Relations between India and Bangladesh have continued to plummet since then-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned in August following weeks of protests led by student groups. When Nobel laureate and microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus was selected as Bangladesh’s interim chief adviser, the world placed high hopes on the country, which had been ravaged by months of bloody violence.
Contrary to expectations, communal forces in Bangladesh have been given a free hand, killing minorities and attacking and destroying their homes, places of worship and businesses. Bangladesh’s interim government has chosen to punish minorities instead of cracking down on extremists.
Minorities have been targeted in more than 2,000 incidents of violence since Hasina was forced to flee the country, according to a report by the Bangladeshi chapter of Berlin-based human rights organization Transparency International.
The case has reached the United Nations and its human rights officials have expressed concern about violations in the country.
India has expressed deep concern over the developments as a diplomatic row between the two South Asian neighbors escalates.
Immediate triggers
Arrests of monks and journalists, the desecration of the Indian flag on a university campus and harsh statements by advisers in the Yunus government are causing further damage to bilateral ties.
The situation recently deteriorated after Bangladeshi authorities arrested Hindu monk Chinmoy Krishna Das, an ISKCON monk in Bangladesh who had led the protests, on charges of sedition.
On November 30, a prominent Hindu journalist named Munni Saha was arrested by police in Dhaka. After much outrage and due to illness, she was released on bail.
In recent days, social media has been abuzz with photos and videos reportedly showing children and adults in Bangladesh stamping the Indian flag drawn on roads in educational institutions and public places. While this has obviously drawn criticism from angry Indians, it has also raised questions. Why do people in Bangladesh show their resentment towards India? Is it because we sympathize with Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League? Or is it the anger against Hindus? Or both?
“After August 5, there is an anti-Awami League and an anti-India premise. Forces that have historically been against the creation of Bangladesh, against India and its involvement in Bangladesh, and against the Awami League, are active in Bangladeshi politics today,” said Sanjay Bhardwaj, Professor of South Asian Studies at the School of International Studies, JNU.
Minorities – Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, indigenous groups, etc. – have never been safe in Bangladesh; However, the ouster of the Hasina government has made them more vulnerable in the country.
Moreover, Yunus’ interim government has appeased Islamic fundamentalist groups since coming to power. Yunus appointed the deputy head of the ultra-Islamist organization Hefazat-e-Islam, AFM Khalid Hossain, as his adviser on religious affairs in the interim government.
“We are in a terrible situation since the fundamentalists took over. Bangladesh is now like Afghanistan and Syria,” said a senior Bangladeshi journalist, on condition of anonymity as his accreditation has been revoked since August 7 and his website blocked. Authorities have filed a murder case against him.
“In my country nowadays you can’t say anything against the government. Speaking in support of the Awami League is treated as fascism. Supporting India is treated as terrorism,” the senior journalist said. In fact, Yunus has dismissed the recent violence against the country’s Hindu minorities as “exaggerated propaganda” with political motives aimed at destabilizing the nation.
“Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) is in charge in Bangladesh. JeI believes in the ideology or idea of Pakistan and wants to continue their politics on the basis of Islamic nationalism,” Bhardwaj said. “So since the 1971 partition, they have Islamized Bangladesh and its polity again and again, against the ethos and values of India. They want to take Bangladesh out of dependence on India culturally, socially, economically and of course politically,” he added.
The Yunus regime has taken a series of anti-Indian decisions since taking over. The recent decision of the Dhaka High Court to acquit BNP’s acting chairman Tarique Rahman, former minister Lutfozzaman Babar and others in a 2004 grenade attack will also further damage Bangladesh’s ties with India.
Rahman and Babar had worked together to encourage anti-India insurgents from the northeast to operate from Bangladesh.
On the economic front, Indo-Bangladesh trade had shifted from the traditional cotton and jute industries to infrastructure in recent years. Large-scale power plants in India, which supply power exclusively to Bangladesh, have been unnecessarily scrutinized by the current establishment, much against the spirit of international trade.
The world cannot be a mute spectator
The vandalism of Hindu temples, the arrest of Hindu monks and journalists on charges of sedition are violations of international human rights law, and India is absolutely right to raise concerns about the violation of minority rights in Bangladesh.
The Western media, which usually vocalize democratic regimes overthrown by anarchy, is silent on Bangladesh, despite their well-known attitude toward countries leaning toward radical Islam. Yesterday, British MPs Barry Gardiner and Priti Patel expressed concern in the British Parliament about violence against Hindus in Bangladesh.
Newly elected US President Donald Trump’s recent criticism of the ‘barbaric attack’ on Hindus raises hopes of a shift in US foreign policy that may be in the offing.
The Biden administration is silent on the ongoing human rights violations in Bangladesh. Historically, India and the US have been on opposite sides since Bangladesh was liberated from Pakistan in 1971. The US has over the years worked to undermine the rule of the Awami League under Prime Minister Hasina.
“American Democrats do not like the Awami League for their own reasons, and they have also collaborated with the radicals. Now Trump has clearly expressed his concern about minority issues in Bangladesh,” Bhardwaj said.
“I am still skeptical about the extent to which he will personally intervene in this matter because the Pentagon and America’s deep state ultimately determine their policy towards Bangladesh,” he added.
It is very clear that with the damaging bilateral relations between India and Bangladesh, at the same time there has been good relations between Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Pakistan has announced a new visa policy that will allow citizens of Bangladesh to travel to Pakistan without paying visa fees. On the sidelines of the UN General Assembly summit in New York in September, a meeting took place between Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Yunus on the need to ‘revive bilateral cooperation’. In October, Yunus’ interim government scrapped mandatory physical inspection of imports from Pakistan – a concern for India as it could lead to the illegal supply of weapons to militants in the northeast.
Also in November, a cargo ship from Karachi docked at Chittagong port, marking the first-ever direct maritime contact between Pakistan and Bangladesh. This was described by the Pakistan High Commission in Dhaka as “an important step in bilateral trade.”
The situation in Bangladesh is volatile and India will have to closely monitor and respond to the unfolding complicated crisis.
(The author is Contributing Editor, NDTV)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author