Washington DC: Son of former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Sajeeb Wazed Joy has expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his government's quick action following the developments in the neighbouring country which led to her departure.
Sheikh Hasina's son also dismissed media reports of a revocation of her visa stating that no one has revoked the visa of the Awami League leader and neither has she applied for political asylum anywhere.
In an exclusive interview with ANI, Wazed said "No one has revoked her visa. She has not applied for political asylum anywhere. Those are all rumours." He also expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for saving Sheikh Hasina's life.
"My message to the government of India is my personal gratitude to Prime Minister Modi for his government's quick action in saving my mother's life. I am eternally grateful," he said.
"India needs to take a leadership role in the world, and not let other foreign powers dictate the situation. Because this is India's neighbourhood. This is India's eastern side," he said. Wazed pointed out that during Hasina's regime, Bangladesh grew economically and was at peace.
"No one can deny that Sheikh Hasina's government kept peace in Bangladesh, kept economic growth, stopped insurgency and kept the eastern side of our subcontinent stable. We are the only government that has proven we can do it. Other governments have tried. They have failed," he said.
Wazed termed the new government as unconstitutional because the Bangladeshi constitution states that a non-elected government cannot remain in power.
Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus took oath as the head of Bangladesh's interim government on August 8 and was administered the oath of office by President Mohammed Shahabuddin at a ceremony in Dhaka.
"In a way, I welcome it because these people have been championed by the minority, by the elite, and by the West. I personally believe, having seen the functioning of government and having served as a government, as an honorary advisor to the government, that it is one thing to be handpicked and appointed to a position. It's a whole other thing to govern and without political experience, without governance experience, it is very, very difficult to run a country."
"I'm actually curious to see how they will perform, and whether they are even capable of running the country. However, the point is that our Supreme Court has ruled and our Constitution says that a non-elected government cannot run a country even for one minute. Right now, this is an unconstitutional government. They are not elected. So there is no democracy in Bangladesh. They are talking about democracy, but there is no democracy...If they want to have democracy, they have to have elections," he said.
"And our Constitution is very clear on this provision that from the day parliament is dissolved, new elections have to be held within 90 days. There is no way around it. There is no such thing as an interim government in the Constitution which can stay in power beyond 90 days. That does not exist. So I believe that this government's priority should be to hold elections as soon as possible," he said.
