Former Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Menon Rao has accused the West of fundamentally misreading Bangladesh’s political landscape, inadvertently empowering Islamist radicals who overthrew Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and triggered widespread instability, violence, and persecution of minorities.
In a detailed thread on X dated December 19, Rao argued that Western observers viewed Bangladesh through the prism of a stable, liberal democracy akin to Denmark—one where public discontent with a long-serving leader could naturally evolve into progressive change. This flawed perspective, she said, ignored the nation’s unique vulnerabilities and ultimately benefited extremist forces.
Critics abroad focused narrowly on Hasina’s governance flaws: elections falling short of Western standards, prolonged rule, power centralisation, and human rights issues. While acknowledging these shortcomings as genuine, Rao emphasised they were evaluated in isolation from Bangladesh’s broader context—a densely populated, fragile state with a history of violent Islamism and deep political trauma.
“Bangladesh was judged as if it were Denmark with a turnout problem, not a fragile, densely packed state with a violent Islamist history and a traumatised political culture,” Rao wrote.
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Her comments coincide with renewed chaos in Bangladesh, sparked by the death of Sharif Osman Goni, alias Osman Hadi, a key mobster of the Jamaat-controlled Yunus-led regime.
Hadi, shot by masked assailants earlier in December, died in a Singapore hospital, unleashing mobs across cities. Attacks targeted India’s Assistant High Commissioner in Chittagong, the home of former minister Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury Nowfel (set ablaze), an Awami League office in Rajshahi (demolished), and offices of major newspapers Prothom Alo and Daily Star, alongside assaults on journalists. Anti-India rhetoric has surged amid the unrest.
Rao outlined three critical errors in the West’s assessment:
1. Underestimating Hasina’s Role as Stabiliser: Despite her long tenure, Hasina functioned as a crucial anchor in a hostile environment, containing radical Islamist groups like Jamaat-e-Islami and its affiliates, balancing civil-military relations, protecting minorities more effectively than alternatives, and ensuring economic and geopolitical predictability. Post-ouster, these radicals have unleashed over a year of cyclical violence against opponents and minorities, facing little resistance from the Yunus administration.
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2. Overestimating a Viable Democratic Opposition: The West assumed easing pressure on Hasina would bolster liberals and democrats. In reality, no unified, credible moderate alternative existed. “Removing pressure from Hasina didn’t empower democrats. It empowered street power, radicals, and actors who thrive precisely when institutions weaken,” Rao noted.
3. Misplaced Faith in Automatic Pluralism After Regime Change: The notion that toppling an entrenched leader inherently paves the way for diversity has repeatedly failed. In fractured societies like Bangladesh, power vacuums attract the most organised, aggressive forces—often religious and violent—rather than moderates.
Rao’s critique highlights how decontextualised Western interventionism exacerbated Bangladesh’s descent into instability, empowering extremists over stable governance.
In another post on X the same day, Rao said: “Calling this ‘naya Bangladesh’ is grim irony. A nation born from a fight against genocide is now normalising political erasure, street violence, and silence on minority persecution.
“If this is what victory looks like, Bangladesh has lost. Counterrevolutions always promise purity and deliver instability, fear, and blood on the streets.”
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