Deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on August 5 joined a virtual press briefing live from New Delhi for the first time since she was ousted from power exactly two years earlier, where she voiced her intention to return to Bangladesh – drawing a strong reaction from Dhaka, which blamed the Indian government for allowing the event to take place.
It also invoked an incident from 2018, when the Indian government went out of its way to prevent a renowned British lawyer seeking a similar platform to speak on behalf of late BNP Chairperson and Prime Minister Khaleda Zia from doing so.
In July 2018, Lord Alex Carlile, then legal counsel for Khaleda Zia, was denied entry into India despite holding a valid Indian business visa, after he sought to hold a press briefing in Delhi highlighting what he described as politically motivated cases against the former BNP chairperson.
Carlile, a member of the House of Lords, the upper chamber of Britain’s parliament, landed at Delhi airport on July 11, 2018, on an Air India flight from London, only to be stopped from crossing immigration, and barred from addressing the planned press conference on Khaleda Zia's behalf.
He had sought to go to Delhi after his application for a Bangladeshi visa was reportedly kept pending.
The episode triggered what was then described as “unprecedented diplomatic activity” between Dhaka and Delhi, with the then-Awami League government getting in the still-new BJP-led government's era that allowing Carlile to speak on Khaleda Zia's case from Indian soil would amount to a “paid political campaign.”
Then Spokesperson for India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Raveesh Kumar said Carlile's visa was withdrawn because there was no correlation between the purpose stated in his visa application and the actual purpose of his visit. He had also said there were sufficient grounds to suspect he was trying to create a misunderstanding between India and Bangladesh.
Unable to enter India, Carlile returned to London and held a videoconference in which he said Bangladesh's Ministry of Foreign Affairs had summoned India's then acting high commissioner in Dhaka to formally register its objection.
Carlile, visibly angered at the time, said his respect for Indian democracy had been shattered, and that India should be ashamed and held accountable for the way it treated a 70-year-old parliamentarian under political pressure.
In an interview with Mushfiqul Fazal Ansarey, then Editor and White House Correspondent for Just News BD, in July 2018, Lord Alex described the whole episode.
India had then maintained it did not wish to strain diplomatic relations with Bangladesh over a single case.
Eight years later, however, the same country facilitated a virtual press conference for Hasina, who now stands convicted and was sentenced to death by a Bangladeshi court over crimes against humanity committed during the July 2024 mass uprising.
The virtual event also featured Hasina's son and former adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy, former Awami League lawmaker Shakib Al Hasan, and former Education Minister Mohibul Hassan Chowdhury Nowfel, who attended in person.
The Bangladesh government reacted that same night strongly, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) issuing a statement expressing anger that "a fugitive, convicted mass murderer" had been allowed to speak directly to the media from New Delhi, and spread what it called venomous hatred and vitriol against the Bangladeshi state and its people.
Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed said in an interview that while India had granted Hasina shelter, allowing her to conduct political activity concerning Bangladesh from that shelter, including direct media access, raised serious questions about India's intent.
Salahuddin said the July Uprising had involved mass killings for which the Awami League government had shown neither remorse nor offered forgiveness, adding that the party is instead using its refuge in India to continue activities against the Bangladeshi people, who remain angry over the events.
Responding to Dhaka's strong reaction, India's MEA Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at a regular briefing on Friday that the Indian government did not endorse what was said from that platform, particularly remarks aimed at Bangladesh's duly-constituted government.
The two incidents, eight years apart, are said to shine a light on the Indian government's starkly contrasting approach – denying a British lawyer access to its soil when he sought to speak in support of Khaleda Zia, who herself was facing political persecution at home, while allowing Hasina, now convicted and sentenced to death by a Bangladeshi court, considerable latitude to make political statements from Indian soil.
As the MoFA statement made clear, the ramifications of allowing Hasina that platform may prove "detrimental to the development of harmonious bilateral relations"- that remain strained anyway.