Last week Hasina launched an attack on BNP’s “India-Out” campaign on the occasion of the country’s Independence Day on March 26 advising the leaders of the Opposition party to first shun India made products at home and highlighted that even most kitchen items in Bangladesh are bought from India.
“How many Indian saris do their wives have?” Hasina asked in a reference to BNP leaders at an event in Dhaka organised on the occasion of the country’s Independence Day observed on March 26.
“When they burn their Indian wives’ saris in front of their party office, only then will it be proven that they are truly committed to boycotting Indian products,” she said, resulting in peals of laughter at a ruling party office in Dhaka. Ever since Hasina returned to power in 2009 India and Bangladesh partnership has expanded across sectors including cross-border infra and energy initiatives.
The BNP is understood to have taken a cue from Maldives ruling party that launched the “India-Out” campaign to win Presidential polls last year, experts on Bangladesh affairs told ET. Maldives President Md Muizzu’s “India Out” campaign was allegedly backed by China.
BNP’s social media army, most of which operates from Western capitals, has been trying to create a narrative that the Parliamentary elections in January got legitimacy only because of India. The idea is to create chaos and embarrass the Hasina government and the campaign is being spearheaded by London-based Tareque Rehman, son of ex-PM Khaleda Zia, alleged one of the experts mentioned above. BNP once again boycotted the last Parliamentary polls that brought Hasina to power for a fourth straight term.The campaign, Dhaka-based sources claimed, is aimed at weakening Bangladesh economy and subsequently the Hasina government akin to the artificial crisis that was created in early 1970s to weaken the then Sheikh Mujib government. While the campaign got traction on social media, it has not caught the imagination of the vast majority of the population that uses several India made products. The campaign is also losing its sheen in the Ramadan period when several citizens of Bangladesh travel to India particularly to Kolkata for EiD shopping.
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