The shifting narratives of Sajeeb Wazed Joy
Since the fall of the Awami League government on August 5, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, former prime minister Sheikh Hasina's son, has been regularly appearing for interviews in foreign media outlets, especially in India.
In the nine days between the fall of Hasina and August 13, Joy has spoken to BBC, Deutsche Welle, AFP, and Reuters, as well as Indian outlets NDTV, WION, Times of India, Republic TV, Press Trust of India (PTI), ET Now, TV9 Bharatbarsh, Mojo Story, CNN-News18, ABP News, Asian News International (ANI), Times Now, and The Indian Express, among others. On some of the Indian outlets, he has appeared more than once.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Many of Joy's comments have been contradictory, which has caused confusion about the future of the Awami League, as he has been one of the few people speaking for the party during this time. Here are some of the more important issues that he has addressed, and a summary of how his comments have shifted from his past statements as well as known facts.
'My mother never officially resigned'
As Hasina has not made any public appearances since her ouster, Joy has been the primary source of information about his mother's side of the details of the situation in which she left the country.
Joy first spoke to the press hours after Hasina's escape on August 5. Speaking to Newshour on the BBC World Service, he said his mother had been considering resigning since the day before and had left the country for her own safety after her family insisted.
This was after Bangladesh Army Chief Waker Uz Zaman confirmed earlier that day that Sheikh Hasina had resigned and left the country.
However, five days after his mother left Bangladesh, Joy spoke to Reuters and said, "My mother never officially resigned. She didn't get the time."
He added that this meant the formation of the interim government could be "challenged in court".
More contradictory information came out of India the day after, when some media outlets reported seeing a message conveyed by Hasina to Awami League supporters. Indian media claimed this was the first statement provided by Hasina since her departure, but this claim could not be independently verified by The Daily Star.
"I resigned so that I did not have to see the procession of dead bodies. They wanted to come to power over your [students'] bodies, I did not allow it. I came with power," read Hasina's alleged statement.
Soon after, Sajeeb Wazed Joy posted on X (formerly known as Twitter): "The recent resignation statement attributed to my mother published in a newspaper is completely false and fabricated…"
Comments about Hasina's return to politics
The biggest takeaway from Joy's interview with BBC on the day of Hasina's fall was the fact that he said, "She's in her late 70s. She is so disappointed that after all her hard work, for a minority to rise up against her, I think she's done. My family and I are done."
He reiterated this sentiment in various interviews with Indian media outlets that day and the day after. In an interview with NDTV, he said, "In a way, it's no longer the [Sheikh] family's responsibility. We have shown what we can do, we have shown how much we can develop Bangladesh. If the people of Bangladesh aren't willing to stand up for that, if they are willing to let the violent minority seize power, well, then, people get the leadership they deserve."
His tone changed soon, however, when speaking to Indian news agency PTI on August 8, he said Sheikh Hasina would be back in Bangladesh as soon as democracy is restored.
On August 9, he told Indian outlet WION that Hasina has been in touch with many party leaders, so she's now back in leadership mode.
Speaking to BBC on August 10, however, he rolled back his previous statement saying his mother would return "as and when the interim government decides to hold the polls". He then added, "Whether she comes back into politics or not, that decision has not been made. She is quite fed up with how she was treated."
His own plans about politics
Following on from his initial comments about his family's future in politics being over, Joy has gone back and forth about his own political ambitions.
Speaking to Times of India on August 9, he said, "I never had any political ambitions and was settled in the US. But the developments in Bangladesh in the past few days show there is a leadership vacuum. I had to get active for the sake of the party and I am at the forefront now."
In an interview with NDTV on August 10, when asked if he was going to lead the party now that party activists may be looking for new leadership, he replied, "I guess by default I am, you know, I have become the face right now."
He clarified later in the interview that if the party still wanted his mother to be at the helm, she would stay on as the leader.
'New Supreme Court appointed by the mob'
Protesters gathered around the Supreme Court on August 10 demanding the resignation of Chief Justice Obaidul Hassan, after which the chief justice and five other Appellate Division justices handed in their resignations.
Sajeeb Wazed Joy commented on this development through his X (formerly Twitter) handle, saying, "...How can the Supreme Court of a country be changed without any due process, without elected Parliament? This is not reform, this is mob rule. There is no rule of law in Bangladesh when even the Supreme Court is not safe."
