Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy: ‘Threat to India very real, Yunus trying to bring Islamists to power via rigged poll’

In first remarks on the announcement of elections in Bangladesh next February and the ban that rules out participation of Awami League, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, son and advisor of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, said the interim government in Dhaka, headed by Muhammad Yunus, was attempting to appoint an Islamic regime. He also warned that the security situation in Bangladesh posed a heightened threat to India.

Fifty-four-year-old Wazed, who lives in the US, made these remarks in an email interview with The Indian Express on the day Delhi summoned Dhaka’s High Commissioner to convey India’s “strong concerns” over the deteriorating security situation in Bangladesh and activities of extremist elements threatening the Indian High Commission there.

These are excerpts from the interview with Wazed:

You and your mother Sheikh Hasina are in exile. Begum Khaleda Zia is critically ill and her son Tarique has not returned to Bangladesh. Could this be the end of the two most powerful dynasties in Bangladesh politics?

I cannot speak for the Zia family, but my mother did not join politics to establish a dynasty. She was drawn into it after the assassination of my grandfather and almost my entire family. If I was in her place, I would have done the same thing to get justice. Now we are seeing similar events unfold and as we have seen, things can change very dramatically. So you never know what the future may bring.

How is the Awami League proposing to stay relevant after it has been banned from participating in the February 12 elections? What is the message from you and your mother to the party cadre given that over 100 MPs/leaders are living abroad in exile and hundreds of others are in jail in Bangladesh?

The Awami League has always received about 40 per cent of the vote, almost half the population. We have hundreds of thousands of activists. You cannot wipe out the support of half the population through an order. The Awami League is not going anywhere and will always be a major factor in Bangladesh. We have continued protests and they will grow. The Awami League will be back sooner or later.

What role do you think the Bangladesh Army, which allowed Sheikh Hasina to leave the country, play in shaping the future of the country?

I don’t think the Army has a role at all. The Army is just a silent bystander.

How are you keeping in touch with your mother? Have you been to Delhi to meet her? What message, responsibility has she given you given the death penalty verdict against her and the party being barred from contesting the upcoming polls?

I speak to my mother regularly on the phone. I have been to Delhi once and plan to go again. My messaging is simple, to expose the rushed and false verdict against my family and expose the lack of democracy and rights under the Yunus regime.

While the party leaders – many of whom we have spoken to – remain devoted to her, is it time for the Awami League to look within for a new leader given that your mother cannot return to Bangladesh until the sentences against her are quashed?

That is for the party activists to decide. We are a democratic party and the party members elect the leadership. The party base remains completely devoted to my mother, so that is their choice.