On the day India’s parliament paid tribute to the late Bangladesh prime minister Khaleda Zia, Dhaka was seething over ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s audio address at an event in New Delhi where she described interim adviser Mohammad Yunus as a “murderous fascist”, claimed that “democracy is in exile (in Bangladesh), and that “killings torture, rape and oppression,” were widespread.
The foreign ministry in Dhaka warned that her speech “set a dangerous precedent” that could “seriously impair bilateral relations” and “letting mass murderer Hasina openly deliver her hate speech… constitute a clear affront to the people and the Government of Bangladesh.”
Prof Sreeradha Datta, who lectures and researches on international affairs at Jindal Global University, believes that such a reaction is reflective of the deep anti-India sentiment in the country. Forty per cent of voters in the 18-28 age group, she said, “are going to be first-time voters, because there were no voters in the last few elections. And they all have an extremely anti-India perspective because of the situation on the ground there.”
For this reason, she says, no party that comes to power can fully lean towards India, and “Allowing Awami League space in India is not going to be a very endearing factor in Dhaka.”
India’s call for ‘inclusive’ elections has drawn strong criticism, given that during the heyday of the Awami League, no such demand was made on Hasina. Rather, India called it an ‘internal matter of the state’. Add to that, the crowing among sections of the Indian media that the FTA with Europe will now put Bangladesh textile exports to the continent at a disadvantage, has added fuel to the fire.
Pakistan is seeking leverage in this situation, with high-level deliberations reportedly taking place over Islamabad facilitating the use of Karachi port for Bangladesh. There is talk of a deal on fighter jets, and even cricket has found mention.
Prof Dutta suspects that while BNP chief Tarique Rahman is saying all the right things, and echoes the Jamaat-e-Islami when it says India is the most important neighbour, walking the talk may prove tough given the anti-India mood on the ground. There will be extra effort required by both sides to neutralise differences.
In the middle of all this, Delhi’s decision last week to withdraw families of its diplomats based in Bangladesh has not gone down well in Dhaka. “I don’t think any security situation has arisen that would warrant such measures,” Foreign Affairs adviser Touhid Hossain was quoted by Prothom Alo as saying. “There is no concern about security, but I am completely at a loss about what the signal is.”
