Sheikh Hasina survived the carnage of August 15, 1975 by sheer chance. Hasina, who was then 28, happened to be abroad when almost all members of her family, including her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh, were killed at her residence in Dhaka by a group of army personnel. She then spent less than a decade in exile in India.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, she remobilised the Awami League, Mujib’s party, which played a crucial role in bringing down the military dictatorship of Muhammad Ershad in 1990. Six years later, the Awami League defeated the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of Khaleda Zia, and Ms. Hasina became the Prime Minister for the first time. She returned to power after an interregnum in 2009.
In the subsequent 15 years, Ms. Hasina oversaw economic progress in Bangladesh. The country saw millions being lifted out of poverty. Her government won international praise for hosting millions of Rohingya Muslim refugees who fled violence in neighbouring Myanmar. She set up a war crimes tribunal to hold those who aided the genocide of the 1970s accountable. She won back-to-back elections, the latest victory being in January 2024.
Still everything she built came crashing like a castle in the sand on August 5. The ‘iron lady’ of Bangladesh had to resign and leave the country. What went wrong for the most powerful Prime Minister Bangladesh had had in a generation?
Script and presentation: Stanly Johny
Video: Thamodharan B.
Production: Shikha Kumari
Also watch: New regime in Bangladesh | Lessons for India & South Asia
Also watch: The story of Sheikh Hasina
