President of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina, from birth to the end of her term and her presidency of the country Part 1

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00:00A brief about the stages of the President of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, from birth to

00:07the end of her term and her presidency of the country.

00:11Part 1 Prime Minister of Bangladesh from June 1996

00:16to July 2001 and again from January 2009 to August 2024.

00:21She is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father and first President of

00:26Bangladesh.

00:28Having served for a combined total of over 20 years, she is the longest-serving Prime

00:32Minister in the history of Bangladesh.

00:35Her premiership ended in self-imposed exile following a series of violent protests in

00:402024 at Khama.

00:42As the autocratic regime of Hussein Mohammed Ershad came to an end, Hasina, then leader

00:46of the Awami League, AL, lost the 1991 election to Khalida Zia, with whom she had collaborated

00:52against Ershad.

00:54As leader of the opposition, Hasina accused Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party, BNP, of

01:00electoral dishonesty and boycotted parliament, which was followed by violent demonstrations

01:05and political turmoil.

01:08Zia resigned to a caretaker government, followed by Hasina becoming Prime Minister after the

01:12June 1996 election.

01:15While the country began to experience economic growth and a reduction in poverty, it remained

01:20in political turmoil during her first term, which ended in July 2001, with Hasina being

01:25succeeded by Zia following her victory.

01:28This was the first full five-year term for a Bangladeshi Prime Minister since it became

01:32an independent country in 1971.

01:36During the 2006-2008 political crisis, Hasina was detained on extortion charges.

01:43After her release from jail, she won the 2008 election.

01:47In 2014, she was re-elected for a third term in an election that was boycotted by the BNP

01:52and criticised by international observers.

01:56In 2017, after nearly a million Rohingya entered the country, fleeing genocide in Myanmar,

02:02Hasina received credit and praise for giving them refuge and assistance.

02:06She won a fourth and fifth term after the 2018 and 2024 elections, which was marred

02:11by violence and widely criticised as being fraudulent.

02:15It is now widely considered that under her premiership, Bangladesh experienced democratic

02:19backsliding.

02:21Human Rights Watch documented widespread enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings

02:26under her government.

02:28Numerous politicians and journalists were systematically and judicially punished for

02:32challenging her views.

02:35In 2021, Reporters Without Borders gave a negative assessment of Hasina's media policy

02:40for curbing press freedom in Bangladesh since 2014.

02:44Domestically, Hasina has been criticised as being too close to India, often at the cost

02:49of Bangladesh's sovereignty.

02:51She is seen as a manifestation of India's interference in Bangladeshi politics, which

02:56the critics described as the main source of Hasina's power.

03:00Hasina was among Time's 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2018 and was listed

03:05as being one of the 100 Most Powerful Women in the World by Forbes in 2015, 2018 and 2022.

03:14She was the world's longest-serving female head of government.

03:18Hasina was born on September 28, 1947 to the Bengali Muslim Sikh family of Tanjipura in

03:23East Bengal.

03:25Her father was Bengali nationalist leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and her mother was Begum

03:30Fazila Tunisa Mujib.

03:32She has Iraqi Arab ancestry through both her paternal and maternal sides of family and

03:36her clan were direct descendants of Muslim preacher Sheikh Abdul Awal Darwish of Baghdad,

03:41who had arrived in Bengal in the late Mughal era.

03:45Hasina grew up in Tanjipura during her early childhood under the care of her mother and

03:48grandmother.

03:50When the family moved to Dhaka, they initially lived in the neighbourhood of Seghan Bajika.

03:56When Hasina's father became a government minister in 1954, the family lived on 3 Minto Road.

04:02In the 1950s, her father also worked in the Alpha Insurance Company, aside from his political

04:08activities.

04:10In the 1960s, the family moved into a home built by her father on Road 32 in Danmandi.

04:16In many interviews and speeches, Hasina talked about growing up while her father was held

04:20as a political prisoner by the Pakistani government.

