The ousted Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, is currently in India, while the siege against her colleagues in Bangladesh is getting tighter. The pro-Indian Sheikh Hasina used force to suppress protests against the quota system and 300 people died. Now the American Broadcasting Corporation has revealed that India had approached the US to give concessions to Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh.
According to the Washington Post report, a year before the Prime Minister resigned and fled the country, Indian officials contacted American officials to reduce pressure on Sheikh Hasina Wajid, and this has been confirmed by Indian and American officials.
It should be noted that the 76-year-old Sheikh Hasina had imprisoned thousands of people, including her political rivals and critics, in the January 2024 general elections, which was criticized by US officials.
The US administration had imposed sanctions on a Bangladeshi police unit led by Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League leaders who carried out extrajudicial killings and kidnappings. Apart from this, the United States had also threatened to impose a limited ban on Bangladeshi visas for violating human rights and democratic values.
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During several high-level meetings, Indian officials urged the US to moderate its pro-democracy rhetoric regarding Bangladesh. They said that if the opposition wins power through open elections, it could make Bangladesh a hotbed of Islamist groups and thus pose a threat to India’s national security.
“You approach it at the level of democracy, but for us the issues are much more serious,” said an Indian official speaking to The Washington Post on condition of anonymity.
He added that there were many discussions with the Americans where we said, ‘This is of primary concern to us, and you cannot take us as a strategic partner until we have some sort of strategic There should be no consensus.’
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This led the Biden administration to tone down its criticism and restrain itself from threatening further sanctions against Sheikh Hasina’s government. Which disappointed many Bangladeshis, but according to the report, US officials said that it was a move related to Indian lobbying.