Under seige, former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina flew out of Dhaka on Monday, seeking safety in India. Five decades ago, when she had taken political asylum in India along with her husband, two children and her sister after her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was assassinated, she had found a family and a home away from home in Pranab Mukherjee and his household.
In 1975, when Mujib and his family members were killed in Dhaka, his daughters Hasina and Sheikh Rehana were the only two who survived the massacre as they were in Europe at that time. Hasina, her husband M.A. Wazed Miah and her two children, and Rehana took political asylum in India.
The responsibility of looking after Hasina and her family was given by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to Pranab. Sharmistha Mukherjee, Pranab's daughter, writes in her book 'Pranab, My Father' about the close familial bond which then developed between Hasina and the Mukherjees. Hasina, she writes, became very close to Pranab and his wife Suvra. “They soon became a part of our family and would be there for all family occasions like birthdays, get-togethers and annual picnics,” writes Mukherjee.
Apart from a select few family friends, no one knew the true identity of Hasina and her kin. Suvra would introduce Hasina to strangers as her sister. Mukherjee has written that Hasina personally shared this memory with her while reminiscing about her time with Suvra when she called on her during her visit to India as Prime Minister of Bangladesh in September 2022.
“I used to wonder why she addressed my father as ‘dada’ (elder brother) and my mother as ‘didi’ (elder sister), and not ‘boudi’—the appropriate form of address for an elder brother’s wife. As she was supposed to be my mother’s sister for strangers, this subterfuge was perhaps adopted to ward off any unwanted attention and suspicion. Even after so many years, she became emotional talking about Ma. After returning to Bangladesh at the end of her exile, she would send exquisite Dhakai Jamdani sarees for Ma and for all the female members of the family. Ma would always reciprocate,” writes Mukherjee.
During a visit to Dhaka in 2011 for a dance performance, Mukherjee had stayed with Hasina. During a conversation they had then, Hasina got emotional, and with moist eyes recalled that had it not been for the Mukherjees, especially Suvra, she would have gone mad given the tragedy that had befallen her family. “Leave aside dada [my father], if didi wasn’t there I would have gone mad. My entire family was killed. I was emotionally in ruins. I was in exile. Didi made us a part of your family. It was her love that sustained me during that difficult period of my life,” Mukherjee quotes Hasina as having said to her.
According to Mukherjee, the strong personal bond between Pranab and Hasina had a significant role to play in forging closer ties between India and Bangladesh. Pranab has in his memoirs written about the close connection with Hasina. He writes in The Presidential Years: 2012-2017 -- “All my visits to Bangladesh (including the one after my presidency) during Sheikh Hasina's tenure were like a family reunion of sorts for me.”
When Suvra died in 2015, Hasina and Rehana came to India to attend the funeral. Mukherjee recollects in her book that Hasina could not control her tears. Five years later, when Pranab was in a critical condition and had slipped into a coma before his death, Hasina would call Mukherjee every day. When Pranab died, Bangladesh observed one day of state mourning. Hasina said she and her family had lost their 'guardian'.