New Delhi: Did India put pressure on the US to be lenient towards Bangladesh’s ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and stop pressuring her? At a time when the US had put thousands of Sheikh Hasina’s opponents and critics in jail, the Washington Post quoted officials as saying this while referring to an incident related to this incident last January. But US officials say that the US took the decision after careful consideration.
The report says that according to officials, both countries are now having to ‘reflect’ on whether they made the wrong decision in the case of Bangladesh. Quoting US and Indian officials, the report says that Indian officials had begun pressuring the US to stop pressuring Sheikh Hasina, the powerful prime minister of neighbouring Bangladesh, a year before she was ousted from office in a student uprising last week.
America was being strict but…
According to this report, the Biden government banned a Bangladeshi police unit during Hasina’s tenure which was accused of kidnapping and murder. It also threatened to impose visa restrictions on Bangladeshis who undermine democracy and violate human rights.
The report says that in several meetings, Indian officials had demanded that the US tone down its pro-democracy rhetoric. The argument was that if the opposition is allowed to gain power through open elections, there will be a rapid increase in Islamic groups there. This will ultimately pose a threat to national security.
The US had taken a well-thought-out decision
. After this, the Biden government relented. Threats of further sanctions were shelved and as a result, many people in Bangladesh were disappointed. However, US officials say that this was a well-thought-out decision that had nothing to do with Indian pressure. But this anonymous report says that due to the current circumstances, the US and India think that they may have handled Bangladesh wrongly.
