NEW DELHI: The ouster of Bangladesh’s autocratic premier sparked celebrations in Dhaka this week but alarm in neighboring India, which backed Sheikh Hasina to counter rival China and quash Islamist alternatives, analysts say.
It has created a diplomatic dilemma for the regional powerhouse.
Hasina, 76, quit as prime minister in the face of a student-led uprising on Monday and fled by helicopter to longtime ally New Delhi.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among the first to offer his “best wishes” after Bangladesh’s newly sworn-in interim leader Muhammad Yunus took power Thursday, saying New Delhi was “committed” to working with Dhaka.
But China was also swift to welcome Dhaka’s new authorities, saying it “attaches importance to the development” of relations.
With Hasina’s rivals in control in Dhaka, India’s support for the old government has come back to bite.
“From the point of view of Bangladeshis, India has been on the wrong side for a couple of years now,” said International Crisis Group analyst Thomas Kean.
“The Indian government absolutely did not want to see a change in Dhaka, and had made that very clear for years that they didn’t see any alternative to Hasina and the Awami League.”
Bangladesh is almost entirely encircled by India, with a deeply intertwined history long before they were partitioned out of the Indian subcontinent in 1947.
But while India’s 1.4 billion population and dominating economy overshadows Bangladesh — with a population of 170 million — Hasina also courted China.
India and China, the world’s two most populous nations, are intense rivals competing for strategic influence across South Asia, including in Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldives.
Hasina pursued a delicate balancing act, benefiting from support from New Delhi, while maintaining strong relations with Beijing.
New Delhi saw a common threat in groups Hasina viewed as rivals and crushed with brutal force, including the key Bangladesh National Party (BNP).
“India... worried that any alternative to Hasina and the Awami League could be detrimental to Indian interests,” said Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Washington-based Wilson Center.
“In New Delhi’s view, the BNP and its allies are dangerous Islamist forces that could imperil Indian interests.”
Yunus has said he wants elections in Bangladesh “within a few months.”
The BNP could be poised for a comeback, holding a mass rally in Dhaka this week.
In the immediate aftermath of Hasina’s fall, some businesses and homes owned by Hindus were attacked, a group seen by some in Muslim-majority Bangladesh as having been her supporters.
Hundreds of Bangladeshi Hindus this week arrived on India’s border, asking to cross.
Hindu nationalist leader Modi on Thursday said he hoped “for an early return to normalcy, ensuring the safety and protection of Hindus and all other minority communities.”
The fact Hasina is sheltering in India may prove to be a stumbling block to relations between New Delhi and Dhaka.
Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told parliament Hasina had flown to India “at very short notice,” and according to Indian media, intended to stay only briefly in transit.
But her reported bid to travel onwards to Britain was scuppered after London called for a “full and independent UN-led investigation” into the deadly crackdown on protests in the last weeks of her rule.
The United States in the past had praised Hasina’s economic track record and saw her as a partner on priorities such as countering Islamist extremism, but Washington more recently imposed visa sanctions over concerns about democracy.
It is not clear how long she will now stay in India, or where else she might go.
Since arriving at military air base near New Delhi, she has been hosted in a secret safe house and not spoken publically.
Her daughter Saima Wazed said she was “heartbroken” she could not see her mother.
“As much as I would love to see Ma, I don’t want to compromise her whereabouts in any way,” Wazed, the World Health Organization’s Southeast Asia chief, said in a since-deleted post on social media platform X.
Her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy told the Times of India newspaper his mother still hoped to contest for political office.
“She will go back to Bangladesh the moment the interim government decides to hold an election,” he said.
Indian media warn of the “formidable diplomatic challenge” the country now faces.
“New Delhi must actively work to limit the damage, and ensure the high stakes in the relationship are protected,” the Indian Express newspaper warned. “This could involve some near-term setbacks.”
But Bangladesh’s new leader Yunus has offered an olive branch.
“Although some countries, such as India, backed the ousted prime minister and earned the enmity of the Bangladeshi people as a result, there will be many opportunities to heal these kinds of rifts,” Yunus wrote in The Economist, shortly before returning to Bangladesh.
