Minorities, Sheikh Hasina...: Takeaways from Indian foreign secretary's Dhaka visit

Both India and Bangladesh have acknowledged the need to work closely to dispel the 'clouds' lately shrouding the bilateral relationship

In Short

• India and Bangladesh discuss bilateral tensions amid political upheaval.
• Concerns over safety of minorities in Bangladesh raised by India.
• Bangladesh interim govt committed to citizen protection, assures Yunus.

India’s foreign secretary Vikram Misri and his Bangladeshi counterpart Md Jashim Uddin have both acknowledged that the clouds lately shrouding the bilateral relationship need to be dispelled. Misri, who was in Dhaka on December 9 and also met the Bangladesh interim government’s chief advisor Muhammad Yunus, is learnt to have conveyed New Delhi’s concerns over the security of Hindus and other minorities in the country, which is in the midst of a political upheaval that started with the mass student protests and the eventual downfall of the Sheikh Hasina regime.

“Today’s discussions have given both of us (India and Bangladesh) the opportunity to take stock of our relations, and I appreciate the opportunity to have had a frank, candid and constructive exchange of views with all my interlocutors,” Misri said in a media briefing after meeting Jashim Uddin.

Misri asserted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the first world leader to congratulate Yunus on his assumption of office and that his own visit to Dhaka was the first such “structured engagement” at the foreign secretary level since the interim government took charge in early August.

“I emphasised that India desires a positive, constructive and mutually beneficial relationship with Bangladesh...I have underlined today India’s desire to work closely with the interim government of Bangladesh. At the same time, we also had the opportunity to discuss certain recent developments and issues, and I conveyed our concerns, including those related to the safety and welfare of minorities,” Misri said.

Later, the press wing of Yunus’s office released a statement that the Indian foreign secretary had a 40-minute-long meeting with the chief advisor, during which “the issues of minorities, misinformation campaigns, ousted dictator Sheikh Hasina’s stay in India, regional cooperation and the July-August mass uprising were discussed”.

Sources in Dhaka circles said it had been a major point of discussion there as to whether the interim government would bring up the issue of India providing refuge to Hasina—whose government was widely seen as New Delhi-friendly—and her extradition. When asked about it on December 8, the day before Misri’s engagements, Shafiqul Alam, press secretary to Yunus, had said “it was unclear and that extradition was a long process that had to follow legal formalities”.

Yunus, in his meeting with Misri, reportedly brought up the issue of “clearing the clouds” that have cast a shadow over the bilateral relationship. “Our people are concerned because she (Hasina) is making many statements from there (India). It creates tensions,” Yunus told the Indian foreign secretary.

When Misri brought up the issue of minorities, Yunus said the interim government was committed to protecting every citizen and safeguarding their rights irrespective of their creed, colour ethnicity and gender.

While both the Indian and Bangladesh governments have been deliberating to iron out the strains in relations, it is difficult to gauge if that would calm down a section of citizens on both sides who are training guns at each other, especially through social media.

The ouster of Hasina was the point when tensions started brewing between the two nations, matters turning darker with the leader getting refuge in India. Subsequent reports of minorities being targeted in Bangladesh raised concerns in India.

The recent arrest of Chittagong-based Hindu monk Chinmoy Krishna Das and cases against him and his followers, and thereafter the protests and targeting of a Bangladeshi consulate in India raised rhetorical temperatures.

On December 9, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee spoke on the Bangladesh crisis on the floor of the state assembly. Among other things, Mamata, in an oblique reference to the BJP, said that “a certain political party is responsible for circulation of fake videos to stoke fire”. “Those who want to politicise this matter should understand that it will hamper our state as well as our friends, sisters and brothers staying there (Bangladesh),” she said.

The question indeed is whether either India or Bangladesh can afford a failing relationship when they share more than 4,000 km of border and many of their people a shared heritage.

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