NEW DELHI: The son of Bangladesh’s toppled autocratic leader thanked New Delhi on Sunday for “saving her life”, accused caretaker authorities of allowing “mob rule” and warned of chaos ahead without swift elections.
Sheikh Hasina, 76, quit as prime minister on Monday after a student-led uprising and fled by helicopter to longtime ally India.
Her government was accused of widespread human rights abuses, including the extrajudicial killing of thousands of her political opponents during her 15-year tenure.
The military announced her resignation and then agreed to student demands that Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, 84, lead a caretaker administration, charged with ending disorder and enacting democratic reforms.
However, Hasina’s son and former government adviser, US-based Sajeeb Wazed Joy, 53, criticised the interim government as “completely powerless” and composed of “figureheads”. “Right now in Bangladesh, you have mob rule,” he told AFP in an interview from Washington.
He pointed to the ouster of top officials, including the chief justice, central bank governor and police chief, following protesters’ demands. “If the mob tomorrow says, ‘no, we want this person in the interim government changed’, they will have to be changed,” he said.
Yunus has said he wants elections “within a few months”, but Wazed warned of risks if they were delayed.
“It’s in their best interest to hold elections... to have a return to a legitimate government that has the legitimacy of the people and true authority,” he said.
“Otherwise, it’s just going to devolve into chaos.”
Hasina swept January elections but only after a poll denounced as neither free nor fair and boycotted by genuine rivals after a crackdown during which thousands of opposition party members were arrested.
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