‘Immature and Counterproductive’: Sheikh Hasina Calls Out Bangladesh PM for Skipping BRICS Summit
Sheikh Hasina is not happy with Tarique Rahman. In fact, she’s pretty blunt about it. In an interview she gave to PTI, the former Bangladesh prime minister said Rahman’s decision to skip the BRICS Summit in New Delhi last month was immature and ended up hurting the country’s own interests. The summit happened on 12 and 13 September in New Delhi. India had invited Rahman because Bangladesh currently chairs BIMSTEC. He didn’t go. Bangladesh’s side said the invitation was only for the BIMSTEC chair, not for the prime minister as such, and that they preferred to sort out things with India bilaterally first. Hasina doesn’t buy that explanation. “It was deeply unfortunate that Bangladesh chose not to participate,” she said. “In my view, it was an immature decision and one that did not serve Bangladesh’s national interest.” She went on to explain that BRICS isn’t just another talking shop. It’s a group of big emerging economies where countries can talk trade, investment, infrastructure, technology—the kind of things that actually help a country grow. Bangladesh could have picked up useful experience and maybe opened a few new doors. That chance, she said, is gone now. She was clear that foreign policy shouldn’t be run on personal feelings or short-term political scores. “A responsible government should open doors for the country, not close them,” she said. That’s the line that keeps coming up. Hasina also addressed the elephant in the room—her own presence in New Delhi. She’s been living there since her government fell in August 2024. Some people suggest Rahman stayed away because she is in India. She called that idea very unfortunate. “Relations between two countries cannot be determined by personal considerations or political sensitivities involving one individual,” she said. Then she brought up history to make her point. After her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was killed in 1975, Ziaur Rahman (Tarique’s father) took power. Yet when Ziaur came to Delhi in 1979, Hasina was already living there. When he went to London in 1980, she was in London too. “My presence in either city did not prevent him from travelling there,” she said. “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?” She used the moment to talk about how she handled foreign policy when she was in power. Bangladesh kept good relations with India and still worked with China, Russia, Japan, the US, Europe and others. “Friendship with one country never required hostility towards another,” she said. The country needs a mature, balanced, confident foreign policy, she added—one that opens doors instead of slamming them shut. Hasina didn’t stop at the summit. She painted a pretty dark picture of what’s happening inside Bangladesh right now. She called it a grave national crisis. Democratic space has been closed, she said. The judiciary is being used for political revenge. Media freedom is restricted. Law and order have weakened. Minorities feel unsafe. Extremists have more room than before. The economy is suffering. One of the biggest political parties has been banned, its leaders are in jail or hiding, and millions of supporters can’t take part in normal politics. “This is no longer only an Awami League issue. It is a national crisis,” she said. You can’t stabilise a country by shutting out such a large part of the population. She also spoke about returning to Bangladesh. She knows the risks—there’s a death sentence hanging over her from a Bangladeshi court—but she said personal safety isn’t the biggest worry. She’s faced death before, starting with the 1975 killings of her family, later assassination attempts, and time in prison. What bothers her more is what she sees as the collapse of justice. A death sentence given without a real chance to defend yourself isn’t justice, she said. Her return, she claimed, is about restoring democracy, voting rights and the rule of law. She wants ordinary people to be able to decide their future through a free and fair election. All of this comes while India-Bangladesh relations are already tense. Dhaka keeps asking for Hasina’s extradition. India has said Rahman was invited both for a bilateral visit and for the BRICS outreach as BIMSTEC chair. Still, no senior Bangladeshi leader showed up for the summit, and the home minister also skipped a BIMSTEC meeting in Delhi more recently. Hasina’s interview is her latest public shot from exile. Whether it changes anything in Dhaka is another question. What she’s saying, in plain words, is that skipping BRICS cost Bangladesh more than it gained, and that letting personal or short-term politics decide foreign policy is a bad idea for the country. Sources:PTI interview with Sheikh Hasina, reported on 14 October 2026 by The Tribune, Moneycontrol, India Today, India TV, CNBC-TV18 and other outlets.@Rohit Manral
