'Burn your wives' Indian sarees': Bangladesh PM blasts BNP for running 'BoycottIndia' campaign

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina recently blasted the country's opposition party - Bangladesh Nationalist Party - for running a campaign against the Indian products. During a speech on Wednesday, Hasina, who enjoys good relations with New Delhi, said if the BNP leaders have truly boycotted Indian products, they will burn their wives' Indian sarees.

"They must answer if they can eat without Indian spices. I want to know if they have truly boycotted Indian products," Hasina said. 

"The BNP leaders are advocating for boycotting Indian products. My question is – how many Indian sarees do the boycott campaigners' wives possess? Why don't they take the sarees from their wives and burn them?" she said. 

Responding to her, BNP's senior joint secretary general said the leaders of BNP usually do not buy Indian sarees. He said his maternal uncle gifted an Indian saree to his wife during their visit to India a long ago ago.

Earlier this year, a poster by one exiled blogger surfaced on X, saying "Boycott Indian products." Since then, the campaign gained traction on social media.

The campaign was launched to oppose India's alleged interference in Bangladesh's internal politics. 

The relationship between New Delhi and Dhaka has thrived under Bangladesh's current Prime Minister Hasina. The BNP boycotted the recent general elections, paving the way for Hasina to return for the fourth straight term. 

India Today's analysis showed that hashtag #BoycottIndianProducts picked up pace when several highly influential accounts followed by the BNP, its media cell, and/or its magazine 'The Road to Democracy' launched what appears to be a coordinated campaign on January 18, a day after BNP’s media cell claimed that “opposition to India is increasing in Bangladesh” and that “Bangladesh has suffered the most politically due to the wrong policies of the Indian government.”

In its tweet, the party's media wing cited contents of a YouTube video that claimed: "India has openly interfered and influenced Bangladeshi elections for the past 15 years." 

The same video also claimed that India ignored Sri Lanka’s woes during its economic crisis. This was, however, factually incorrect as New Delhi provided assistance of a whopping $4 billion to Sri Lanka.

In a tweet, Riaz Osmani, a social media user, said that the boycott of Indian products or 'Boycott India' campaign by some BNP supporters will create religious and nationalistic tensions between the peoples of Bangladesh and India. "This is NOT desirable. Grievances against Indian govt's meddling in our politics should be addressed differently."