04:24In one interview, she remarked that for instance, after the United Front ministry was elected

04:29in 1954 and we were living in No. 3 Minto Road, one day, my mother told us that father

04:34had been arrested the night before.

04:37Then we used to visit him in jail and we always realised that he was put in jail so often

04:41because he loved the people.

04:44Hasina and her siblings had very little time to spend with their father because of his

04:47preoccupation with politics.

04:50Sheikh Hasina attended primary school in her village of Tanjipura.

04:55When her family moved to Dhaka, she attended the Azimpur Girls' School and Begum Badraniza

04:59Girls' College.

05:01She enrolled for a bachelor's degree at Eton College.

05:05She was elected as the vice-president of the Students' Union in Eton College between

05:091966 and 1967.

05:13In 1967, Hasina married M. I. Wazed-Mia, who was a Bengali nuclear scientist with a doctorate

05:19in physics from Durham.

05:21Hasina studied Bengali literature at Dhaka University, from where she graduated in 1973.

05:28Hasina lived in Rokia Hall, which was founded in 1938 as the women's dormitory of Dhaka

05:33University and later named after feminist Begum Rokia.

05:39She was involved in the politics of the Students' League and was elected as the general secretary

05:43of the women's unit in Rokia Hall.

05:46Except for her husband, children and sister Sheikh Rehana, Hasina's entire family was

05:51murdered during the Aug. 15, 1975 Bangladeshi coup d'état which saw the assassination

05:56of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

05:58Hasina, Wazed and Rehana were visiting Europe at the time of the assassination.

06:04They took refuge in the house of the Bangladeshi ambassador to West Germany before taking up

06:08an offer of political asylum from Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of India.

06:13The surviving members of the family lived in exile in New Delhi, India for six years.

06:19Hasina was barred from entering Bangladesh by the military government of Zior Rahman.

06:24After she was elected president of the Awami League on Feb. 16, 1981, Hasina returned home

06:30on May 17, 1981 and received a welcome from thousands of Awami League supporters.

06:37While living in exile in India, Hasina was elected president of the Awami League, AL,

06:42in 1981.

06:44The AL has been described as a left-of-center party.

06:48Under martial law, Hasina was in and out of detention throughout the 1980s.

06:53In 1984, she was put under house arrest in February and again in November.

06:59In March 1985, she was put under house arrest for another three months.

07:04Hasina and the AL participated in the 1986 Bangladeshi general election held under President

07:09Hussain Mohammad Ershad.

07:12She served as the leader of the parliamentary opposition in 1986-1987.

07:18She led an eight-party alliance as opposition against Ershad.

07:23Hasina's decision to take part in the election had been criticized by her opponents since

07:27the election was held under martial law and the other main opposition group boycotted

07:31the poll.

07:32However, her supporters maintained that she used the platform effectively to challenge

07:36Ershad's rule.

07:39Ershad dissolved the parliament in December 1987 when Hasina and her Awami League resigned

07:43in an attempt to call for a fresh general election to be held under a neutral government.

07:49Between November and December in 1987, a mass uprising happened in Dhaka and several

07:53people were killed, including Noor Hussain, an Awami League activist in support of Hasina.

07:59Her party, along with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, BNP, under Khalida Zia, continued to

08:04work to restore democratically elected government, which they achieved after a constitutional

08:09referendum returning the country to a parliamentary form of government.

08:14The subsequent parliamentary general election in 1991 was won by the BNP.

08:20After several years of autocratic rule, widespread protests and strikes had paralyzed the economy.

08:26Government officers refused to follow orders and resigned.

08:30Members of the Bangladesh Rifles laid down their weapons instead of firing on protesters

08:34and curfew was openly violated.

08:38Hasina worked with Khalida Zia in organizing opposition to Ershad.

08:42A huge mass protest in December 1990 ousted Ershad from power when he resigned in favor

08:47of his Vice President, Justice Shahabuddin Ahmed, the Chief Justice of the Bangladesh

08:51Supreme Court.