Crisis Group’s Kean meanwhile said he believes the nations will put the past aside for pragmatic relations.
“India is Bangladesh’s most important international partner, and there’s no reason that they can’t find a way to move forward from this,” said Kean.
“Economic forces will compel them to work together.”
Hasina’s ouster from power poses diplomatic dilemma for India
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Hasina’s ouster from power poses diplomatic dilemma for India
- Hasina, 76, quit as prime minister in the face of a student-led uprising on Monday and fled to longtime ally India
- With Hasina’s rivals in control of Bangladesh now, India’s support for the old government has come back to bite
Flooding in northeast Nigeria could displace up to one million
KANO, Nigeria: Fatima Yakubu woke up in the middle of the night to find her legs submerged as water rose in her home in northeastern Nigeria earlier this week.
She screamed and people helped her escape with her six children.
Flood waters have displaced more than one million people in and around Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, in one of the worst ever floods in Africa’s most populous country.
Thousands of homes were engulfed by rapidly rising waters after a dam burst following a weekend of torrential rain in northeastern Nigeria.
“I shouted for help in terror and some men outside heard my scream and came into the house which was already flooded and rescued us,” said Yakubu, 26, describing her survival as a “miracle.”
She and her children took shelter in one of the eight camps set up by authorities.
Barkindo Mohammed, the director general of Borno State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), told AFP that the number of people displaced by the flooding could reach one million people.
Mohammed Sheriff, 60, was not so lucky. He too awoke in the middle of the night to rising waters in his home.
Together with his two wives, they carried six of their children, thinking that the two eldest, aged 11 and 13, would be strong enough to fight the current. The two children are still missing.
“We haven’t seen them since and we fear the worst,” Sheriff told AFP.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said on Wednesday that at least 30 people have died in the floods — the worst in 30 years, according to the United Nations refugee agency in Nigeria.
NEMA’s director general Zubaida Umar said on X on Thursday she was relieved that the “flood level in Maiduguri is receding, and normalcy is beginning to return to the metropolis,” adding that rescue operations were ongoing in the city flooded up to 40 percent.
“Children and families are still trapped in their homes,” British charity Save The Children said in a statement on Friday.
“The immense damage to water and sanitation services is driving up the risk of cholera and other water- and vector-borne diseases,” the NGO said, pointing out that the city’s two main hospitals had also been flooded.
The World Food Programme (WFP) said the disaster would increase the risk of food insecurity, particularly in the vulnerable northeast.
At least 259 people have been killed by flooding in Nigeria since the beginning of the rainy season, according to Umar.
Ukraine government approves 2025 draft budget, PM says
Ukraine’s government has approved the 2025 draft budget, which has a strong focus on defense spending, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Friday.
Shmyhal, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said the draft, to be submitted to parliament, provided for 2 trillion hryvnias ($48.2 billion)in revenues and 3.6 trillion hryvnias in expenditures.
The draft, put together 2-1/2 years into the Russian invasion of the country, also included a provision of 2.22 trillion hryvnias ($53.5 bln) for defense.
Shmyhal said preparations in drafting the budget, the third since the start of the invasion, had been completed “despite all the challenges and uncertainty.”
“The priority for this budget is very clear — the country’s defense and security,” he wrote. “We will again direct all domestic resources to these objectives.”
There would be, he said, “more money for Ukrainian weapons, equipment, drones.”
More than 400 billion hryvnias would be allocated for social security, with funds for indexing pensions and providing subsidies and a total of 211 billion hrynias on health care.
Local authorities would receive assistance and advantageous credits provided for entrepreneurs. Capital expenditure would be made more transparent and the government would press on with rebuilding projects and those in the energy sphere.
1 person shot during scuffle at pro-Israel rally in Boston suburb, authorities say
- Police were called at 6:40 p.m. to the scene of what they described as a small rally in Newton
- Words were exchanged before a passerby rapidly crossed the street and tackled one of the demonstrators, Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan said
BOSTON, USA: A pro-Israel rally in a Boston suburb turned violent Thursday evening when a passerby was shot during a scuffle after confronting a group of demonstrators, authorities said.
