Hasina's Last Stand Leans On India And Pro-Hindu Misinformation

Awami League General Secretary and former minister Obaidul Quader echoed the sentiment when he stated,“As long as Delhi is here, we are here,” and assured that India would prevent any constitutional threat to the Awami League's dominance .

Awami League parliamentary candidates even campaigned as“Delhi's Candidate,” openly acknowledging their dependence on Indian support. Currently, Hasina's son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, is reportedly urging India to pressure the interim government to hold elections within 90 days .

Hasina's sudden ouster sent shockwaves through the Indian political establishment. For several days, Bangladesh was left without a functioning government, and in this power vacuum, widespread anarchy erupted.

Over the past 15 years, the Awami League had turned its party offices and police stations into centers of repression, extortion and corruption.

As chaos ensued, local communities, fed up with years of abuse, decided to take matters into their own hands. Hundreds of police stations and party offices were set on fire and Awami League leaders were killed in the violence .

Approximately 10% of Bangladesh's Muslim majority population is Hindu , a minority demographic represented within the Awami League. Accordingly, a notable segment of the party's leadership is Hindu.

Since the mobs targeted both Hindu and Muslim leaders from the Awami League, it raises the question of whether these attacks were motivated by religious identity or political affiliation.

The broader trend indicates that Awami League affiliation was the main factor behind the attacks. BJP-aligned media in India quickly obscured this distinction, largely overlooking the Muslim victims within the Awami League and framing the violence as an assault on religious minorities .

This portrayal cast Hindu leaders and activists as victims of religious persecution, diverting attention from the underlying political context of the unrest.

In response to the rising violence, swift measures were taken to protect minority homes and temples . While these actions could be viewed as civic duty, there's also a strategic angle: some might have recognized that the Awami League and its BJP-aligned media could exploit the narrative of minority victimization to undermine and destabilize any post-Hasina government.

BJP-aligned Indian media and influencers on X (formerly Twitter) have opted to frame the situation in a way that suits right-wing political agendas.

Misinformation and doctored video clips are spreading rapidly, fueling false narratives. For example, fires in restaurants and markets are being falsely reported as temples set ablaze while disturbing footage of mobs lynching Muslim Awami League leaders is being misrepresented as violence against Hindus .

In one case, when former Bangladesh cricket captain Mashrafe Mortaza's house was burned due to his connection with the Awami League in a disputed election, Indian media inaccurately reported it as an attack on cricketer Liton Das because of his religion .

Similarly, a fire that spread from Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's residence to the home of Rahul Anand , a member of the band Joler Gaan, was misrepresented despite Anand's clarification that it was an accident.

Independent fact-checkers like Boom , Dismisslab , and AFP are working hard to counteract the surge of fake news from India, but they face an uphill struggle; for each piece of misinformation they correct, numerous others quickly spread on social media.

There has also been notable criticism of protesters who toppled statues of Hasina's father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, often portrayed as the architect of independent Bangladesh.

This criticism often fails to account for the fact that the Awami League government had elevated Mujibur Rahman to near-mythical status , with statues and murals throughout the country akin to the fairy tale personality cult built around the Kim clan in North Korea.

Overall, BJP-leaning media in India is seizing this opportunity to energize their support base after the party's worst electoral performance in a decade.

Hasina's son Sajeeb has been making regular appearances on Indian media, echoing BJP talking points by placing blame on phantom enemies like Pakistan's ISI and America's CIA. He has also actively pushed the narrative of violence against Hindus in his TV appearances.

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But even Sajeeb and Hasina have been unintended victims of the Indian media's careless reporting. The Print recently published a statement attributed to Hasina claiming she had resigned, prompting Sajeeb to swiftly denounce the report as false and fabricated. The incident suggests that the Awami League might be desperately trying different narratives to see which gains traction.

In Bangladesh, the Awami League seems to be exploiting a contrived issue. In Sylhet, reports indicate that Awami League leaders have staged false flag attacks on Hindu communities.

Additionally, party leaders and members of its student wing, the Bangladesh Chhatra League, are organizing protest rallies portraying Hindu victims who were actually killed by Hasina's security forces as victims of the current interim government.

These rallies have also adopted the“Jai Shri Ram” (“Glory to Lord Rama”) chant associated with the BJP's Hindutva movement but unfamiliar to the Hindu community in Bangladesh. Govinda Pramanik, leader of the Hindu Grand Alliance, has already accused the Awami League of manipulating the Hindu population to regain power.

In response to these media narratives, prominent right-wing Indian MP Subramanian Swamy has suggested the annexation of northern parts of Bangladesh .

In a YouTube video , he proposed that the Indian military should surround Bangladesh's borders and carry out a military operation to restore Hasina to power.

Hasina has been a staunch ally of India and current support for her might be seen as a way to reciprocate that loyalty. However, this approach risks damaging long-term diplomatic relations between India and Bangladesh and their peoples.

On a positive note, many reasonable voices within India recognize the broader consequences of such support and are expressing strong solidarity with the Bangladeshi people, calling for a more balanced and principled approach to a volatile situation that could yet see many more twists and turns.

Taukir Aziz is an economic, financial and political analyst specializing in Bangladesh's political economy and financial sector, and where the two intersect.

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