For nearly two years, Sheikh Hasina's political future has all been about exile, trials and diplomatic wrangling. Now she is trying to change that. In an audio address to the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of South Asia in New Delhi on Wednesday, the former Bangladeshi prime minister declared that she would return to Bangladesh in December regardless of the consequences, even if it meant imprisonment or worse.
This was her clearest and most defiant statement since being driven from power in August 2024 in a violent coup amidst which she took refuge in India. Whether she actually boards a plane to Dhaka in December remains uncertain but what is already clear is that her declaration has injected a new variable into Bangladesh's politics and created fresh questions for India, which continues to host one of South Asia's most consequential and controversial political figures.
