Hasina calls for overthrow of Yunus regime in first India address ahead of Bangladesh polls

A day after campaigning began for Bangladesh’s February 12 parliamentary elections, ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina recently issued a fiery call to voters to “overthrow” the Muhammad Yunus–led administration, accusing it of presiding over violence, democratic decay, and foreign manipulation.

Speaking through a 10-minute voice-recorded message played at a press conference in New Delhi, Hasina laid out a five-point plan to restore what she described as Bangladesh’s “proud traditions of democracy and pluralism.” The event, held at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of South Asia, was organised by her supporters and Awami League leaders, and attended virtually by former foreign minister A K Abdul Momen.

Hasina has been living in India since August 5, 2024, after fleeing Bangladesh amid mass unrest that led to her ouster.

Addressing the Bangladeshi people in both Bangla and English, Hasina portrayed the current dispensation as an “unelected violent regime” whose promises, she said, had given way to “chaos, violence, hatred, and corruption.”

“Faced with lawlessness and the erosion of your democratic rights, your courage and strength are tested daily,” she said. “Please do not give up now.”

At the core of her address was a demand to dismantle what she repeatedly called the “illegal Yunus administration.” Hasina argued that free and fair elections would remain impossible “until the shadow of the Yunus clique is lifted from the people of Bangladesh,” and insisted that any democratic transition must include the Awami League.

Her second demand focused on ending what she described as daily street violence and restoring basic civic services to revive the economy. The third called for “ironclad guarantees” for the safety of religious minorities, women, and vulnerable groups — a concern that mirrors repeated demands raised by the Indian government, particularly regarding the safety of Hindus in Bangladesh.

Hasina also accused the interim regime of weaponising the legal system, calling for an end to what she termed “politically motivated acts of lawfare” used to intimidate journalists, Awami League members, and opposition figures.

In her fifth and final demand, she urged the United Nations to conduct a “truly impartial investigation” into the July–August 2024 events that led to her removal from office. “We need the purification of truth in order to reconcile, heal, and move forward as countrymen,” she said.

Invoking her father, Bangladesh’s founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Hasina warned that the nation born out of the Liberation War was being “ravaged by extremist communal forces and foreign perpetrators.”

“The entire country has become a vast prison, an execution ground, a valley of death,” she said, launching a blistering personal attack on Yunus, whom she labelled a “foreign-serving puppet” and accused of attempting to barter away Bangladesh’s territory and resources to outside interests.

Calling on citizens to rise against the current order, Hasina urged Bangladeshis to “defend and restore the Constitution written in the blood of martyrs, reclaim our independence, safeguard our sovereignty, and revive our democracy.”

Recent address marked Hasina’s first audio message aimed specifically at an Indian audience since her exile, though she has issued several similar recorded statements in recent months to Awami League supporters inside and outside Bangladesh.