India, July 13 -- After hinting at returning home from self-exile in several interviews in the past, former Bangladesh Prime Minister (PM) Sheikh Hasina said on July 10 that she will return to her country by December and surrender to the authorities. Hasina has been in India after the August 2024 protests in Bangladesh led to the collapse of her government. A tribunal in her home country sentenced her to death for several crimes in an ex parte trial and Dhaka has been demanding her extradition. Her party, the Awami League's activities remain banned in her country, and several of its senior leaders, convicted by Bangladeshi courts or facing serious charges, are currently living in India and Europe. Hasina's presence in India continues to be an irritant between New Delhi and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party government in Dhaka. Both sides have made some headway in normalising relations that fell to their lowest point under the Muhammad Yunus administration in Dhaka. The new elected government has continued with a tilt towards China that started during Yunus's term, increasing worries in New Delhi, which sent a political appointee as high commissioner to Dhaka as part of efforts to repair ties. Hasina's return can heighten political divisions in Bangladesh at a time when the government is focused on restoring economic and political stability. However, the Bangladesh government's decision to continue the ban on the Awami League does not augur well for democracy, especially as the party retains a support base within the country and cannot be indefinitely kept out of the political process. An accommodation between the BNP and the Awami League may be necessary to contain the Jamaat-e-Islami and other hardline forces that have been gathering strength since Hasina's ouster. Perhaps the act of surrendering can help achieve that....