Khaleda Zia Dies At 80: Ex- Bangladesh PM's New Delhi Link - Her 'Slavery' And Anti-India Remarks

Khaleda Zia Passes Away: Khaleda Zia's tenure as the Bangladesh PM coincided with some of the most difficult phases in India-Bangladesh ties. She was born in the undivided India but adopted a cautious and adversarial posture towards New Delhi.

Khaleda Zia Dies At 80: Khaleda Zia, former Bangladesh Prime Minister, passed away on Tuesday after a prolonged illness. However, her tenure also coincided with some of the most difficult phases in India-Bangladesh ties. 

Also Check- Who Was Khaleda Zia, Woman Who Redefined Bangladesh’s Political Landscape? Rise, Reign And Legacy

Khaleda Zia's Early Life and Her Rise To Power

Khaleda Zia was born in the undivided India in 1945 in Jalpaiguri, part of Greater Dinajpur. She later moved with her family to what was then East Pakistan, following the partition of India.

The veteran Bangladesh leader went on to become the nation's first woman Prime Minister, establishing her as a prominent figure in the South Asian nation's politics.  

Chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Khaleda Zia, rose from a largely private life to the country's first female Prime Minister.

In 1960, she married Ziaur Rahman, then a captain in the Pakistani Army. Ziaur Rahman later revolted against Pakistani forces during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, IANS reported. He went on to serve as the President of Bangladesh in 1977 and formed the BNP the following year. He was assassinated on May 30, 1981.

Subsequently, Zia was appointed as the Vice-President of the party on January 12, 1984, and was elected BNP's chairperson on May 10 in the same year. She retained her position through successive party councils in 1993, 2009, and 2016, cementing a nearly 41-year tenure as BNP chairperson.

Following BNP's victory in the 1991 parliamentary election, Khaleda Zia was sworn in as the first female Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She assumed the office of the Prime Minister for a second consecutive term after the 1996 national elections. She was sworn in as Prime Minister for the third time on October 10, 2001.

India-Bangladesh Ties During Khaleda Zia's Tenure 

In the early years, Khaleda Zia adopted a cautious and adversarial posture towards New Delhi. She consistently opposed overland transit and connectivity initiatives with India, both during her time as Prime Minister and later as Leader of the Opposition, a role she held twice between 1996 and 2014.

India Transit Rights 

As Prime Minister, Khaleda Zia reportedly denied India transit rights through Bangladeshi territory to access its northeastern states, arguing that such arrangements would compromise Bangladesh's security and sovereignty. She went further to claim that toll-free movement of Indian trucks on Bangladeshi roads amounted to "slavery". 

Indo-Bangladesh Friendship Treaty

However, Zia's resistance did not end there; it also extended to diplomatic agreements. Notably, she opposed the renewal of the 1972 Indo-Bangladesh Friendship Treaty. Her argument was that the treaty had "shackled" Bangladesh and constrained its independence.

Positioning her party as a "protector of Bangladesh's interests," Zia often framed her policies as a defence against what she described as Indian domination, according to IANS. 

India's Farakka Barrage

Another source of friction during Khaleda Zia's tenure was India's Farakka Barrage, operational since 1975 to divert water from the Ganges into the Hooghly River through a feeder canal. While the barrage helps reduce silt, improves navigability around Kolkata Port, and supplies fresh water to the city, Zia maintained that it deprived Bangladesh of its rightful share of Ganges water.

In 2007, she accused India of deliberately opening sluice gates to aggravate flooding in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh-China Ties And India's Accusations Against BNP Govt

In 2002, Zia actively pursued defence cooperation with China. New Delhi viewed this as a direct strategic challenge and responded by increasing diplomatic pressure. 

This included a counter-offensive in which India accused the BNP government of sheltering separatist groups and terrorists operating in India's northeastern states.

During her tenure, India alleged that anti-India terror groups operated freely from Bangladeshi soil. 

The 2004 Chittagong arms haul, intended for Indian insurgents, minority violence within Bangladesh, and the near-total absence of cooperation on counter-terrorism further strained relations.

(with IANS inputs)