Bangladesh says Economist incorrectly characterised PM Hasina

The London-based Economist has carried a rejoinder to its article titled "Sheikh Hasina's folly" published on Jun 3.

Bangladesh High Commissioner in London sent the rejoinder, the foreign ministry said.

The rejoinder published in the current issue of The Economist said the article “incorrectly” characterised Bangladesh's prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, and her government as being "pro-Muslim".

“The prime minister is a Muslim, but she and her government are proudly secular and endorse the effort to bring Muslim madrassa students into the country's tolerant, democratic mainstream.”

“Nor has she ‘pursued a dogged vendetta’ against a political rival,” the rejoinder reads.

 “Bangladesh is committed to the rule of law. When evidence arises that individuals are responsible for vicious crimes such as firebombings, law-enforcement officials charge them with those crimes,” it said.

“You also made the false assertion that the government is trying to dismember Jamaat e-Islami.”

Bangladesh's war-crimes tribunal tried and convicted people for atrocities they had committed during Bangladesh's war of liberation from Pakistan in 1971, regardless of their political position.

“That some of those people who were convicted were affiliated with the Jamaat party is beside the point. No one is above the law.”

“The governing Awami League was elected in 2014 in a fair and open election. BNP boycotted that election to try to rob it of legitimacy, rebuffing numerous attempts by the prime minister to persuade BNP to participate,” reads the rejoinder.

“The BNP cannot both boycott an election and declare it to be invalid because it didn't participate.”