Bangladesh's Muhammad Yunus Asked Modi To Silence Sheikh Hasina; Indian PM Refused

Bangladesh's interim leader, Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus, has slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for allowing ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to make speeches online, leaving the people of Bangladesh angered.

Yunus Recounts Conversation With Modi

Recounting his earlier chat with PM Modi, Yunus said, "When I had the chance to talk to Prime Minister Modi, I simply said you want to host her, I cannot force you to abandon that policy... but please help us in making sure that she doesn't speak to Bangladeshi people the way she's doing," The interim head of the Bangladesh government was speaking at the Chatham House in London.

He said, "She announces that such and such day such and such hour she will speak, and the whole Bangladesh gets very angry. Why is she keeping this whole anger thing inside?" According to Yunus, PM Modi told him that "It's social media, you cannot control it." On the Indian PM's reaction, Yunus stated, "What can you say? It's an explosive situation, you can't just walk away saying it's social media."

On asking whether India was doing what Bangladesh expected, Yunus said, "No." He recalled writing to India over the extradition of Sheikh Hasina.

"The tribunal has started the trial process. They sent notices to Hasina for the crimes she had committed. There are so many other crimes coming up. So they have to respond to such notices. We're following a legal process. We want it to be legal, very proper. We want to make sure that we don't do something out of anger," he commented.

Bangladesh Wants Good Ties With India

Nonetheless, he noted that Bangladesh wants good bilateral ties with India "We want to build the best relationship with India, they're our neighbour. We don't want to have a basic problem with them. "But somehow things go wrong every time because of all the fake news that is coming from the Indian press and some, many people say has connections with policymakers at the top," he stated.

"This is what makes Bangladesh very jittery, very, very angry. We try to get over this anger. But the whole barrage of things keeps happening in cyberspace we can't just get away from that. Even if we try to remain peaceful suddenly they say something, do something and the anger comes back. So this is now a big task for us," Yunus explained.

Since Hasina's houster in 2024, the relations between the two neighbours has strained. While she is in India seeking asylum amid escalating violence and threats in Bangladesh, her party Awami League is officially banned in May 2025 by the interim government.

The Yunus headed government has accused India of interfering in Bangladesh's domestic politics.