Police were called at 6:40 p.m. to the scene of what they described as a small rally in Newton. Words were exchanged before a passerby rapidly crossed the street and tackled one of the demonstrators, Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan said.
“A scuffle ensued. During that scuffle, the individual who had come across the street was shot by a member of the demonstrating group,” Ryan said during a news conference late Thursday.
Scott Hayes, 47, of Framingham, was arrested on charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and violation of a constitutional right causing injury. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Hayes, who works as a contractor for National Grid, was ordered to be fitted with a GPS monitor and to stay away both from the city of Newton and from the individual who had been shot and to not be in possession of a dangerous weapon.
Hayes, who appeared to have bruising to his face during his court appearance Friday afternoon, was also required to post a $5,000 cash bail and to abide by a 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew.
Prosecutors also told the court that an application for a criminal complaint has been applied for against the individual who was shot.
They said they opted for an application for a criminal complaint instead of an arrest because the alleged assault and battery was not committed in the presence of a police officers.
The shooting victim, who was not identified, was being treated at a hospital for life-threatening injuries, Ryan said.
Acting Newton Police Chief George McMains asked witnesses to provide investigators with photos or videos of the confrontation. He said police would provide extra patrols at “houses of worship” over the next several days.
Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller called the shooting a “frightening incident” and asked for everyone to remain calm as police investigate.
“I know people will have a lot of questions, and we will share information with Newtonians and the press when we are able,” Fuller said. “It’s really early stages of an active investigation.”
Pope slams Harris and Trump on anti-life stances, urges Catholics to vote for ‘lesser evil’
ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE: Pope Francis on Friday slammed both US presidential candidates for what he called anti-life policies on abortion and migration, and he advised American Catholics to choose who they think is the “lesser evil” in the upcoming US elections.
“Both are against life, be it the one who kicks out migrants, or be it the one who kills babies,” Francis said.
The Argentine Jesuit was asked to provide counsel to American Catholic voters during an airborne news conference while he flew back to Rome from his four-nation tour through Asia. Francis stressed that he is not an American and would not be voting.
Neither Republican candidate Donald Trump nor the Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris, was mentioned by name.
But Francis nevertheless expressed himself in stark terms when asked to weigh in on their positions on two hot-button issues in the US election — abortion and migration — that are also of major concern to the Catholic Church.
Francis has made the plight of migrants a priority of his pontificate and speaks out emphatically and frequently about it. While strongly upholding church teaching forbidding abortion, Francis has not emphasized church doctrine as much as his predecessors.
Francis said migration is a right described in Scripture and that anyone who does not follow the Biblical call to welcome the stranger is committing a “grave sin.”
He was also blunt in speaking about abortion. “To have an abortion is to kill a human being. You may like the word or not, but it’s killing,” he said. “We have to see this clearly.”
Asked what voters should do at the polls, Francis recalled the civic duty to vote.
“One should vote, and choose the lesser evil,” he said. “Who is the lesser evil, the woman or man? I don’t know.
“Everyone in their conscience should think and do it,” he said.
It’s not the first time Francis has weighed in on a US election. In the run-up to the 2016 election, Francis was asked about Trump’s plan to build a wall at the US-Mexico border. Francis declared then that anyone who builds a wall to keep out migrants “is not Christian.”
In responding Friday, Francis recalled that he celebrated Mass at the US-Mexico border and “there were so many shoes of the migrants who ended up badly there.”
Trump pledges massive deportations, just as he did in his first White House bid, when there was a vast gulf between his ambitions and the legal, financial and political realities of such an undertaking.
The US bishops conference, for its part, has called abortion the “preeminent priority” for American Catholics in its published voter advice. Harris has strongly defended abortion rights and has emphasized support for reinstating a federal right to abortion.
In his comments, the pope added: “On abortion, science says that a month from conception, all the organs of a human being are already there, all of them. Performing an abortion is killing a human being. Whether you like the word or not, this is killing. You can’t say the church is closed because it does not allow abortion. The church does not allow abortion because it’s killing. It is murder.”
