Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s party, the Awami League, was ousted from power on August 5 in a mass uprising by students and the public. The activities of the political party, which has been in power for more than a decade and a half, have put the party’s leaders and activists in an embarrassing situation. Starting from the top level of the party to the grassroots leaders, they are fleeing the country and abroad. As a result, the Awami League is apparently not in the political arena. The party is also not running around in the diplomatic neighborhood of Dhaka.
On the other hand, the BNP, which has been a victim of repression for a long time, has returned to its good times. Now they are standing tall in the political arena. At the same time, the party’s evaluation in the diplomatic neighborhood has also increased. The party’s top leaders are participating in meetings and tea parties with foreign envoys posted in Dhaka. In a word, BNP is now going through a good time in the diplomatic neighborhood.
BNP sources say that after August 5, BNP has held meetings with ambassadors and high commissioners from various countries including Australia, Iran, Russia, China, the European Union (EU), the United Nations, Pakistan, Turkey, Nepal, Bhutan. Not only that, British High Commissioner to Bangladesh Sarah Cook and Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Isa Yusuf Isa Al Duhailan met BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, who has been out of active politics since 2018, at her residence in Firoza.
In addition, Austria’s non-resident ambassador to Bangladesh in Delhi, Katharina Wieser, came to Dhaka and met the party’s Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam at the BNP Chairperson’s office.
However, the discussion that overshadowed all of this was the meeting of the Indian High Commissioner with the BNP delegation, which has been in an ‘openly anti-India’ position for various reasons after the 2024 parliamentary elections. On September 22, Pranay Verma met with the party’s Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir at the BNP Chairperson’s political office in Gulshan. This was the first time since 2014 that an Indian diplomat had visited the BNP Chairperson’s political office.
A source in the Gulshan office said that no Indian diplomat had set foot in BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s office or residence since 2014. However, the Indian envoy participated in the BNP party’s Iftar and the Chairperson’s Eid greetings exchange program.
BNP leaders say that BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia was the opposition leader until 2014. In the meantime, she visited India in 2012. However, in 2013, Khaleda Zia did not attend the meeting with the then Indian President Pranab Mukherjee, who was visiting Dhaka due to the Jamaat-led strike. As a result, BNP’s relations with India hit rock bottom. Meanwhile, BNP’s various initiatives to improve relations with India ahead of the 2018 parliamentary elections did not yield the expected results.
After the meeting, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said, “India wants to strengthen relations with Bangladesh. Especially after this change (change of power in the student-people’s revolution), they have already contacted… talked to the new interim government. They also want their country’s political parties to strengthen relations with BNP. They are interested in working on how to bring a healthier trend and more positivity into this relationship.”
Shama Obaid, BNP’s organizing secretary and member of the party’s chairperson’s international affairs committee, said, “BNP has always had importance in the diplomatic arena. But in the past years, a government was in power in the country that had no foreign policy. They said that everyone would contact them.”
He said, “In the era of globalization, no country has relations with just one party. One country has relations with another country. It is natural that they keep in touch with all the parties, views, civil society there. But Sheikh Hasina wanted to keep in touch only with them. That is why when diplomats had meetings with BNP, they would send written letters to the local missions… They would be given various scoldings, which a democratic government cannot do. Then other countries cannot be blamed. Because they have to work with the government. They are investing billions and trillions of dollars in Bangladesh.
