Sunak faces backlash over kneeling before Hasina

Rishi Sunak has faced backlash after putting on a friendly display with Bangladesh’s hardline leader Sheikh Hasina Wazed at the G20 summit in Delhi.

Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina’s government has been targeted by wave of violent protests calling for free and fair elections amid reports of human rights abuses

The British Prime Minister was pictured kneeling close to the 76-year-old and engaging in an animated conversation, which supporters of Hasina hailed as an endorsement of a leader who has been in power since 2009.

Although Bangladesh is not a member of the G20, it was invited as a guest due to its status as an emerging economy and Hasina’s close ties with Narendra Modi, the Indian premier.

However, critics have slammed her attendance as a PR exercise designed to make her look triumphant on the international stage, mixing with the likes of Sunak and US President Joe Biden.

It comes as protests by Bangladesh opposition parties demanding a free and fair election have descended into violence – with angry protesters taking to the streets over recent months demanding that Hasina resign.

Human Rights Watch reported that authorities indiscriminately fired rubber bullets, tear gas, and water cannons, and beat opposition party supporters with batons during a demonstration in late July.

In recent years, the group has also highlighted what it says are the ‘enforced disappearances’ of hundreds of critics and other authoritarian tactics being used to silence opposition to the government.

The hashtag ‘StepDownHasina’ has recently been trending online, with activists sharing videos of police crackdowns on peaceful protests.

Mass processions staged by the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party have seen calls for free and fair elections ahead of the country going to the polls next year, in a vote Hasina is widely expected to win.

Writer Deep Halder tweeted: ‘Bangladesh will soon decide whether to bring Sheikh Hasina back to power.

‘As far as optics go, if she needed any endorsement from the outside world, #G20SummitDelhi gave it to her.’

The photo of Sunak kneeling next to Hasina is now being promoted by her party, the Awami League, as an image which portrays her as a respected veteran world leader.

Despite being labelled a ruthless dictator and south Asia’s ‘Iron Lady’ by many, Hasina is called ‘Mother of Humanity’ by her supporters.

The title arose after she allowed more than a million Rohingya refugees to seek shelter in her country from genocide and persecution in Myanmar.

One supporter of Hasina said on a Facebook post: ‘When the British Prime Minister spoke to the Mother of Humanity, our Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.