India Turns Off Heat on Yunus-led Bangladesh Govt
Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri with Bangladesh Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus. Image credit @CApress_sec
India Extends Alibi to Bangladesh to Mend Ties
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, December 14: India has sent out signals to the Interim Government of Bangladesh to work on mending ties. External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar’s remarks in parliament and foreign secretary Vikram Misri’s parliamentary briefing appear to signal dialing down of rhetoric against Dhaka.
Bangladesh dailies are commenting on a report that Misri told parliamentary panel on foreign affairs that India has focus on the people of Bangladesh. Jaishankar in his statement in parliament on Friday also echoed the words of the Chief Advisor of the Interim Government of Bangladesh Muhammad Yunus on alleged attacks on Hindus.
“We are concerned at attacks on minority Hindus in Bangladesh. We expect the Interim Government to act on attacks against Hindus,” Jaishankar told parliament.
Yunus too had told Misri in Dhaka that the issue of attacks on the minority Hindus is an internal matter of Bangladesh per Dhaka-based media reports. Misri had raised the issue of the attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh in his meeting with Yunus.
India by sending Misri to Dhaka at a time when the protests were held on streets in Kolkata against the arrest of the Hindu priest Chinmoy Krishna Das. The Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh (RSS) supremo Mohan Bhagwat too had raised the issue of the attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh.
But India appears to have offered an alibi to Bangladesh to begin working on mending ties. Misri told the Shashi Tharoor-headed parliamentary panel per a report by The Hindu that India’s approach in Bangladesh is not linked to one political party but the people there. Misri also disassociated with ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s criticism of the Interim Government in Bangladesh.
Addressing a virtual conference held in the US, Hasina had termed attacks on minority Hindus in Bangladesh as “genocide”. Yunus in his interview to PTI last month had asked India to “stop Hasina from making statements against the new administration in Dhaka”.
The Yunus-led administration consists of activists who had led the violent agitation against Hasina. Yunus admitted at the felicitation ceremony by the Clinton Centre that the violent agitation against the Hasina government had been “meticulously planned”.
Dhaka-based media outlets are positively commenting on Misri telling the parliamentary panel that “India has not provided any communication platform to Hasina to make her video messages”. “She is using private communication platforms for making the video messages,” Misri told the panel.
India’s apparent dialling down temperature by extending an alibi to Dhaka appears set in diplomatic maneuvering to bring bilateral ties back on track. The Yunus administration recently admitted that Bangladesh students are facing roadblock to access higher education abroad with problems in getting Indian Visas.
Jaishankar last month had remarked at a book launch function that India will be hopeful that pragmatism will prevail in Dhaka sooner. Misri’s Dhaka visit appears to be an offering from New Delhi to Dhaka to begin mending ties with India.
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