In an interview with Indian journalist Barkha Dutt on YouTube on the same day, he reiterated this observation, and said, "Basically, the new supreme court of Bangladesh has been appointed by a mob. There's no law and order, there's no constitutional process, there's nothing."
It is notable that The Daily Star, in a report on August 10, quoted SC Registrar General Aziz Ahmed Bhuiyan saying, "They [the justices] sent their resignation letters to the president through the law ministry.
"I have forwarded the resignation letters to the law ministry for taking the necessary decision," he had said, adding that they voluntarily resigned from their offices.
On the same day, Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed, senior most judge of the High Court Division of the Supreme Court, was first appointed as judge of the Appellate Division and then appointed as chief justice by President Mohammed Shahabuddin.
Decrying alleged foreign involvement, inviting Indian pressure
Possibly the most serious of Sajeeb Wazed Joy's claims during his interviews to Indian media has been that foreign powers, especially Pakistan, have been involved in the student protests and popular uprising in Bangladesh.
In an interview with ABP News on August 6, he said, "I believe the ISI is involved because when the movement was underway, there was an armed attack on the police. Students do not have firearms; these weapons are with Jamaat-e-Islami and Shibir. Someone must have provided them with these arms, and it is certainly the ISI."
He has repeated this claim in several other outlets as well.
To ABP News, he also added that, "There is no Chinese hand in this. China has never been involved in our internal affairs."
To PTI, he offered this line of reasoning, "The attacks and protests were very coordinated, meticulously planned, and [there were] intentional efforts to keep inflaming the situation through social media. No matter what the government did to control the situation, they kept trying to worsen it."
On TV9 Bharatbarsh, where he made similar claims about ISI, the host told him it was a serious claim and asked him directly if he thought ISI was involved. Joy said he had no evidence, but pointed to the slogans of "Who am I? Who are you? Razakar, razakar!" and claimed again that students used firearms on police to drive home his point that it had to be militants supported by foreign intelligence who made it happen.
Notably, Joy did not mention the second part of the slogan that goes "Who said so? Who said so? Dictator, dictator!"
The claims of students using firearms on police remain unverified as no media outlet reported such occurrences during the protests. However, there were reports of ruling party men using firearms during clashes with protesters.
On the flipside, Joy did invite the Indian government to get involved in Bangladesh's current political situation in his interview with Barkha Dutt. When asked what he expected India to do now, he expressed his lack of trust in the ability of the interim government to run the country, and said, "The Indian government really should pressure the swift and constitutionally mandated return to democracy within 90 days and free, fair elections with equal participation of the Awami League, including in the runup to the elections."
He urged similar action in another interview with The Indian Express as well. According to the Indian newspaper, he said he would urge New Delhi to take a leadership role and ensure the constitution of Bangladesh is upheld.
The slogans chanted in university campuses on July 14
In his interviews, Sajeeb Wazed Joy repeatedly referred to the slogans of "Who am I? Who are you? Razakar, razakar!" as the point at which violence started in the quota reform movement. In multiple media appearances, he equated this slogan to the hypothetical scenario of people chanting "I am Nazi, I am Nazi" in the streets of Jerusalem, implying this statement would be greatly offensive to the Jewish population of the historic city whose territory is claimed by both Israel and Palestine.
The term Razakar, used to describe those who collaborated with the Pakistan army during its atrocities in the 1971 Liberation War, was introduced into the quota protest discourse by Hasina on the afternoon of July 14.
During a press conference on her recent China visit, she answered a question on quota protests, saying, "Are the children and grandchildren of freedom fighters not talented? Are only the children and grandchildren of the razakars [collaborators] talented?"
"Why do they have so much resentment towards freedom fighters?" If the grandchildren of the freedom fighters don't get quota benefits, should the grandchildren of Razakars get the benefit?"
Joy in his interviews also added that after the students' chants later that day, student activists of the Awami League did attack the students, and police used excessive force to handle the situation, but claimed that he was part of the government discussion to instruct the police and the ruling party affiliated students to get off the streets.
According to news reports from subsequent days and weeks, however, there were attacks on peaceful protests in Dhaka University on July 15, followed by the killings of hundreds of students and other protesters that started on July 16, peaking during the weekend of July 18-20, and then once again from August 4 after the Awami League ordered its activists to "take position" on the streets across the country following peaceful demonstrations by students and the general public.
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