Relations between India and Bangladesh have continued to deteriorate since then-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina stepped down 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 pinned great hopes on a country that had been ravaged by months of bloody violence.
Contrary to expectations, communal forces in Bangladesh have been given free rein, with minorities being killed, their homes, places of worship and businesses attacked and destroyed. Bangladesh’s interim government has chosen to punish minorities rather than crack down on extremists.
According to a report by the Bangladesh branch of Berlin-based human rights group Transparency International, minorities have been targeted in more than 2,000 incidents of violence since Hasina was forced to flee the country.
The matter has reached the United Nations and its human rights officials have expressed concern over the violations taking place in the country.
India has expressed deep concern over the developments, as the diplomatic row between the two South Asian neighbors escalates.
immediate trigger
The arrests of monks and journalists, desecration of the Indian flag on a university campus, and tough statements by advisers in the Yunus administration are further damaging bilateral relations.
The situation worsened recently when Bangladeshi authorities arrested Chinmoy Krishna Das, an ISKCON monk who led protests in Bangladesh, on treason charges.
On 30 November, a prominent Hindu journalist named Munni Saha was arrested by the police in Dhaka. After much outrage and on the grounds of illness, he was released on bail.
Over the past few days, social media has been abuzz with pictures and videos purportedly showing children and adults in Bangladesh stamping Indian flags on roads, in educational institutions and public places. While this has naturally drawn criticism from angry Indians, it has also raised questions. Why are people in Bangladesh showing resentment towards India? Is it because we sympathize with Awami League’s Sheikh Hasina? Or is this anger against Hindus? or both?
“After August 5, the base has become anti-Awami League and anti-India. The forces that were historically against the creation of Bangladesh, against India and its involvement in Bangladesh and against the Awami League are active in Bangladesh politics today,” said the professor of South Asian Studies at JNU’s School of International Studies. Sanjay Bhardwaj says.
Minorities in Bangladesh – Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, indigenous groups, etc. – have never been safe; However, the ouster of the Hasina government has made them more vulnerable in the country.
Furthermore, Yunus’s caretaker government has been silencing Islamic fundamentalist organizations since coming to power. Yunus included AFM Khalid Hussain, deputy chief of ultra-Islamic organization Hefazat-e-Islam, as an adviser on religious affairs in the interim government.
“Ever since the radicals took power we are in a terrible situation. Bangladesh is now like Afghanistan and Syria,” said a senior Bangladeshi journalist, speaking on condition of anonymity because his accreditation was canceled and his website blocked since August 7. The authorities have registered a case of murder against him.
“In my country these days you cannot say anything against the government. Speaking in support of Awami League is considered fascism. Supporting India is considered terrorism,” says the senior journalist. In fact, Yunus has dismissed the recent violence against the country’s Hindu minorities as “exaggerated propaganda” with political objectives aimed at destabilizing the country.
“Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI) has dominance in Bangladesh. JeI believes in the ideology or idea of Pakistan and wants to pursue its politics on the basis of Islamic nationalism,” says Bhardwaj. “So, again and again, they have been Islamizing Bangladesh and its politics since the 1971 partition, against the ethos and values of India. They want to bring Bangladesh out of India’s dependence culturally, socially, economically and certainly politically.
Since assuming power, the Yunus regime has taken many anti-India decisions. The Dhaka High Court’s recent decision to acquit BNP acting president Tariq Rahman, former minister Lutfozaman Babar and others in the 2004 grenade attack will further damage Bangladesh’s relations with India.
Rahman and Babar had collaborated to encourage anti-India insurgent groups from the north-east to operate from Bangladeshi soil.
On the economic front, India-Bangladesh trade has shifted from traditional cotton and jute industries to infrastructure in recent years. Large scale power plants in India, which supply power exclusively to Bangladesh, have been subjected to unnecessary review by the present establishment, which is contrary to the spirit of international trade.
The world cannot become a mute spectator
The vandalism of Hindu temples, arrest of Hindu monks and journalists on treason charges are violations of international human rights law, and India is right in expressing its concerns about the violation of minority rights in Bangladesh.
The Western media, which is generally vocal about democratic regimes overthrown through anarchy, is silent on Bangladesh, despite its well-known stance towards countries leaning towards radical Islam. Just yesterday in the British Parliament, British MPs Barry Gardiner and Priti Patel expressed concern over violence against Hindus in Bangladesh.
America’s newly elected President Donald Trump’s recent criticism of ‘barbaric attacks’ on Hindus raises hopes of a change in American foreign policy, which may be possible soon.
The Biden administration is silent on the ongoing human rights violations in Bangladesh. Historically, India and the US have been at odds with each other since the independence of Bangladesh from Pakistan in 1971. The US has worked for years to weaken the Awami League regime led by PM Hasina.
“The American Democrats, for their own reasons, do not like the Awami League, and they are also working with the radicals. Now, Trump has strongly indicated concern about minority issues in Bangladesh,” says Bhardwaj.
He further said, “I still have doubts about how much he will personally intervene on this issue because the Pentagon and the US deep state ultimately decide its policy towards Bangladesh.”
It is quite clear that, along with harming India-Bangladesh bilateral relations, the rapprochement between Bangladesh and Pakistan has also come about.
Pakistan announced a new visa policy that allows 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 was held between Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Yunus on the need to ‘revive bilateral cooperation’. In October, Yunus’ interim government ended mandatory physical inspection of imports from Pakistan – a matter of concern to India, as it could lead to illegal supply of weapons to terrorists in the northeast.
Also, in November, a cargo ship from Karachi reached Chittagong port, the first direct sea contact between Pakistan and Bangladesh. The Pakistan High Commission in Dhaka described it as “a major step forward in bilateral trade”.
The situation in Bangladesh is volatile, and India will have to keep a close watch and respond to the evolving, complex crisis.
(The author is a contributing editor, NDTV)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
