. Bangladesh's President Mohammed Shahabuddin administered the oath to Yunus for his role as chief advisor, which is the equivalent of a Prime Minister.
ALSO READ | Sheikh Hasina to return to strife-torn Bangladesh for next elections, says her son
ALSO READ | Is Bangladesh becoming the 'new Pakistan'? Some parallels between two politically-fragile countries
