'India opens doors to anybody who seeks assistance during existential crisis': Parliament panel backs decision to host Sheikh Hasina

New Delhi: Even as Dhaka mounted pressure on New Delhi to extradite Sheikh Hasina, and the radical organisations in Bangladesh also stepped up campaigns against India of late for continuing to host her, a parliamentary panel stressed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government should be guided by its humanitarian tradition of offering refuge to individuals facing existential threats.

The report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs, presented to the Lok Sabha on Thursday, revealed that India had virtually rejected the demand of the interim government of Bangladesh for the extradition of Sheikh Hasina long ago.

New Delhi conveyed to Dhaka that India had continued to host the deposed prime minister of Bangladesh since August 2024 in accordance with the nation’s civilisational principle of opening its doors to “anybody” who had sought its assistance “at a moment of existential crisis”.

The government also underlined that it was not providing her with a platform to undertake political activity from India, and she was using “private communication devices” to make statements.

India conveyed to the interim regime led by Muhammad Yunus in Bangladesh that the stay of the daughter of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in its territory would not “constrict” the space for New Delhi’s engagement with Dhaka, a report by the parliamentary panel quoted Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri stating during a testimony before the panel.

The committee took note of the renewed request New Delhi received from Yunus’ interim government in Dhaka for the extradition of Hasina after she was sentenced to death by a court in Bangladesh last month, but stressed that India’s approach on the issue should be guided by its civilizational ethos and humanitarian tradition of offering refuge to individuals facing circumstances of grave distress.

The report of the parliamentary panel was presented to the Lok Sabha a day after a radical organisation, “July Oikya Mancha”, staged a protest march near New Delhi’s diplomatic mission in Dhaka on Wednesday, demanding that India hand over Hasina and the former interior minister of the erstwhile Awami League government, Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, at the earliest.

A court in Dhaka on November 17 last awarded the death sentence to Hasina and Kamal for the “crimes against humanity” committed during the police crackdown on the students and youths, who had protested against reservations in government jobs in July-August 2024, leading to the fall of the Awami League government.

The protest by the “July Oikya Mancha”, a radical organisation born out of the agitation against the Awami League government, against India’s alleged interference in the politics in Bangladesh, followed an attack on Sharif Osman Hadi, a right-wing student leader in the neighbouring country, on December 12.

After the attack on Hadi, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Yunus’s interim government in Bangladesh accused Sheikh Hasina and other Awami League leaders of organising terrorist attacks in the country from India. Dhaka alleged that India’s territory was being used for activities detrimental to the interests of Bangladesh. Pranay Verma, India’s High Commissioner to Bangladesh, was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the neighbouring country’s government on December 14.