Jharkhand power plant shut after Bangladesh PM skipped Brics meet, alleges BNP leader

Days after an outage hit the Adani Power-run thermal plant in Jharkhand that supplies electricity to Bangladesh, a senior leader of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) claimed that the shutdown was linked to Prime Minister Tarique Rahman's decision not to attend the Brics summit in New Delhi last weekend.

Last week, a unit at Adani Power's Godda plant in Jharkhand shut down late on September 10 after a boiler fault, halving the plant's supply to Bangladesh. It was restored to the grid on September 13. Bangladesh was already facing a power deficit of around 2,500 MW, resulting in daily outages lasting three to 10 hours in several regions.

The BNP's acting Secretary General, Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, alleged on Wednesday that India was creating a "web of conspiracy" against Bangladesh while speaking at an event outside Dhaka's Jatiya Press Club, according to a report in the Dhaka-based outlet, The Daily Star. He added that Rahman's decision to not attend the Brics Summit upheld "Bangladesh's independence and sovereignty", reported Bangladeshi outlet, The Financial Express.

The BNP leader made the remarks while addressing a human chain and protest rally as the chief guest. The event, organised by two BNP-aligned bodies, was to protest what the organisers described as "a conspiracy against Bangladesh's Independence and sovereignty by fallen autocratic killer Hasina at India's instigation."

Rizvi is the acting Secretary General of the BNP, which is the party's chief executive officer and its second-highest-ranking position, directly below the party chairman, PM Tarique Rahman. Bangladesh's President, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, held the post occupied by Rizvi, before he was elected to the country's top post in August.

This is not the first time that Rizvi has displayed anti-India tendencies. Back in December 2024, while advocating for the boycott of Indian-made products, he publicly burnt his wife's Indian saree during an event in the city of Rajshahi.GODDA SHUT DOWN AFTER TARIQUE'S DECISION TO NOT GO BRICS SUMMIT, CLAIMS RIZVI

Speaking at the event in Dhaka, Rizvi linked Bangladesh PM Tarique Rahman's decision to not go to New Delhi for the Brics Summit with the outage at the Adani Power-run Godda plant in Jharkhand.

"He [Tarique] decided not to go, and the next day it was shut down. What was the reason behind that? Do you need to pass the bar exam to understand it? Do you need a PhD from a university? We understand what happened," he was quoted as saying by The Daily Star.

Dhaka-based outlet, JagoNews24, further reported Rizvi as saying that since the power plant was in India, it could be, "turned-on and-off" as and when required. "The power plant supplies 1,300MW of electricity to Bangladesh. But its switch is in Jharkhand, India. They can turn it off and on at any time," he said.

For context, one of the two units of the 1,600 Megawatt (MW) Godda plant in Jharkhand, had to be taken offline after developing a boiler problem late on September 10. This reduced the plant's power supply to Bangladesh from 1,496MW to less than 800MW at a time the country is experiencing a severe energy crisis. The fault was eventually repaired by September 13.

This is not the first time that the BNP's General Secretary has smelt a rat in the Godda plant trip.

On September 12, Rizvi questioned "whether sabotage was behind repeated technical failures affecting Bangladesh's energy infrastructure.

"The failure of a unit of Adani Power Plant after a technical fault at the FSRU in Maheshkhali [LNG terminal failed] has raised questions in people's minds. Is there any mystery behind this? Is there any sabotage going on somewhere? Why is there one technical fault after another now?" he said in a statement shared on Facebook by the BNP Media Cell.On July 21, the LNG terminal at Maheshkhali in eastern Bangladesh had shut down after a fire damaged electrical cables linked to its boiler system, cutting around 450 million cubic feet of gas a day from Bangladesh's national grid. It partially resumed supply on August 6 but went offline again on August 14 after another technical fault.advertisementRAHMAN NOT GOING TO INDIA UPHELD BANGLADESH SOVEREIGNTY; INVITED TWICE SAYS INDIARegarding the PM's decision to not attend the Brics Summit, Rizvi claimed it had to do with upholding Bangladesh's "independence and sovereignty".

"Tarique Rahman is the prime minister of an independent and sovereign country. You will not invite him as prime minister and expect him to sit on the sidelines. That cannot happen," Rizvi was quoted as saying by Bangladeshi outlet The Financial Express.

However, India has held that the government had invited PM Rahman twice. MEA spokesperson, Randhir Jaiswal, in August confirmed that India had invited Bangladesh PM Tarique Rahman to the Brics Outreach session in New Delhi in his capacity as the current BIMSTEC chair, in line with the practice of inviting heads of regional groupings.

And on September 15, after Bangladeshi officials disputed the nature of the invitation, Jaiswal clarified that Rahman had received two separate invitations. "One on the bilateral side and the other for the Brics Summit as well," Jaiswal said. The second invitation was for the Outreach session, not as the leader of a Brics member or partner country.While Rizvi has levelled allegations against India without presenting any evidence, the disruptions at both Godda and Maheshkhali have been attributed to technical faults. India has repeatedly maintained that its relationship with Bangladesh is people-centric and rooted in the shared interests of the two countries' citizens.- EndsPublished By: Sushim MukulPublished On: Sep 16, 2026 20:22 IST