NEW DELHI: Ousted Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday said she lives freely in New Delhi, and “would love to go home” but remains cautious, given her family’s violent past. “I would of course love to go home, so long as the government there was legitimate, the constitution was being upheld, and law and order genuinely prevailed,” Hasina told Reuters in her first media engagement after her dramatic fall from power last year.The 78-year-old Awami League chief fled to India in August 2024 after a deadly student-led uprising ended her 15-year rule. An interim government led by Muhammad Yunus has ruled Bangladesh since Hasina’s ouster and has promised to hold elections in February 2026.Sitting in the Indian capital, Hasina said she won’t return to Bangladesh under any government formed through elections that exclude her party.Hasina further warned that millions of Awami League supporters would boycott next year’s national election, after the party was barred from contesting the polls. “The ban on the Awami League is not only unjust, it is self-defeating,” she said in emailed responses to Reuters.“The next government must have electoral legitimacy. Millions of people support the Awami League, so as things stand, they will not vote. You cannot disenfranchise millions of people if you want a political system that works,” she added.Once praised for transforming Bangladesh’s economy, Hasina now faces charges of crimes against humanity over a brutal crackdown on student protests in mid-2024.A verdict from the International Crimes Tribunal is expected on November 13, Reuters reported. A United Nations report estimates that up to 1,400 people were killed and thousands more injured, mostly by security forces’ gunfire, during the unrest between July 15 and August 5, marking Bangladesh’s deadliest violence since the 1971 war of independence.“These proceedings are a politically motivated charade,” Hasina said, denying the allegations. “They’ve been brought by kangaroo courts, with guilty verdicts a foregone conclusion. I was mostly denied prior notice or any meaningful opportunity to defend myself,” she added.Despite her exile, Hasina remains hopeful about her party’s future. “It’s really not about me or my family,” she said. “For Bangladesh to achieve the future we all want, there must be a return to constitutional rule and political stability. No single person or family defines our country’s future.”
