’Burn your wives’ sarees first’: Bangladesh PM Hasina slams rivals’ call to boycott Indian products
The ‘India Out’ campaign in Bangladesh was started by some activists and influencers after the Jan elections when Sheikh Hasina was elected for a fourth consecutive term
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina waded into the “boycott Indian products” controversy by demanding that the opposition leaders who supported the campaign should declare how many Indian sarees their wives had. She also questioned why they were not setting those sarees on fire.
Speaking at a meeting of the ruling Awami League, she attacked the leaders of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) who were asking people to boycott Indian products.
“My question is, how many Indian sarees do their wives have? And why are they not taking the sarees from their wives and setting them on fire? Please ask BNP leaders,” said Hasina.
She went on to recall that when the BNP was in power, ministers and their wives would buy sarees during their trips to India and then sell them in Bangladesh.
The prime minister did not stop with sarees. She then discussed the role of Indian spices in the Bangladeshi kitchens.
“Garam masala, garlic, onions, ginger – all spices that come from India should not be seen in the BNP leaders’ homes,” she said.
'India Out' campaign started by activists
The “India Out” campaign in Bangladesh was initiated by some activists and influencers after the January general elections when Sheikh Hasina was elected for a fourth consecutive term. They claim that India supported the re-election of Sheikh Hasina because it wanted the status quo to continue. The elections were boycotted by BNP and other opposition parties. Many of the Bangladeshi diaspora in other countries were believed to be behind the “boycott India products” campaign.
The BNP was not actively involved in the boycott campaign until its joint secretary-general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi threw his Kashmiri-made shawl on the road in a symbolic gesture against Indian products. This is when PM Sheikh Hasina decided to publicly call out their hypocrisy.
The BNP has said that it does not have an official stand on the boycott issue, though some of its leaders like Rizvi have now supported the campaign.
After Sheikh Hasina’s “Indian sarees” remark, a BNP leader said the Awami League and Sheikh Hasina were the biggest Indian products and urged people to boycott the party and its leader.