Sheikh Hasina is back in Delhi for safety after nearly 50 years

Bangladesh Air Force plane C130J carrying the country’s Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina landed at the Indian Air Force base at Hindon on Monday after being forced to quit from her post. This was not new for Hasina as she had a similar experience in 1975 when she first called India her home.

Her stay in India began from August 15, 1975 after her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and family was massacred. She was in Germany with her husband, children and sister Rehana at the time of assassination. The latter was the second VIP in the military aircraft that landed in India on Monday, escaping a certain death.

Hasina, her husband, Dr MA Wazed, a nuclear scientist who was working in Germany at the time, her son Sajeeb and her daughter Saima, also known as Putul, were offered asylum in India and lived a low-profile life in Delhi from 1975 to 1981.



The then Indian PM Indira Gandhi did not want to allow the children of Rahman, a leader with whom she shared a good personal equation, to return to an uncertain prospect in their country.

“Sheikh Hasina lived at 56, Lajpat Nagar III, for a few weeks before shifting to Pandara Road,” recalled Anil Makhijani, a real estate consultant and an old resident of the southeast Delhi locality, while speaking to TOI. “In fact, the Bangladesh High Commission operated from that house for many years before shifting to the Diplomatic Enclave of Chanakyapuri.”

The guest family was then accommodated in a government flat at Pandara Park. Sheikh Hasina made the best she could of a life in exile. “She worked for All India Radio's Bangla service to pass time,” remembered veteran journalist Manmohan Sharma. Among those who provided the beleaguered family with companionship were former President Pranab Mukherjee and his wife Shubhra Mukherjee. The Bangladeshi couple regularly went to the Mukherjees’ residence. The children of the two families also bonded.


Sharmistha Mukherjee, daughter of the former President of India, remembered the days of 1970s. She said, “My mother and Sheikh Hasina used to discuss art, music and Bengali literature.” She went down the memory lane and said that Putul and she played with dolls on the lawns of nearby India Gate.

During her stay in the national capital, leaders of Awami League, the party that her father had led, would come to meet her regularly. They used to request her to become active in Bangladesh politics. She decided to finally return home in 1981 after having been noncommittal for a long time.

The former Bangladeshi PM's relationship with the Mukherjees remained unbroken. Whenever she visited Delhi, she made sure to spend some time with the family. As Sharmistha recalled, “When my mother passed away on Aug 18, 2015, Sheikh Hasina came with her daughter Putul to express her condolences.” On Monday, Sharmistha posted on X: “Stay safe & strong Hasina Aunty. Tomorrow is another day. My prayers are with you.”


Hasina will remain in Delhi until she decides where she will seek an asylum. This time, there are no Mukherjees to visit, but there is something else she will find different — a road in her father's name. Called Park Street Road until 2017, an artery near Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital was renamed Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Marg that year.

Sheikh Mujib, Banga Bandhu or father of Bangladesh as he is called, was a hero of the liberation movement. He arrived in Delhi as PM of the former East Pakistan on January 10, 1972. He received a warm welcome at Palam airport on a chilly winter day. It was led by PM Indira Gandhi and her entire cabinet. The anthems of India and its new neighbour were played at the airport. He thanked India for its support in liberating Bangladesh from Pakistan.