‘Not expecting neighbours to do only what’s in my interest’: Jaishankar on Bangladesh amid Hasina row
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar was saying on Saturday when he spoke about India and Bangladesh.He was at the Economic Times World Leaders Forum in Delhi, and someone asked him about the current awkwardness between the two countries—especially Bangladesh’s demand that India hand over Sheikh Hasina, and the question mark hanging over a possible visit by Bangladesh’s new Prime Minister Tarique Rahman. Jaishankar didn’t get into the details of any private talks. He rarely does. Instead he kept it simple and practical. He said, “What I can tell you is for any relationship to work, it has to meet the test of mutual interest. It has to work for them, it has to work for us.” Then he added the line that really stays with you: “I am also realistic, I’m not expecting neighbours to do only what’s in my interest. There has to be a fair degree, a reasonable degree, of my recognising and respecting what is their interest, just as I expect them also to do so.” He went on to say that once both sides find that common ground—that “landing point”—things start moving more smoothly. At the end of the day, he said, mutuality is what holds these relationships together. It’s a calm, grown-up way of putting it at a time when things have been a bit tense. Sheikh Hasina has been in India since August 2024, when she left Bangladesh during the big political upheaval. Bangladesh has been asking for her return so she can face the cases against her there. Some reports say Dhaka has even linked that demand to Rahman’s possible trip to India. New Delhi has invited him—both for a regular bilateral visit and in connection with the BRICS summit, since Bangladesh chairs BIMSTEC right now. But the timing has been uncertain, and the Hasina issue keeps sitting in the background. After 2024 the relationship took a real knock. There was coolness, some trade friction, sharper public comments. When Tarique Rahman took charge earlier this year, it looked like both sides were trying to steady the boat a bit. Then Hasina did a virtual media interaction from India on the second anniversary of her departure, and that seemed to irritate Dhaka all over again. India has said it didn’t organise or endorse that interaction, but the episode still added to the strain. Jaishankar’s answer didn’t pick a fight and it didn’t give anything away either. He just stated the obvious truth: lasting ties can’t be one-sided. India has its own interests—border security, connectivity for the Northeast, trade, regional stability. Bangladesh has its own priorities, shaped by what its people and its politics want right now. Pretending those don’t exist doesn’t help anyone. He’s talked about neighbourhood diplomacy this way before. What feels refreshing is that he isn’t treating this as a zero-sum game. He’s not saying India holds all the cards, and he’s not saying Bangladesh has to simply fall in line. The message is quieter and more realistic: both sides need to feel they’re getting something out of it. That applies whether you’re talking about high-level visits, legal requests, border management or the everyday economic links that ordinary people actually feel. And ordinary people do feel it. Cross-border trade, medical travel, family visits, the movement of goods—those things matter more than diplomatic language. When the temperature stays high for too long, those practical connections start to suffer first. Finding common ground, as Jaishankar put it, is less about grand speeches and more about the patient work of spotting where interests overlap and managing the differences that will always be there. Right now the two governments are still talking about the visit. Whether it happens soon or takes a little longer, the larger point he made still holds. Neighbours don’t have to agree on everything. They just have to accept that each has legitimate interests of its own. Expecting only one side to adjust is a sure way to keep the friction going. Looking for the place where interests meet is the more practical path—and the one he said India is ready to take. In the end it’s the kind of plain-spoken view that doesn’t make for dramatic headlines, but it might actually help keep the relationship from drifting further off course. Mutual interest isn’t a fancy slogan. It’s just the basic condition for any lasting neighbourhood arrangement. And right now, that’s exactly what both sides need to remember. Sources: Hindustan Times, The Indian Express, India Today, Zee News, News18, India TV, WION, The Daily Star, Firstpost, Times of India (coverage of Jaishankar’s remarks at the Economic Times World Leaders Forum, 22–23 August 2026). @Rohit Manral