Former PM Sheikh Hasina sought approval to come to India at very short notice, says EAM Jaishankar
The situation in Bangladesh is still evolving, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar informed the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday (August 6, 2024), adding that India had been in regular touch with the authorities in Dhaka over the past 24 hours. India was also monitoring the situation with regard to the status of the minorities there, he said, amid news reports of attacks on their places of worship in Bangladesh.
 
He made suo motu statements in both the Houses of Parliament (Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha) a day after Sheikh Hasina announced her resignation as Prime Minister and arrived at the Hindan air force station near Delhi amid raging protests and violence against her governance back home.
 
The past few months have seen an intense agitation by students against quotas in government jobs; recent weeks have seen several incidents of violence, including attacks on public buildings and infrastructure.
 
India-Bangladesh relations have been exceptionally close for many decades over many governments, EAM Jaishankar noted in his statement in Rajya Sabha, pointing out that concern about recent violence and instability there is shared across the political spectrum.
 
According to EAM Jaishankar, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina apparently made the decision to resign after a meeting with leaders of the security establishment as demonstrators converged in Dhaka on Monday (August 5, 2024), despite a curfew.
 
"At very short notice, she requested approval to come for the moment to India. We simultaneously received a request for flight clearance from Bangladesh authorities. She arrived yesterday evening in Delhi," he stated.
 
Referring to Bangladesh Army Chief General Waker-uz-Zaman's address to the nation on Monday, EAM Jaishankar said he spoke about assuming responsibility and constituting an interim government.
 
'Deep divides, growing polarisation in Bangladesh politics since January polls'
Explaining the genesis of the current crisis, EAM Jaishankar referred to "considerable tension, deep divides, and growing polarisation in Bangladesh politics since the election in January 2024". 
 
This "underlying foundation" aggravated a student agitation that started in June this year and there was growing violence, including attacks on public buildings and infrastructure, as well as traffic and rail obstructions," he stated. The violence continued through the month of July, he added.
 
"Throughout this period, we repeatedly counselled restraint and urged that the situation be defused through dialogue. Similar urgings were made to various political forces with whom we were in touch," EAM Jaishankar stated.
 
He went on to explain how there was no let-up in the public agitation despite a Supreme Court judgement on July 21, 2024. “Various decisions and actions taken thereafter only exacerbated the situation. The agitation at this stage coalesced around a one-point agenda, that is that the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina should step down,” he pointed out.

Events took a very serious turn on August 4, 2024, as attacks on police, including police stations and government installations, intensified even as overall levels of violence greatly escalated. Properties of individuals associated with the regime were torched across the country.
 
“What was particularly worrying was that minorities, their businesses and temples also came under attack at multiple locations. The full extent of this is still not clear,” EAM Jaishankar stated.
 
 The students launched their protest after a High Court ruling that reinstated a quota in government jobs for family members of freedom fighters of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. The provision had been abolished after widespread protests in 2018.
 
The agitation continued even as the Supreme Court of Bangladesh scaled back the proposed reservation across various categories.
 
According to news reports, hundreds of people have been killed in different parts of Bangladesh over the past week in violent clashes between the protesters on one side and police and members of the ruling Awami League's student wing on the other. On Monday, protestors stormed the official residence of the Bangladesh Prime Minister after Sheikh Hasina left Dhaka, with video clips on social media showing them vandalising the property.