08:53The caretaker government, headed by Ahmed, administered a general election for the parliament.

08:59The Bangladesh Nationalist Party led by Khalida Zia won a general majority, and Hasina's Awami

09:04League emerged as the largest opposition party.

09:08Of the three constituencies Hasina contested, she lost in two-and-one-in-one.

09:13Accepting defeat, she offered her resignation as the party president but stayed on at the

09:18request of party leaders.

09:20Politics in Bangladesh took a decisive turn in 1994, after a by-election in Maghura II,

09:26held after the death of the Member of Parliament for that constituency, a member of Hasina's

09:30party.

09:32The Awami League had expected to win back the seat, but the BNP candidate won through

09:36rigging and manipulation, according to the Neutral Observer who came to witness the election.

09:42Hasina led the Bangladesh Awami League in boycotting the parliament from 1994.

09:47The Awami League, AL, with other opposition parties, demanded that the next general elections

09:52be held under a neutral caretaker government, and that provision for caretaker governments

09:57to manage elections be incorporated in the constitution.

10:01The ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party, BNP, refused to act on these demands.

10:07Opposition parties launched an unprecedented campaign, calling strikes for weeks on end.

10:13The government accused them of destroying the economy while the opposition countered

10:16that the BNP could resolve the issue by acceding to their demands.

10:21In late 1995, the members of parliament of the AL and other parties resigned en masse.

10:27The BNP completed its five-year term and the February 1996 general election was held.

10:33The election was boycotted by all major parties except the ruling BNP, who won all the seats

10:38in the parliament as a result.

10:41Hasina described the election as a farce.

10:44The new parliament, composed almost entirely of BNP members, amended the constitution to

10:49create provisions for a caretaker government, CTG.

10:53The June 1996 general election was held under a neutral caretaker government headed by retired

10:59Chief Justice Mohammad Habibur Rahman.

11:02The AL won 146 seats, a plurality, but fell short of a simple majority.

11:08Khalida Zia, leader of the BNP who won 104 seats, denounced the results and alleged vote

11:13rigging.

11:15This was in contrast with the neutral observers who said that the election was free and fair.

11:20Hasina served her first term as Prime Minister of Bangladesh from June 1996 to July 2001.

11:27She signed the 30-year water-sharing treaty with India governing the Ganges.

11:32Her administration repealed the Indemnity Act, which granted immunity from prosecution

11:37to the killers of Sheikh Mujib.

11:39Her government opened up the telecommunications industry to the private sector, which until

11:44then was limited to government-owned companies.

11:47In December 1997, Hasina's administration signed the Chittagong-Hiltrax Peace Accord,

11:53ending the insurgency in the Chittagong division for which Hasina won the UNESCO Peace Prize.

11:58Her government established the Ashran-1 project while bilateral relations with neighbouring

12:02states improved.

12:04Hasina's government completed the Banga-Bandhu bridge megaproject in 1998.

12:10In 1999, the government started the New Industrial Policy, NIP, which aimed to strengthen the

12:16private sector and encourage growth.

12:19The Hasina government implemented some reforms to different sectors of the economy, which

12:23resulted in the country attaining an average of 5.5% GDP growth.

12:28The consumer price index remained at 5%, lower than other developing states who experienced

12:3310% inflation.

12:35The fifth five-year plan, 1997-2002, of the government placed an emphasis on poverty alleviation

12:42which provided credit and training to unemployed youths and women.

12:46Food grain production increased from 19 million tonnes to 26.5 million tonnes while the poverty

12:51rate reduced.

12:53A housing fund was established to provide fiscal assistance to those homeless as a result

12:58of river erosion.

13:00The government launched the Ekdi-Bari-Ekdi commerce scheme which accentuated the incomes

13:04of the poorer segments of society through household farming.

13:08I stop at this point today.

13:11Soon we will publish part 2.

13:15I hope I added something to you.

13:18You enjoyed the last few minutes.

13:21We will meet with you soon.

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