PM Modi voices concern over ex-Bangladesh PM Khalida Zia's health, offers support

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday offered New Delhi’s support for the medical care of the ailing leader of the Bangladesh National Party, Begum Khaleda Zia, notwithstanding her party’s campaign against India.

Khaleda, 80, who has been suffering from renal ailments, was admitted to a private hospital in Dhaka on November 23 after she developed a chest infection that affected both her heart and lungs. Her condition deteriorated, and she had been put on ventilation for respiratory support.

“Deeply concerned to learn about the health of Begum Khaleda Zia, who has contributed to Bangladesh’s public life for many years. Our sincere prayers and best wishes for her speedy recovery,” Modi posted on X. “India stands ready to extend all possible support, in whatever way we can.”

Dhaka’s relations with New Delhi had come under stress during Khaleda Zia’s three terms in office of the prime minister of Bangladesh. Her government had allowed the militant organisation operating in the northeastern states of India to set up camps in Bangladesh.

Her party, BNP, even recently accused New Delhi of allowing the deposed prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, and her Awami League to stay in India and hatch a conspiracy to destabilise her country.

Khaleda, the wife of late President Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh, was an arch-rival of Hasina, who, after her return to power in 2009, launched a crackdown on all militant outfits, which had been running camps in Bangladesh to wage insurgency in northeastern India.

New Delhi’s relations with Dhaka were steadily on a positive trajectory during the rule of Hasina, the daughter of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the leader of the 1971 liberation war, which had led to the secession of East Pakistan from Pakistan and the birth of Bangladesh.

Hasina’s Awami League government, however, collapsed in the wake of a mass uprising against the crackdown on the agitating students and youths, and she had to fly from Dhaka by a military aircraft to an Indian Air Force base near New Delhi on August 5, 2024.

New Delhi’s relations with Dhaka remained tense after an interim government headed by Muhammad Yunus in Dhaka took over following the fall of the Awami League regime.

A source said that New Delhi could either send a team of medical professionals to check on Khaleda, or fly her in for continuing care at a medical facility in India