00:00Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has announced she will return home to Bangladesh sometime in December.
00:08So it was exactly this day, in 2024, that the longest-serving Prime Minister of Bangladesh had to flee her
00:17country just to save her life.
00:20On the second anniversary, she briefed media from an undisclosed location.
00:26Sheikh Hasina said,
00:56Life goes beyond calculations of personal safety.
00:59I have announced my return and will do that in December.
01:04Obviously, I will announce the date at an appropriate time.
01:10Remember, 16th December 1971, Bangladesh gained independence.
01:18That's the day Pakistan was split into two.
01:21Bangladesh was born.
01:23So will she return on or around the 16th of December in 2026?
01:29Incidentally, Sheikh Hasina also hit out at Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who served as the interim Prime Minister, saying he
01:37was behind the anarchy that led to a regime change operation.
01:42Or words to that effect.
01:44Sheikh Hasina's son, Sanjeev Bajit Joy, he made a big assertion at this press conference.
01:51He said, Bangladesh is becoming another Pakistan.
01:55Bangladesh right now is becoming a rogue state.
01:59I'll get you more on the story.
02:01Listen in.
02:03It was not a peaceful student movement.
02:07From the beginning, my government tried to resolve the issue peacefully through dialogue, legal process, and patience.
02:17But behind the language of reform, organized groups were working to turn students' demand into violent political instrument.
02:30In 2018, responding to student demands, we abolish the quota system.
02:38In 2024, when the High Court annulled the decision, the government appealed because we wanted to uphold the abolition.
02:47I personally took the initiative for dialogue with the students and invited them to Ganobhabun, the Prime Minister's residence.
02:55Three ministers also held discussions with them.
03:00A quota reform movement was turned into a one-point demand for my resignation.
03:07False propaganda was spread in a planned way.
03:12Whatever fate awaits me, I will return to my people.
03:16I cannot stay away while my beloved countrymen are suffering.
03:22I know.
03:23I may be detained.
03:25I may be sent to prison.
03:28They may try to enforce verdicts issue in fabricated cases, but fear cannot decide my duty to the people.
03:39My life moved beyond calculations of personal safety long ago.
03:46What should concern India most is Bangladesh has become another Pakistan on India's eastern front.
03:56You have another Pakistan today on your eastern front.
03:59Foreign intelligence services, especially ISI, has an open hand.
04:07Militants, hundreds, hundreds of convicted terrorists, terrorists that our Awamani government arrested and convicted and put behind bars, have been
04:16released from prison.
04:17Hizmut Tahari marches openly.
04:21Al-Qaeda operatives speak at public rallies.
04:27This is what is happening in Bangladesh.
04:30And this does not portend well for India and the world at large.
04:39Pranay Upadhyaya, Ayrita Today, India Today Global now joins me for more on the story.
04:44Pranay, very strong words, both from Sheikh Hasina and from Sanjeev Vajad.
04:50But on the road map of her return to Dhaka, she's been sentenced to death in absentia.
04:56Is that an apprehension that she calls it, of course, a fabricated case, a fake death sentence.
05:02But is that an apprehension that the death sentence may be carried out if she returns?
05:10Obviously, the apprehension will always remain, Gaurav.
05:12But you have heard Sheikh Hasina clearly expressing her determination to go back to Dhaka.
05:17And in fact, she said that this is not for the first time I'm being threatened to arrest.
05:22I've been arrested at multiple occasions since 1981 to 2007.
05:28At multiple occasions, I faced those arrests and I have lived through those things.
05:32But I cannot shun my country. I cannot leave my countrymen.
05:35And that's why I'm determined to go back to Bangladesh.
05:39But before this statement, before this press conference at the Foreign Correspondence Club of New Delhi,
05:45you know, Gaurav, you know that the Bangladesh government, Tariq Rahman government,
05:49summoned India's High Commissioner there, Dinesh Trivedi.
05:51And in fact, lodged their strong protests that any such press conference, any political activity by Sheikh Hasina will hamper
05:58the relationship or the improvement of relationship between India and Bangladesh.
06:03But still, Sheikh Hasina carried out, you know, went ahead with this press conference and she made it clear, not
06:10only in terms of her determination,
06:12but also she said that entire story of that July protest was actually a concocted story.
06:18In fact, her side of the story clearly tells that the way this entire regime change operation was scripted.
06:25And she quoted Muhammad Yunus that it was a meticulously planned operation on the garb of student protests where Sheikh
06:33Hasina alleged that the innocent students were manipulated.
06:36They were used as cannon fodder and, in fact, in the garb of that student movement, there was a regime
06:42change operation to bring back, to get the power, you know, out of the ballot box
06:47and, in fact, make the decision-making process from the streets of Dhaka and Bangladesh.
06:52And that's why she has said that she is going to return to Bangladesh in December 2026.
06:58You mentioned that, you know, December remains an important month in the history of Bangladesh.
07:02And she said that, you know, the history of Bangladesh is being erased.
07:07The monuments of pride are being destroyed.
07:09And that's why she feels that it is her duty to get back to Bangladesh, to be with the people
07:16of Bangladesh,
07:16those who love the freedom movement and those who have sacrificed for the freedom of Bangladesh,
07:22because this is not the Bangladesh for which over three million people died.
07:26Oh, indeed. But is the situation more conducive for her return?
07:32She looks at it as a regime change operation where students or student protest was just a facade.
07:40She quotes Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus in the United States actually bringing forward the faces
07:47who were behind what she describes as a meticulously planned regime change operation.
07:54Student protests are just a facade, a regime change operation is the actual plan.
08:00Now, she says that about Bangladesh.
08:02Is the situation more conducive for her to return now?
08:09This is for the government of Bangladesh to decide if they call themselves a secular government,
08:14if they call themselves, you know, a government, a legitimate government, then she's an opposition leader there,
08:21or her party is there.
08:23Though Bava Meelig is currently banned in Bangladesh, she has urged, she has called on the Bangladesh government
08:28to lift the ban from Ava Meelig and called people of Bangladesh to come out and support
08:34and contribute for the nation-building process in Bangladesh because the current GDP rates of Bangladesh have gone down.
08:40There are employment issues. There are poverty issues before Bangladesh.
08:44And she said that this is a paramount priority, not even for her, but also for every political party in
08:50Bangladesh.
08:50So this is the call given by Sheikh Hasina.
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