B'desh actor Badhon latest to be branded RAW agent, falls foul of anti-India squad

Time of India

26-05-2025

Kolkata: Bangladeshi actor Azmeri Haque Badhon is the latest celebrity to be accused of being a RAW agent in her country. Badhon's Sunday Facebook post, which offered a scathing commentary on how quickly public perception, and sometimes diplomatic scrutiny, could spiral into absurdity, went viral.
Many cultural activists in Bangladesh have been branded RAW agents, including director Nasir Uddin Yousuff. But Yousuff declined to comment. "Journalist Subir Bhaumik, journalist and columnist Abed Khan, writer, historian, scholar and professor at the University of Dhaka Muntasir Mamoon, journalist, film-maker, human rights activist, war crimes researcher Shahriyar Kabir, author, physicist, academic, activist, former professor of computer science and engineering Zafor Iqbal and Muktijoddha major (retired) Shamsul Arefin have faced such conspiracy theories," said a source.
Former BBC journalist Subir Bhaumik, who worked in Bangladesh, told TOI that anybody "not aligning with the agenda of those whose politics is anchored on India-bashing" is branded a RAW agent. "When they cannot counter arguments, they brand the person as a RAW agent. I was branded a RAW agent when I worked as senior editor in bdnews24.com after retiring from BBC. I have a chapter in my book, detailing RAW's involvement in Chittagong Hill Tracts.
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Can a person be a RAW agent after exposing its operation? I think these allegations are so cheap and baseless that none should take them seriously," Bhaumik said.
Badhon said that her Facebook post on May 24, seeking national elections at the earliest, started off the conspiracy theory. "I will vote for the party that ensures equal inheritance rights for all. It's time we move toward a more just, equitable, and inclusive society—one that guarantees fairness and opportunity, and becomes the best country for all its citizens," the post read.
On Monday, the actor told TOI, she was first branded a RAW agent after her role in Vishal Bhardwaj's 'Khufiya'. "When they understood I was not a RAW agent in real life, they changed track and spread conspiracy theories of me being an ISI, CIA and Mossad agent. But they saw that I was demanding elections in Bangladesh. India, too, wants that and so does the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). So, they merged the three and started spreading that I am again working as a RAW agent," Badhon said.
A section has also mentioned that this allegation against Badhon had been deliberately spread by "the ISI-backed intelligentsia and their publicity wing". She said, "It is so absurd. A rumour is always a rumour."
Badhon has had issues getting Indian visa in the past. On being asked if those spreading conspiracy theories didn't know about her Indian visa rejection, she said, "Most of these people who spread rumours are paid for doing so. If they were sensible human beings, they would have behaved differently. Instead, they troll mindlessly, without corroborating facts. That is because I don't follow the prototype of a heroine and ask questions.
That's why women, and even some within my industry, don't like me and spread such theories."