INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Tulip Siddiq responded with anger when she was confronted in 2017 by press reporters from Channel 4 asking her to intervene in the case of
Ahmad bin Quasem, a British-educated lawyer who had supposedly been abducted in Bangladesh by the program of Siddiqs auntie, Sheikh
Hasina.Are you aware that I am a British MP which Im born in London? she asked Alex Thomson, the channels primary correspondent
Are you implying that Im a Bangladeshi? Due to the fact that I dont think thats the right thing to imply.Despite Siddiqs persistence that
she has little to do with her aunties now-deposed government in Dhaka, the City minister is now under pressure to explain why she has taken
advantage of property paid for by people connected with that regime.Siddiq, who has duty for UK anti-corruption policy, has actually
referred herself to Laurie Magnus, the prime ministers independent consultant on ministerial standards, to decide whether she has actually
broken the ministerial code.But whatever Magnus concludes, critics say Siddiqs desire to range herself from her households authoritarian
program in Bangladesh has glossed over how close she really is to them and their Awami League party.Siddiqs position is that she has no
relationship with the Awami League or Bangladeshi politics, but the reality is she has been a significant recipient of the Awami League,
stated David Bergman, a Dhaka-based investigative journalist.Rose Whiffen, a senior research officer at Transparency International, said:
Since Sheikh Hasina was swept from power in Bangladesh, there has actually been greater scrutiny over the support gotten by her niece from
senior Awami League figures.Now that the minister has actually referred herself to the independent consultant on standards, the complete
facts surrounding this support needs to be developed to help recognize any possible excessive influence or breaches of the ministerial
code.As Hasina concerned power in 2009, Siddiq was running to be a Labour councillor in London
According to a now-deleted area of her site, she likewise worked for the Awami League, as part of its UK and EU lobbying system and election
She even appeared on the BBC World news channel as a spokesperson for the party.Bangladeshi experts explain that at the time, Hasina was
being heralded as a possibly transformative leader of Bangladesh and her party was not tainted by the scandals that dogged its later
years.But even as the years passed and Siddiq climbed up the ranks of British politics, she continued to contact the Awami League for
support.In 2013, she appeared in a photograph alongside her aunt meeting the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in Moscow
Bangladeshi authorities are now examining whether she helped broker a deal for the Russians to develop a power plant in Bangladesh allegedly
at an inflated price, enabling her member of the family to embezzle cash from the scheme.In 2015, Siddiq appeared at an Awami League rally
in the UK not long after being chosen to parliament for the first time
Her aunt likewise went to the rally, giving her niece a congratulatory kiss on the forehead
Had it not been for your help, I would never have actually had the ability to stand here as a British MP, she told the cheering crowd.In
2017, as the case of Bin Qassem stoked headlines in the UK, she insisted: I am extremely close to my aunt as a niece would be to her auntie
We never ever discuss politics
I just share all my household news with her.But around the same time, she was pictured accompanying her auntie to British political events,
meeting backbench MPs in Westminster, and the then Commons speaker, John Bercow.Mubashar Hasan, a Bangladeshi political commentator, said:
If comparable activities were conducted by members of the Chinese or Russian diaspora in the UK linked to the Chinese Communist party or
Vladimir Putin and they supported a British politician of Chinese or Russian origin, it would certainly be considered as foreign
interference.Just hours after Channel 4 aired its 2017 piece about Bin Quasem, Dhaka police raided his household home and alerted his
partner to stay low.Bangladeshi activists state such heavy-handed strategies had actually already become commonplace, with Hasina being
implicated of crushing political opposition and putting behind bars those who spoke up versus her government.Hasina was fallen last year
after a student-led uprising, which led to the deaths of about 1,000 individuals
Quickly later on, the Observer exposed Bangladeshi authorities were examining whether organizations linked to the Awami League had actually
obtained billions of pounds by illegal methods and siphoned them out of the country.Meanwhile Siddiq gained from a series of residential or
commercial properties paid for by people with links to the celebration a flat in Kings Cross provided to her free of charge, a flat in
Hampstead once used by Siddiq and talented to her sis free of charge, and a 2.1 m house in Finchley, owned by a developer with political
links to her auntie, where she now lives and pays rent.It is her home at these properties that is now under investigation after Siddiq
referred herself to the prime ministers ministerial watchdog
She denies any wrongdoing, but may deal with questions over whether she had actually properly declared the advantage she got from the
residential or commercial properties in question.Downing Steet has stated Magnus can decide whether he likewise examines claims that she
lied to press reporters at the Mail on Sunday when she formerly told them she had been given the Kings Cross flat by her parents.Keir
Starmer has so far backed his minister and constituency neighbour, however on Wednesday declined to comment on her case when pushed to do so
in the Commons.The City minister has actually acted appropriately by referring herself to the independent consultant, he said
We generated our brand-new ministerial code to permit ministers to ask to establish the facts
And Im not going to provide a running commentary
This post very first appeared/also appeared in theguardian.com
