Dhaka: America was behind the plan to remove Sheikh Hasina from the post of Prime Minister of Bangladesh. This is revealed by a secret document of the US government which has now been made public. According to this document, the plan to remove Sheikh Hasina from the post of Prime Minister of Bangladesh started in 2019 itself. Just a suitable opportunity was being awaited. Senior US officials who oversaw this entire plan included Chris Murphy, Sumona Guha, Donald Lu, Sarah Morgan and Francisco Bencosme.
America had rejected the allegations
Sheikh Hasina herself had also accused America of removing her from power. But at that time America had completely rejected these allegations. However, when Mohammad Yunus took power in Bangladesh, people’s suspicion towards America deepened. Because Mohammad Yunus is considered special to America.
Agencies like IRI, NED, USAID involved
Internal documents made available to The Sunday Guardian reveal that agencies like the International Republican Institute (IRI), National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) were involved in this plan. The most prominent among them was the International Republican Institute (IRI) which brought about regime change in Bangladesh after Mongolia (1996), Haiti (2001) and Uganda (2021). These documents also show how this project was necessary to counter India’s interference.
Hand of US funded institutions
The Washington-based IRI’s stated objective is to “promote democracy by supporting democratic institutions, political parties, civil society and electoral processes” and it serves as an implementation partner for USAID-funded projects aimed at enhancing democratic governance. IRI is one of the four main institutes of the NED, which include the National Democratic Institute (NDI), the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) and the Solidarity Center. Similarly, NED provides grants to IRI for various projects aimed at “strengthening democratic institutions and processes”. While NED is a private, non-profit organization established in 1983, primarily funded by the US Congress that operates independently of the US government. USAID is a government agency responsible for administering foreign aid and development assistance.
Efforts were on since 2019
In March 2019, IRI launched a program to bring about governance change in Dhaka, after receiving a grant for its activities from USAID and NED. That program was named “Promoting Accountability, Inclusiveness and Resilience Support Program” (PAIRS) and it ran for 22 months until January 2021. IRI said the program was necessary to “increase political participation of Bangladeshi citizens and amplify anti-authoritarian voices,” for which “IRI implemented a wide-ranging social empowerment project that promoted and expanded citizen-centric, local, and non-traditional forums for political engagement.”
Money was spent like water
To achieve their objective, US agencies spent money like water. Grants were given to every social or pressure group to do anti-government work. Campaigns were run on social media and money was given in return. Every group was targeted so that it could work against the government in some way or the other. On March 16, the National Democratic Institute (NDI), another Washington-based organization, and IRI’s Technical Assessment Mission (TAM) released a report on the 2024 national elections. The report claimed that Sheikh Hasina won the election by rigging while the opposition was completely absent in this election. Along with this, the government was also accused of misusing the government machinery. It also said that the ruling party dominated the entire electoral process and resorted to violence to suppress the voice of the opposition.
