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Revealing the Bigger Picture Behind Bangladesh's Unrest

21:49, 7 August 2024
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Pawan Atri
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With Sheikh Hasina ruling the roost in Bangladesh, India was guaranteed one stable border in its East. But with the powerful leader now gone, New Delhi's concerns appear to have escalated in the region. Sputnik India tries to find out what was behind the Bangladeshi PM's exit.
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A US plot was behind Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's overthrow and the entire operation was pretty well planned, strategic affairs experts have told Sputnik India.

"Definitely, there was a US plot behind Hasina's ouster from power," Shantanu Mukharji, a former member of India's elite Special Protection Group (SPG), who oversaw security for four Indian Prime Ministers, including Rajiv Gandhi, said in a conversation with Sputnik India on Wednesday.

With the ground reality in Bangladesh taking a 360-degree turn, particularly after President Mohammed Shahabuddin ordered the release of former Prime Minister and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader Khaleda Zia, the security analyst suggested that New Delhi would have to make quick diplomatic overtures to the new government in Dhaka to ensure peace in its frontier regions adjoining the Muslim-majority nation.
"In case, BNP forms the government, India should reach out to them diplomatically and otherwise. We can't be always pro-Awami League or pro-Hasina," Mukharji stressed.
Notably, unlike Hasina's Awami League, Zia and her BNP don't have a good track record concerning relations with India. For example, earlier this year, the BNP's exiled acting chairman Tarique Rahman was found spreading anti-India propaganda on social media ahead of national polls in Bangladesh.
At the same time, the Joe Biden administration had threatened the then Hasina-led government with economic sanctions if the polls were not free and fair. The excuse, however, was seemingly to regain lost influence in the area.
Yet, leading a secular government that Islamists detested, Hasina gave Bangladesh rapid economic growth, international relations commentator Brahma Chellaney wrote on X. But powerful external forces, including Biden, were aligned against Ex-PM, Chellaney highlighted.
"In the name of seeking to help restore democratic governance, the US has had cozy ties with every military or military-backed regime in Bangladesh," he elaborated after Bangladesh military chief Waker-Uz-Zaman announced the formation of an interim government in the violence-hit nation.
Nonetheless, Bangladesh's main opposition political outfit, BNP which allegedly propped up the anti-Hasina protests, has a history of association with the American deep state, according to Aadi Achint, the founder of popular geopolitics website 'Def Talks'.

"The BNP has historical connections with the so-called American deep state where people chosen specifically for certain tasks will be made to sit in certain positions to ensure that the continuity of American interest remains in this area," Achint told Sputnik India.

He pointed out that two sides (the American deep state and BNP-Jamaat) were maintaining contact even during this time of crisis.

"This was very clearly elucidated by Sheikh Hasina's removal, withdrawal or escape from Bangladesh, which tells you that it was not a crack operation, rather it was pretty well planned," Achint concluded.

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Sputnik OpinionBangladeshIndiaUSBangladesh Nationalist PartyJoe BidenWashington D.C.DhakaDelhiNew DelhiSheikh HasinaSouth Asia
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