Bangladesh Election Schedule

SALEEM SAMAD

The inherent weaknesses of Nobel laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus’s interim government has prompted Chief of Army Staff, General Waker-Uz-Zaman, to call for an elected government. His statement on 24 February made it clear to the government, political parties, and student leaders responsible for waging the July-August Monsoon Revolution last year, which ousted Sheikh Hasina’s autocratic rule, that 18 months is enough time to hold a general election.

Prof Yunus has announced that the election could be held in December this year. However, his Press Secretary, Shafiq ul Alam, said it could be held either in December or January 2026. The election date to parliament will be announced at the decision of the Election Commission, which is not an independent body. Earlier, Yunus has repeatedly said that the elections will be held only after reforms of crucial state institutions take place to ensure democracy, accountability, and transparency of the government and the officials.

The General repeated twice that the election should be free, fair and inclusive. The questions that come to mind are: What does he mean by inclusivity? Did he mean that no political parties should be left out from contesting the parliamentary elections?

On the other hand, the students have been agitating that Sheikh Hasina led Awami League should be banned and Yunus should not invite the Jatiya Party to any official dialogue.

aThe East Pakistan Awami Muslim League is the oldest party and was born only a few years after the birth of Pakistan. The founders of the party, who defected from the Muslim League in a bid to accommodate others, dropped “Muslim” and formed the Awami League in 1955.

Where as, Jatiya Party, a king’s party emerged after General Husain Muhammad Ershad in a bloodless coup in 1981 formed his party to consolidate his power. In 1990, he was overthrown after months of violent street protests by the students.

His party indeed was a “loyal opposition” during the 15 years rule of Hasina. The honeymoon period of the Jatiya Party abruptly ended when the Awami League regime collapsed and Hasina fled to India last August.

The back-scratching has prompted the leaders of the student revolution to say no to the Jatiya Party – a loud and clear message that they should not be in politics in future.

The two military juntas took power and formed king’s parties – one was the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which ruled the country for the fourth consecutive term. The second was the Jatiya Party. General Ershad’s party ruled for nine years until his regime collapsed in 1990.

BNP was formed when military dictator General Zia ur Rahman, a liberation war decorated officer, took power in the vacuum when independence hero Sheikh Mujib ur Rahman was assassinated in August 1975 by a dozen young military officers without a political vision to steer the country through a crisis.

General Rahman took over the helms of affairs of the country, after a soldier’s mutiny in less than three months of the previous military putsch. Despite having a political vision, for unknown reasons, he rehabilitated those politicians who opposed the independence of Bangladesh in crucial positions.

He also rehabilitated scores of Bangla-speaking military officers who fought alongside the Pakistan Army against the Mukti Bahini guerillas and Indian troops during the bloody war in 1971 and dodged the surrender ceremony of Pakistan armed forces. Also, most of the Bangla-speaking military officers were recruited in senior positions in the police services.

In a speech, last week, commemorating the fallen officers of the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) revolt 17 years ago, General Waqar-uz-Zaman has said, ‘We are thinking that we will finish the work quickly and take the army back to the cantonment.””We have to be patient. Work with professionalism. Until an elected government comes, we have to do this with patience,” he furthermore stated.

Many have remarked that the COAS has expressed discomfort against the Yunus government when the situation of law and order reached an alarming level.

The crime situation in Bangladesh is such that there are thefts, robberies and dacoities committed in broad daylight causing widespread panic among the citizenry.The Home Affairs Advisor, Lt. General Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, called a press conference at his house at 3 am and blamed the Awami League for the law and order situation. He said, “Awami League is funnelling ill-gotten money to desperate criminals.”

Political and administrative circles believe that the comments of the army chief regarding the alarming rise of crime amid the demand for the resignation of the home adviser, and his accountability have given the allegation of failure of the government.

Meanwhile, Indian Nobel laureate Prof Amartya Sen, who was born in Bangladesh and studied in a school in Dhaka in an interview with the Indian official news agency Press Trust of India (PTI) a few days ago praised the Bangladeshi Army for its restraint in not attempting to establish military rule, as has happened in many other countries.

Dr Sen said “Yunus is an old friend. I know he is highly capable and, in many ways, a remarkable human being. He has made strong statements about Bangladesh’s secularism and democratic commitment.”

In many third-world countries, the military has always been ambitious to take over power and overthrow a legitimate government, Bangladesh Army seems to behave very rationally.

Bangladesh military officers are refused deployment in United Nations Peacekeeping and also provided visit visas to the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia and European countries for track record on human rights abuse. That is one of the reasons that General Zaman has advised his troops deployed for the anti-crime operation so-called “Devil Hunt” to avoid excessive force and shoot to kill suspects.

On the other hand, the mainstream political parties Bangladesh BNP and Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami have been demanding an early election, a month after Yunus took charge of the government in August last year. Dr Yunus, however, urged the political leaders to hold their patience until the crucial reforms of the election commission, judiciary, civil administration, constitution, media, anti-corruption, police administration and others are implemented.

The Chief Adviser of the Interim Government aims for the reforms in a bid to develop a state system based on public ownership, accountability, and welfare. The political parties negotiating with the government have in the back of their mind the fact that the Yunus administration does not have the legitimacy to implement the reforms in the absence of a parliament. They are saying in closed-door party meetings that the political parties would be empowered to implement the reforms. Without the reforms, most observers and political think tanks believe that the political parties will take the country back to square one when they refuse to have the reforms in place.

