Bangladesh's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) has sharply criticised India after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina used a public platform in New Delhi to accuse Bangladesh's current leadership of dismantling democracy and carrying forward what she described as the political agenda of the country's former interim administration.
In a strongly worded statement issued after Hasina's address to the Foreign Correspondents' Club of South Asia, the Ministry accused India of allowing its territory to be used for an attack on Bangladesh's sovereignty and warned that the event could undermine efforts to improve bilateral ties.
'Bangladesh is outraged that the absconding convicted genocider Sheikh Hasina was allowed this evening to engage in live interaction with the media in New Delhi where she and her henchmen launched venomous vitriol against the State of Bangladesh and her people,' the statement said.
The Ministry said Dhaka had conveyed its concerns to New Delhi before the event because of its potential impact on bilateral relations. It described Hasina's appearance on the second anniversary of the July Revolution as 'an affront to the sovereignty of Bangladesh and a grievous insult to the martyrs of the July Revolution.'
Rejecting Hasina's account of the July-August 2024 violence, the Ministry accused her of denying findings established by the United Nations on civilian deaths during the unrest.
It also renewed Bangladesh's request for her extradition under the 2013 India-Bangladesh Extradition Treaty, saying New Delhi had yet to respond.
Relations between India and Bangladesh have remained under strain since Hasina fled to India after being removed from office in August 2024. Bangladesh has repeatedly sought her return to face legal proceedings, while India has not publicly commented on the extradition requests.
Hasina's address was her most detailed public intervention since leaving Bangladesh and appeared intended to reassert her political relevance as the Awami League seeks to rebuild after two years out of power.
Speaking by telephone to a packed auditorium at the FCCSA, she addressed an audience that included Indian and foreign journalists, diplomats, academics, former Awami League ministers and political associates. Her son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, joined virtually from the United States, along with several senior Awami League leaders.
Before introducing Hasina, FCCSA President Dr. Waiel Awwad said the Club's decision to host the event reflected its commitment to free expression.
'This is an attempt by the Club to give everyone a free voice,' he said, adding there had been 'no pressure from anyone either to allow or to bar' the event.
Hasina also challenged the accepted narrative of the protests that ended her government, insisting they had evolved from a student movement over public sector job quotas into a coordinated operation to overthrow an elected administration.
'My government chose dialogue. We chose patience. We chose a peaceful path,' she said, arguing that 'organised groups used their movement as cover for violence and regime change.'
She defended the actions of Bangladesh's security forces during the unrest, saying every state had a duty to protect public institutions.
'When police stations are burned, government buildings are attacked, public infrastructure is destroyed, officers are killed and weapons are looted, does the state have no duty to protect lives and property?' she asked.
Although much of her criticism was directed at Bangladesh's current BNP-led government, Hasina argued that it was continuing the policies introduced by the interim administration headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus.
She accused the Yunus administration of halting judicial inquiries into the 2024 violence.
'They did not want justice. They wanted power. They did not want investigation. They wanted the evidence buried,' she said.
Referring to Yunus' reported remarks about pressing a 'reset button' on Bangladesh's history, Hasina claimed the country's post-2024 leadership was attempting to erase the legacy of the Liberation War and Bangladesh's founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
'They want to erase the Liberation War. They want to erase Bangabandhu. They want to rewrite Bangladesh against the foundation on which it was born.'
She also accused the current government of pursuing Awami League leaders and supporters through politically motivated arrests and prosecutions while presiding over economic decline, rising unemployment and growing insecurity.
Contrasting the present with her own record, Hasina cited projects such as the Padma Bridge, Dhaka Metro Rail, the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant and the Karnaphuli Tunnel as evidence of what she said had been Bangladesh's economic transformation under Awami League governments.
In one of the speech's sharpest passages, she challenged those who had welcomed her removal from office.
'So today I ask those who celebrated my departure: what did you actually get? Did you get democracy? Did you get security? Did you get freedom of expression? Have prices come down? Are women safe? Are children safe? Are minorities safe?'
Hasina ended by declaring that she would return to Bangladesh despite the possibility of imprisonment.
'I may be detained. I may be sent to prison. They may try to enforce verdicts issued in fabricated cases. But fear cannot decide my duty to the people.'
Ending with the slogans 'Joy Bangla' and 'Joy Bangabandhu,' Hasina cast her return not as a bid to regain office but as an effort to restore what she called Bangladesh's democratic and developmental path.
The speech and Dhaka's immediate response underscore how Hasina's continued presence in India remains one of the most sensitive issues in India-Bangladesh relations, with her first major public appearance in exile now spilling directly into the diplomatic relationship between the two neighbours.