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Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and his Bangladeshi counterpart, Md.Jashim Uddin, who met in Dhaka on Monday, voiced the concerns of their countries but at the same time expressed a desire to continue bilateral cooperation and people-to-people ties.
According to sources in Dhaka, Misri’s talks with Jashim Uddin have prepared the ground for a political rapprochement between the estranged neighbours.
Both sides expressed a desire to continue bilateral cooperation in development works and also to promote strong people-to-people ties that had benefited both countries until a rupture occurred following a mass movement which ousted the pro-Indian Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on August 5.
Though described as being part of a regular “structured dialogue” between the two countries, Vikram Misri’s engagement with the Interim Government in Dhaka was basically a fire fighting exercise as bilateral relations were suffering due to incendiary statements and actions of groups on both sides with a political axe to grind.
After his meeting with his Bangladeshi counterpart, the Indian Foreign Secretary Misri said that the close relationship between the two countries “is reflected on a daily basis with development projects that have been executed on the ground in Bangladesh and that continue to be developed.”
“The close relationship is also reflected in the mutually beneficial engagement we have on a whole set of issues ranging from trade, commerce, connectivity, power, water, energy, development and other areas of cooperation.”
“There is no reason why this mutually beneficial relationship should not continue to develop in the interest of our people. To that end, therefore, I have underlined today India's desire to work closely with the interim government of Bangladesh authorities,” Misri said.
In the free and frank interaction, both sides expressed their pressing concerns.
The Indian foreign secretary said: "We also had the opportunity to discuss certain developments and issues and I conveyed our concerns, including those related to the safety, security and welfare of the minorities."
He was referring to some regrettable incidents of attacks on cultural, religious and other properties in Bangladesh.
"We expect an overall constructive approach on all these issues by the Bangladesh authorities and we look forward to moving the relationship forward in a positive, forward looking and constructive direction."
"Today's discussions have given both of us the opportunity to take stock of our relations, and I appreciate the opportunity today to have had a frank, candid and constructive exchange of views with all my interlocutors."
"I emphasised on a positive, constructive and mutually beneficial relationship with Bangladesh," Misri said.
He further said that India has always seen, and will continue to see in the future, the Indian-Bangladesh relationship as a people-centric and people-oriented relationship—one that has the benefits of all the people as it's central motivational force.
The Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Jashim Uddin told journalists that Dhaka asked New Delhi not to interfere in Bangladesh's internal affairs.
"We said people of all religions in Bangladesh freely practice their faiths. This is our internal affair. It is not expected (of other countries) to make comments on our internal affairs. We don't do it for other countries."
After Sheikh Hasina was ousted from the Premiership of Bangladesh and was forced to flee to India on August 5, India-Bangladesh relations went down the chute. It went further down consistently since then, with serious charges being bandied about by both sides, not officially, but by loud mouths in political parties and YouTube channels. Demonstrations were held in various cities in both countries queering the pitch and adding fuel to the fire.
Interested parties in India have, for their own narrow political gain, interpreted the July-August student-led mass movement against Hasina’s oppressive rule as a movement against the Hindu minority in Bangladesh and also against India with which the Hindus have been unfairly bracketed.
On the Bangladesh side, radical Islamic forces like the Jamaat-e-Islami and Hefazat-i-Islam saw in the July-August political crisis and its uncertain aftermath, an ideal opportunity to attack the Hindus who they dubbed as infidels deserving only a subordinate place in an “Muslim” Bangladesh.
Thus, a popular, though violent, movement, against a dictatorial ruler, turned out to be a Hindu-Muslim and an India-Bangladesh conflict.
The crisis has made the Hindus of Bangladesh (who are 8% of the 170 million Bangladeshis), fear attacks from the Muslim side. Indeed, a large number of Hindu properties and even temples were vandalized by Islamic zealots and anti-Awami League hot heads.
And the Muslim majority feared an Indian attempt to twist the arms of the weak Interim Government of Prof. Muhammad Yunus to restore Hasina’s rule. This was based on a popular belief in Bangladesh that Hasina was powerful for 15 years because she had India’s full backing.
Hackles went up in New Delhi when the Bangladeshi authorities said that Hasina would be extradited from India and tried in the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague.
Forces opposed to Hasina saw her relations with India during her 15-year tenure as having been patently asymmetrical and skewed in favour of powerful India. But those of this view had turned a blind eye to the fact that Bangladesh too had gained a lot from close ties with India. Bangladesh would not have been able to grow and even survive without close economic and people to people ties with India. Bangladesh is surrounded on three sides by India and the Bay of Bengal in the fourth side.
Many commodities of common use are available in Bangladesh at reasonable prices thanks to trade with India. India is the main medical treatment destination for middle class Bangladeshis.
The crisis had acquired geopolitical dimensions as well. Among Indians, the attacks on the Hindus in Bangladesh rekindled fears of rising radical Islam. They rekindled Islamophobia in the West. Some British MPs condemned the attacks on the Hindus in Bangladesh. US President-elect Donald Trump stung Bangladeshis by his condemnation of the attacks on Hindus on October 31. Bangladeshis saw a US-India axis emerging to thwart the August 5 regime change.
On the other hand, Indians tended to see the ouster of Hasina as a “Pakistani-US plot” aimed at ending India’s monopoly of influence over Bangladesh. When Bangladesh eased visa procedures for Pakistanis and improved trade with Pakistan, India smelt an anti-India axis emerging.
The India-Bangladesh conflict is being exacerbated by unverified reports of India deploying troops on the border and Bangladesh using Turkish drones over the border. There were attacks on the Bangladesh mission in Tripura and demonstrations in Dhaka against the Indian mission. Bangladeshi and Indian flags were burnt.
For Indian Hindus, the latest provocation has been the arrest of a Hindu monk, Chinmoy Krishna Das Sammilita Sanatani Jote, on “sedition” charges and the denial of bail to him. There was intense propaganda in India that Chinmoy Das is a member of the renowned International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). It was alleged that Chinmoy has no lawyer to defend him because they were beaten up. India called for a fair trial.
However, ISKCON’s international spokesman monk Devshekhar Das told The Week that Chinmoy Das did not belong to ISKCON. He had left the organization some months ago to start his own outfit. Earlier, ISKCON Bangladesh had publicly stated that Chinmoy Das was sacked in July for child abuse.
Chinmoy Das’s issue is of immediate importance politically. There is a Hindu nationalistic government firmly ensconced in New Delhi for which the Hindus are the core political constituency. And the brand “ISKCON” is highly valued in India, though in this case ISKCON is not actually involved, as its spokesman Deveshekhar Das stated.
However, in the midst of gloom, there was light at the end of the tunnel. The business community both in India and Bangladesh pressed the two governments to bury the hatchet and resume normal relations. Reports from India said that businessmen both in retail and in cross border trade, were feeling the pitch after entry and exit points were threatened with closure.
The call for a boycott of Bangladeshis by eating houses and hospitals in Tripura and Kolkata had begun to hurt these institutions financially. Eventually, the boycotts were lifted. Indian and Bangladeshi authorities reopened the largest land port between the two countries which connects Petrapole in India and Benapole in Bangladesh.
The speedy restoration of trade was a result of the economic interdependence between India and Bangladesh. India is Bangladesh's second-largest trading partner. Bangladesh shares 94% of its 4,367 km-long border with India and it relies on India for many essentials like rice, wheat, cotton, iron and steel, electronic equipment and textiles for its garment industry.
