BNP chief Tarique Rahman takes oath as Bangladesh PM

Tarique Rahman, the chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, was sworn in as the prime minister of Bangladesh on Tuesday.

President Mohammed Shahabuddin administered the oath of office to Rahman and several members of the Cabinet.

Rahman is the son of former President Ziaur Rahman and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, who died on December 30.

He was sworn in after an alliance led by his party swept the parliamentary elections held on February 12, winning 212 out of 299 constituencies. The coalition led by the Jamaat-e-Islami emerged as the main Opposition with 77 seats.

This was the first national election in Bangladesh since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted. She fled to India in August 2024 after several weeks of widespread student-led protests against her Awami League government. She had been in power for 16 years.

Nobel laureate economist Muhammad Yunus had taken over as the head of Bangladesh’s interim government at the time. With Rahman taking the oath, the interim government’s term came to an end.

Earlier on Tuesday, all elected MPs, including those from the Opposition Jamaat-e-Islami, were sworn-in in Parliament. The oath was administered by Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin.

BNP declines oath for reform commission

However, Bangladesh Nationalist Party legislators declined to take a second oath as members of the Constitution Reform Commission, The Hindu reported. Some party leaders said that the commission was outside the law.

BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed said that the commission is not recognised in the Constitution, adding that “steps can be taken in this regard once it is constitutionally adopted” in Parliament.

The two oaths were undertaken to integrate the results of the parliamentary elections and a referendum for extensive constitutional amendments by including the July Charter into the Constitution.

The July Charter is a document adopted by the interim government in consultation with political parties in October to set a framework for future governance. It is based on recommendations that were received to change governance practices after the Hasina government was overthrown.

More than 68.5% voters had cast their ballots in favour of the constitutional amendments in the referendum.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party has maintained that though it had signed the July Charter, the final text of the document had gone far beyond what they had agreed to, The Hindu reported.

A New Delhi-Dhaka thaw?

At Rahman’s swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday, dignitaries included India’s Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Bhutanese Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay, Pakistani Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, Nepal’s Foreign Minister Bala Nanda Sharma, Maldivian Foreign Minister Abdulla Khaleel and Sri Lankan Health Minister Nalinda Jayatissa.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party had invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi, along with the heads of government of 12 countries, to the ceremony. However, Birla and Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri were representing India as Modi had meetings scheduled with French President Emmanuel Macron in Mumbai.

Birla’s presence at the ceremony came amid strained ties between New Delhi and Dhaka after Hasina had fled to India.

Bangladesh has repeatedly demanded that India extradite Hasina after a tribunal in that country sentenced her to death for alleged crimes against humanity. Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal held Hasina guilty of having ordered a deadly crackdown on the protests against her government.

In December, Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that it was for Hasina to decide whether she wanted to return to Bangladesh.

Relations between India and Bangladesh further strained in recent months amid unrest following the death of student leader Sharif Osman Bin Hadi on December 18. Hadi had been a prominent figure in the 2024 protests that led to the ouster of the Hasina government.

His death triggered protests, vandalism and attacks in Bangladesh. Several attacks on minority communities had also been reported in Bangladesh, which led to demonstrations in India.

However, Modi was among the first global leaders to congratulate Rahman on his party’s victory. In a social media post, he “reaffirmed India’s continued commitment to the peace, progress and prosperity of both our peoples”.

In response, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Saturday said it was looking forward to “engaging constructively” with New Delhi to advance the bilateral relationship.

Also read: A reminder: BNP coming to power in Bangladesh was once the worst-case scenario for Delhi