However, cells are only beginning the process of developing organs in the earliest weeks of pregnancy. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says that by 13 weeks, all major organs have formed. For example, cardiac tissue starts to form in the first two months — initially a tube that only later evolves into the four chambers that define a heart.
Pope Francis decries deaths of Gaza children in Israeli bombings
- The pope said: “I do not think that they are taking steps to make peace“
- He said he speaks on the phone with members of a Catholic parish in Gaza “every day” and “they tell me ugly things, difficult things“
ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT: Pope Francis on Friday decried the deaths of Palestinian children in Israeli military strikes in Gaza, calling bombings of schools, on the “presumption” of striking Hamas militants, “ugly.”
On the flight back to Rome from Singapore, the pontiff expressed doubt that either Israel or Hamas, now at war for eleven months, were seeking to end the conflict.
“I am sorry to have to say this,” the pope said. “But I do not think that they are taking steps to make peace.”
Francis was speaking in a press conference with journalists after a demanding 12-day tour across Southeast Asia and Oceania. He said he speaks on the phone with members of a Catholic parish in Gaza “every day” and “they tell me ugly things, difficult things.”
“Please, when you see the bodies of killed children, when you see that, under the presumption that some guerrillas are there, a school is bombed, this is ugly,” the 87-year-old pontiff said. “It is ugly.”
The pope, who has supported calls for a ceasefire in the conflict and for the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas, said “sometimes I think it’s a war that is too much, too much.”
The Israel-Hamas war was triggered by Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, when the militant group killed some 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. The resulting Israeli military campaign has reduced the Strip to rubble and killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, according to the enclave’s health ministry.
The United Nations said on Thursday that the war has left Gaza’s economy “in ruins.”
The pope spoke about a range of other issues during the 40-minute press conference. He criticized both former US President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris’ policies, and said US Catholics would have to “choose the lesser evil” when they vote in November, without elaborating.
’HAPPY’ WITH CHINA DEAL
Francis also said a Vatican deal with China over the appointment of Catholic bishops in the communist country was showing good results, indicating it will almost certainly be extended when it comes up for renewal this fall.
The pope said the results of the 2018 deal, in which China gets some input into selection of Catholic bishops, “are good.” “I am happy with the dialogue with China,” said the pontiff. “We are working with good will.”
Conservative Catholics have sharply criticized the agreement as handing over too much control to China. The Vatican says the accord resolves a decades-long split between an underground church swearing loyalty to the Vatican and the state-supervised Catholic Patriotic Association.
The deal has never been published, but only described by diplomatic officials. The Vatican says the pope retains final decision-making power in appointment of Chinese bishops.
PARIS, ARGENTINA, CLERGY ABUSE
The pope also firmly denied a French media report that he will go to Paris in December for the reopening of Notre-Dame cathedral. Francis said: “I will not go to Paris.”
A small French outlet had reported the pope would go for the cathedral’s planned Dec. 8 reopening ceremony, five years after a devastating fire. The pontiff also said on Friday he was still considering whether to travel this year to Argentina, his home country.
“I would like to go,” said Francis, who is the first pope from the Americas and before becoming pontiff served as the archbishop of Buenos Aires. “But it is not yet decided. There are some things to resolve first.”
The pope said that if he did go to Argentina, he would like to make a stop on the way from Rome in the Canary Islands, an autonomous Spanish territory off the coast of northwestern Africa. It has become an increasingly popular destination for migrants braving an Atlantic crossing to try to reach Europe.
Caring for migrants has been a key theme of Francis’ 11-year papacy. He made his first visit as pope to the Italian island of Lampedusa, also confronting an influx of migrants.
“There is situation there with migrants, who are coming by sea,” he said of the Canaries. “And I would like to be close to the government and people.”
Francis was also asked about Catholic clergy abuse, and the case of a French priest, known as Abbe Pierre, who was long celebrated for his work with homeless but was later revealed to have been accused of assaulting at least seven women. He died in 2007.
The organization Pierre founded, Emmaus, disclosed an additional 17 testimonies against the late priest on Sept. 6.
The pope said he did not know when the Vatican had first become aware of the allegations. “Certainly, after his death, surely,” said Francis. “But before (his death), I don’t know.”
