Staff Reporter:
Days after his mother’s ouster, former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s son and former adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy said that he would consider returning to the country and leading the Awami League if the party’s workers wanted him to do that.
In an exclusive interview with NDTV on Friday, Joy said that his mother does not want to live in exile and would like to go back to Bangladesh.
He also insisted that Hasina wanted to retire for the last two terms as prime minister, but did not rule out her return to active politics.
“I spoke with her (Ms Hasina) last night. She has no plans as of yet. She’s staying put. All the rumours about her applying for visas or asylum… none of those are true. What she really wants is to eventually go back to Bangladesh. Whether that’s to be in politics or to retire, it doesn’t matter. It’s her home. She has grown up there. This was going to be her last term anyway, she’s 76 years old. She wants to retire in her village home in Tungipara (in south Bangladesh). That has been her dream. She does not want to live in exile outside Bangladesh,” Joy said.
When he was asked whether this would mean that Hasina could return to active politics, Joy, who is an IT entrepreneur and lives in the US, said she would be the best person to answer but she was never in public life for herself.
“She was in politics for her country, not because she wanted to be in power. She has been wanting to retire for the last two terms. In fact, she has been pushing me before every election to come and join politics. No one in our family has ever had ambition for power or politics,” he claimed.
So if he didn’t take her up on the offer at the time, would he do so now, considering that workers in his mother’s party, the Awami League, would be looking for leadership at this critical juncture? When this question was posed to Joy, he said that he has become the face of the party by default for now.
“I guess by default I am, you know, I have become the face right now. I never wanted this. I have no political ambition, but as soon as I learned that our party leaders were being attacked, their homes burned down, I said I cannot just abandon them. So I am in touch with many of our party leaders. Almost all our ministers’ homes have been burned down, our ancestral home has been burned down… So in this situation, I will do whatever it takes. The Awami League still has tens of millions of followers, it is not going to disappear overnight,” he asserted.
‘Workers Will Decide’
Stating that the Awami League could win the elections, as and when they are held, because of Hasina’s record of development, the entrepreneur said that the party is a democratic one and the workers and leaders will decide who will be at the helm.
“If the Awami League activists…they all demand that I come, I will think about it. It depends on the members of the party… If the party demands that she (Ms Hasina) be the leader, then she will be the leader. As I said, we are a democratic party. It is totally up to the members of the party to decide who their leader is going to be,” he said.
‘Government Without Mandate’
On the interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, Joy said it has no mandate and the constitution provides for elections to be held within 90 days.
“The interim government has made no attempt to communicate with us. Today’s statement from one of the advisers… it is unfortunate they have taken the exact same playbook that has failed before. They have been placed in power by a tiny minority and perhaps with foreign support. They don’t have the mandate of the people of Bangladesh at all, and they think they will reform the country without a popular mandate… This is an unconstitutional, hand-picked government and it is in their interest to hold elections as soon as possible,” he alleged.
Asked whether his mother would be willing to return to Bangladesh to face charges, he said she had nothing to be afraid of.
“During the last military takeover, they arrested my mother. They put her on trial and she was acquitted on all charges. My mother is not afraid of that. They want to play that game. We can play it again. What will happen if they try to put Sheikh Hasina on trial? Well, they can find out. My mother has done nothing illegal. She has done nothing wrong. If there are people in our government that have acted outside the law, those are the people that need to be tried. You cannot blame my mother,” he stressed.
