After the 18-month tenure of an interim government following Sheikh Hasina’s ouster, India and Bangladesh recently started re-engaging with the visit of the foreign minister of the newly-elected Bangladesh Nationalist Party government led by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman.
India had reached out to Rahman, signalling that improvement in bilateral ties was possible after the downslide under the IG. The neighbourhood remains at the core of India’s foreign policy and engagement with regional governments integral to its long-term vision.
The IG interregnum led by Muhammad Yunus, whose support base was the Islamist parties and leaders of the student agitation that ousted Hasina, was marked by heightened anti-India rhetoric, breakdown in law and order, widespread atrocities on minorities, and vendetta politics in full flow. There is considerable work ahead to undo the damage done by the IG, which will go down as a forgettable chapter in Bangladesh’s recent history.
The only positive aspect of the IG was the election, though it was universally regarded as flawed since the Awami League was banned. While thousands were ensnared in legal cases, Yunus exploited his power by withdrawing money laundering cases against himself and annulling his outstanding income tax arrears.
To add insult to injury, he rode the vendetta bandwagon by presiding over a weaponised judiciary that convicted and sentenced Hasina and her home minister to death for crimes against humanity. Both now live in exile in India. India ignored requests by the IG for their extradition, since the convictions were political in nature, obtained through a weaponised judiciary. The bilateral extradition treaty clearly gives the host country the right to refuse in such political cases.
Against this background, the two countries re-engaged at the foreign-ministerial level to stitch together the frayed fabric of bilateral ties. India had conveyed to Rahman a willingness to forget the past. The BNP, too, had earlier reached out to Delhi via track one and two dialogues, long before Hasina was ousted. Though Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman became the first top Bangladeshi minister to visit India, he had visited Delhi for talks as the IG’s national security advisor.
While India’s ministry of external affairs issued a cryptic communiqué avoiding details, the bilateral engagement essentially agreed to restart various mechanisms to move towards restoring ties to earlier levels. The domains include trade facilitation, energy supplies, visa services, transport connectivity, border management and river-water sharing, particularly the Ganga Water Sharing Treaty that lapses this December.
The MEA’s press release was quite bland and merely mentioned the meetings held, reiterating India’s desire to “engage constructively with the new government and further strengthen bilateral ties. The two sides agreed to explore proposals for deepening the partnership through the relevant bilateral mechanisms”.
The one-on-one meeting between India’s NSA and Bangladesh’s FM clearly indicated the emphasis India has attached to security issues. It is no coincidence that a few days before the visit, eight terrorists were arrested in Delhi whose leader is a Pakistani member of the terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba and one of whom had been sent to Bangladesh to recruit Bangladeshi nationals. The other seven were from Bangladesh, which shows the extent of radicalisation.
Pakistan has changed its strategy—instead of infiltrating terrorists from its own territory, it is seeking to outsource attacks on India to radicalised Indian and Bangladeshi recruits. The earlier visit of Bangladesh’s new director general of forces intelligence had flagged these issues. The frequent visits of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence officers during the IG hinted at Pakistan’s modus operandi.
In this context, Bangladesh’s parliament passing the Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Bill 2026 is significant. The BNP government is now armed with a sharper law to act against terrorist organisations. Implementation will, however, be crucial as there is always scope for dragging feet for geopolitical reasons.
It is not surprising that the visiting foreign minister reiterated his country’s request to extradite Hasina and the former home minister. It is a pro forma request that is meant for domestic consumption, since India’s stand was clearly conveyed earlier and the same would have been reiterated during his visit. It is worth noting that Rahman was also convicted—as a co-conspirator in the grenade and machine-gun attack on Hasina and other Awami leaders in Dhaka in 2004.
Tarique was imprisoned by the caretaker government in 2007, given the choice of quitting politics forever and sent into exile to the UK, where he stayed for over 17 years. The British government refused to extradite Tarique. The BNP has always maintained that it was a political case and blamed Hasina for manipulating the judiciary to obtain the convictions. These orders were set aside by the IG under an agreement which allowed Tarique to return and attend the funeral of his mother, former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, and assume chairmanship of the BNP. The agreement was probably guided by the Americans, who exercised considerable influence on Yunus.
The BNP has also pushed through parliament legalisation of the IG’s ordinance to ban the Awami League, egregiously labelling the party as a ‘terrorist organisation’. The banning of the country's largest political party does not augur well for the future of democracy in Bangladesh.
Two senior retired generals have also been arrested. They were at the forefront of managing the political discourse during the army-backed caretaker government during 2007-08 and are blamed for imprisoning Rahman and forcing him into exile. These actions may be based on a combination of factors—the culture of seeking political vendetta, the public mood, and threats by the Jamaat-e-Islami and the student-led National Citizen Party of renewing street agitation.
Whatever the Awami League’s misdeeds, it would be better to allow them to participate in politics. Every healthy democracy needs an opposition to maintain its credibility. The ban on Awami League will also weaken the BNP’s hand to deal with a resurgent Jamaat and other Islamist parties that aim to convert Bangladesh into an Islamic State under Sharia rule.
Some other trends may also cast a shadow on bilateral ties. Persecution of minorities remains a recurring problem. The main minority organisation, the Hindu-Bouddha-Christian Oikya Parishad, has again highlighted various incidents in the post-election period. Facilitating the return of illegal migrants from India and cooperation in building border fencing would remove some of the irritants.
As the West Asia war has affected supplies to all energy-importing countries, India has stepped up supplies of petrochemical products, particularly diesel, to Bangladesh on the latter’s request. Bangladesh, in turn, has decided to buy 200 wide-body railway coaches from India.
It remains a worry that Bangladesh’s economy, run down by the IG, is facing lower growth and higher inflation. India has never hesitated to assist its neighbours in the times of need, keeping the people’s interest in mind. Hence, India will look forward to restarting the bus and train services, infrastructure projects and border fencing that were abruptly stopped by the IG.
The BNP government’s declaration that it would follow a Bangladesh First foreign policy guided by mutual trust, respect and reciprocal benefits is unexceptionable. If followed in practice, India would welcome the approach.
Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty | Former High Commissioner to Bangladesh and Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs
(Views are personal)