Hasina blasts PM Tarique Rahman: Your father visited India when I was here, why can't you?

Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina has called Bangladesh PM Tarique Rahman's decision to skip the Brics Summit in New Delhi "immature", questioning why her presence in India prevented him from visiting when his father, Ziaur Rahman, had travelled to Delhi while she was on exile here earlier.

Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has slammed Prime Minister Tarique Rahman for skipping the Brics Summit in New Delhi, calling his decision "immature" and against Bangladesh's national interests. She questioned why her presence in India should stop Tarique Rahman from visiting when his father, former Bangladesh President Ziaur Rahman, had travelled to Delhi while she was living in exile there.

Her criticism comes on the day Bangladesh's Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed skipped the first-ever BIMSTEC home ministers' meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday (October 13). The absence of two senior Bangladeshi leaders from the meetings in New Delhi has brought fresh scrutiny to Dhaka's diplomatic approach amid strained relations with India.

"So why should my presence in Delhi prevent Ziaur Rahman's son, Tarique Rahman, from coming to India today? What is the real reason behind such a decision," Hasina asked in an exclusive interview with PTI, published on October 14. She responded to written questions while living in exile in New Delhi.

Bangladesh skipped the September 12-13 Brics Summit after arguing that Rahman had been invited as BIMSTEC chair rather than specifically as Bangladesh's prime minister. Dhaka has sought Hasina's extradition from India. According to the BNP-led government of Bangladesh, Hasina's continued presence in New Delhi is a major obstacle to improving bilateral relations.

Tarique Rahman skipping a visit to India comes in stark contrast to his trips to Malaysia and China after becoming the PM. China has been eyeing crucial infrastructure projects in Bangladesh.

Sheikh Hasina, who has been living in India since August 2024, has vowed to return to Bangladesh by December 2026, despite acknowledging that she could face arrest, imprisonment or even death. Hasina was sentenced to death in absentia by Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal in November 2025, for crimes against humanity linked to the deadly crackdown on protests in July-August 2024, including incitement to violence, ordering lethal force and failing to prevent killings.

YOUR FATHER VISITED INDIA WHEN I WAS HERE, WHY CAN'T YOU, ASKS HASINA In the PTI interview, Hasina, 78, went back nearly five decades to question the reasoning behind Rahman's decision to skip important meetings in New Delhi.

In her interview, Hasina recalled that Ziaur Rahman, Tarique's father and Bangladesh's former president, visited New Delhi in 1979, when she was living in India following the assassination of her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and several family members in August 1975.

"Yet when he visited Delhi in 1979, I was living in Delhi. When he travelled to London in 1980, I was also in London. My presence in either city did not prevent him from travelling there," Hasina told PTI.

The comparison was pointed as Hasina suggested that if Tarique's father could travel to cities where she was present despite their political differences, the current prime minister had little reason to avoid India on her account.

"It was deeply unfortunate that Bangladesh chose not to participate. In my view, it was an immature decision and one that did not serve Bangladesh's national interest," she said.

Hasina argued that Bangladesh had missed opportunities for economic cooperation by staying away from the gathering of major emerging economies.

She also criticised the use of diplomatic engagement for domestic political messaging, saying Bangladesh's foreign policy should be guided by national interests rather than political calculations. WHY TARIQUE RAHMAN SKIPPED DELHI BRICS SUMMIT The controversy began before the September 12-13 Brics Summit, which India hosted in New Delhi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had invited Tarique Rahman to the summit's outreach session in his capacity as chair of BIMSTEC, the seven-member regional grouping that Bangladesh currently leads on rotational basis.

Modi's invitation letter, dated July 14, said Rahman's participation would "greatly enrich the deliberations." But Dhaka drew a distinction between an invitation to the leader of Bangladesh and one extended to the chair of a regional organisation.

Speaking to reporters on September 10, Bangladesh's State Minister for Foreign Affairs Humaiun Kobir questioned the invitation. "How shall we go?

Has anyone from the Bangladesh government been invited? Our prime minister was not invited. Who told you that our prime minister was invited?

The BIMSTEC Chair was invited," Kobir said. He also indicated that Rahman's first India visit should be a bilateral one, which would happen when "the timing is conducive." India has maintained that Rahman had been invited for both the Brics outreach session and a separate bilateral visit. Bangladesh, however, sent no government delegation to the Brics gathering. The dispute over the invitation has been unfolding over Hasina's continued stay in India. AFTER SKIPPING BRICS, BANGLADESH LEADERS GIVE BIMSTEC A MISS TOO Barely a month after Rahman's Brics absence, another senior Bangladeshi leader stayed away from an India-hosted multilateral gathering.

Bangladesh Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed did not attend the first BIMSTEC home ministers' meeting, held in New Delhi on October 13.

Instead, Dhaka sent a delegation led by Home Ministry Senior Secretary Manzur Morshed Chowdhury.

According to an October 12 report by Bangladesh's Prothom Alo, the decision had already been communicated to the BIMSTEC Secretariat in a diplomatic letter dated October 4. The home minister's name was absent from the list of four Bangladeshi delegates. Several senior Bangladeshi government officials told Prothom Alo, on condition of anonymity, that the decision was taken against the backdrop of strained bilateral relations.

The meeting was significant because it was BIMSTEC's first meeting of home ministers, nearly three decades after the regional organisation was established in 1997.

The discussions covered counterterrorism, cross-border crime, intelligence cooperation, trafficking and other regional security challenges.

HASINA'S PRESENCE IN INDIA REMAINS A DIPLOMATIC FLASHPOINT Relations between India and Bangladesh deteriorated after Hasina's government collapsed amid protests in August 2024 and she fled to New Delhi. Dhaka has since demanded her extradition. Hasina has rejected the criminal proceedings against her as politically motivated.

The dispute intensified after Hasina addressed a virtual media interaction in New Delhi on August 5. Bangladesh's foreign ministry subsequently said the atmosphere for Rahman's proposed India visit had been "vitiated" by the event.

New Delhi maintained that it had neither organised the interaction nor endorsed Hasina's statements about Bangladesh's government.

In a September 24 interview with German broadcaster Deutsche Welle, Humaiun Kobir said bilateral relations needed to be based on dignity and equality, and called for a more favourable atmosphere before Rahman's visit.

Hasina, however, used her latest PTI interview to argue that Bangladesh could not afford to let its relationship with India become hostage to the politics surrounding her exile.

Hasina's criticism comes amid two conspicuous absences by senior Bangladeshi leaders from meetings hosted by New Delhi. While Bangladesh's leadership appears reluctant to travel to India, even for major multilateral gatherings, Hasina's remarks raise the question of whether alienating India could end up hurting Bangladesh's interests rather than serving them.