Commentary: Sheikh Hasina’s homecoming pledge is a headache for New Delhi

MELBOURNE: Sheikh Hasina’s recent promise to return to Bangladesh could be destabilising for the country, but it also carries much wider consequences for India. As New Delhi attempts to rebuild relations with Bangladesh’s new government, Hasina’s continued presence in India is becoming increasingly difficult to separate from the broader contest for influence in Bangladesh between India and China. In a video appearance at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of South Asia in New Delhi on Aug 5, the former Bangladeshi prime minister said she intended to return to Bangladesh in December. Hasina, who fled to India in August 2024 after a…