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On August 5, 2026, two years to the day since she fled Dhaka by helicopter, Sheikh Hasina is set to address a virtual press conference in New Delhi, hosted by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of South Asia. She will not appear on camera – organisers say the government has not cleared her for a video appearance, so it will be audio only. That single detail tells you where South Block actually stands: New Delhi isn’t debating whether Hasina gets to speak from Indian soil. It is managing exactly how loud.

For Indian readers, this should not be read as a footnote to a neighbour’s internal turmoil. It goes to the heart of India’s own northeastern security calculus, its rivalry with China in the Bay of Bengal, and the credibility of the “Neighbourhood First” doctrine that successive governments in Delhi have championed. 

Dhaka wants Hasina back. Delhi keeps saying the request is “under examination.” That is not bureaucratic caution but a choice — one worth understanding on its merits and not just its optics.

This isn’t her first broadcast — and it isn’t harmless

In January 2026, Hasina addressed a packed FCC gathering in New Delhi by audio link, calling Bangladesh’s then-interim leader Muhammad Yunus a “murderous fascist” and declaring the country would “never” see a free election under him, to a reported online audience of over 100,000. Dhaka lodged a formal protest with the Ministry of External Affairs over the speech.

It was not an isolated outburst. Earlier, after a mob demolished her father’s historic Dhanmondi residence in Dhaka, Hasina delivered a virtual address from Indian soil accusing Bangladesh’s interim leadership of plotting to kill her and her sister — remarks Dhaka says helped ignite fresh violence, prompting it to summon India’s acting High Commissioner in protest. In each instance, the platform was Indian, the audience was Bangladeshi, and the object was Bangladesh’s own government. 

That is worth sitting with: a head of state convicted of crimes against humanity by her own country’s tribunal is........

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