Reforms will bring about more accountability and transparency of elected public representatives, which the politicians will not agree to in any case. In addition, the independence of the judiciary, and civil and police administration will jeopardize their authority over their constitution.

This is not the first time that the political and administrative reforms have been taken seriously. In 1990, days after the downfall of the military dictator, the student leaders were able to convince the mainstream opposition parties, the Awami League, BNP and Left coalition leaders to sign a pledge that they would bring about reforms of the government institutions.

Unfortunately, both the Awami League and BNP ruled the country several times. They deliberately ignored the reforms, leading to politicization of police, civil services, judiciary, election commission and other governmental institutions to manipulate in favor of the politicians and their henchmen. Therefore, political historian Mohiuddin Ahmed predicts that hundreds of pages of reform documents would be thrown out of the windows of the iconic massive parliament building designed by Louis Kahn, a celebrated visionary architect.

First published in the Stratheia Policy Journal, Islamabad, Pakistan on 4 March 2025

Saleem Samad is an award-winning independent journalist based in Bangladesh. A media rights defender with the Reporters Without Borders (@RSF_inter). Recipient of Ashoka Fellowship and Hellman-Hammett Award. He could be reached at saleemsamad@hotmail.com; Twitter (X): @saleemsamad

UN Probe Accuses Hasina Regime of Crimes Against Humanity

 

Street Grafitti by students of Monsoon Revolution. Photo Copyright @OHCHR

SALEEM SAMAD

Weeks before former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled to India, who is now living in exile somewhere in Delhi, the country erupted in anti-government street protests that turned violent last year. Now the United Nations Human Rights Office (OHCHR) in a damning report points fingers at the crackdown by security forces and it is said to have committed human rights violations with impunity.

The brutal July-August crackdown by the Hasina regime was tantamount to crimes against humanity as stated by the former ruling party, Awami League, the security and intelligence agencies together systematically engaged in such violations against protesters of Monsoon Revolution, which ousted the 15-year-old autocratic rule of Hasina.

“To cling on to power, the former Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government with all its political apparatus – including security and intelligence forces – used systematic and brutal violence against student-led mass protests in July-August last year,”. The UN Human Rights Office report is based on credible testimonies from senior officials and other evidence such as serious human rights violations by security forces during the protests, including extrajudicial killings, excessive use of force causing serious injuries to thousands, mass arbitrary arrests and detentions, and torture and other mistreatments.

The testimonies and evidence gathered by the UN fact-finding mission painted a disturbing picture of rampant state violence and targeted killings, which are among the most serious violations of human rights, and which may also constitute international crimes.

Sources have verified the deaths reported, the UN report estimates that 1,400 people, around 12 per cent of those were children, may have been killed between 1 July and 15 August (45 days) last year, and over 13,500 were injured, the vast majority of whom were shot by Bangladesh’s security forces. Bangladesh Police also reported that 44 of its members were killed.

The fact-finding report found evidence to prove that Hasina oversaw the July protest killings!!! The report also states that former senior officials directly involved in handling the protests and other inside sources described how Hasina and other senior officials directed and oversaw a countrywide large-scale crackdown from a command center, in which security and intelligence forces shot and killed protesters or arbitrarily arrested and tortured them.

The fugitive home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal deployed the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) as a strike force and even specifically demanded the deployment of more helicopters to scare protesters in the way that the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) had used them, the report elaborated.

“The testimonies and evidence we gathered paint a disturbing picture of rampant state violence and targeted killings, which are amongst the most serious violations of human rights, and which may also constitute international crimes. Accountability and justice are essential for national healing and for the future of Bangladesh,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk at a press conference in Geneva on 12th February.

“The brutal response was a calculated and well-coordinated strategy by the former government to hold onto power in the face of mass opposition,” said Türk. At the request of Chief Adviser Prof Mohammed Yunus, the UN Human Rights Office dispatched a team to Bangladesh in September, including human rights investigators, a forensics physician, and a weapons expert, to conduct an independent and impartial fact-finding into the deadly events.

These violations raise concerns under international criminal law, warranting further investigations to determine whether they amount to crimes against humanity, torture as a stand-alone crime, or serious violations under domestic law, according to the report. It found patterns of security forces deliberately and impermissibly killing or maiming protesters, including incidents where people were shot at a close range.

Violations during the protests included evidence of violence incitement by armed Awami League supporters, excessive use of force by Police, RAB, and BGB — resulting in extrajudicial killings — along the Army’s involvement in the use of excessive force.

The report also documents cases in which security forces denied or obstructed critical medical care for injured protesters, interrogated patients and collected their fingerprints in hospitals, intimidated medical personnel, and seized hospital CCTV footage without due process, in an apparent effort to identify protesters and to conceal evidence of the extent of violence carried out by state forces.

The RAB should be disbanded, and the roles of the BGB and the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), a military spy agency, must be confined to their original mandates. It has been advised that independent commissions must be created to investigate police violations and establish similar accountability and justice mechanisms for the Bangladesh Armed Forces and BGB.

The UN report recommends reforming the security and justice sectors, abolishing a host of repressive laws and institutions designed to stifle civic and political dissent and implement broader changes to the political system and economic governance.

The most crucial observation of the UN probe report strongly recommended that the Bangladesh authorities should refrain from nominating military or police personnel for peacekeeping missions who have served with the RAB, DGFI, or Dhaka Metropolitan Police Detective Branch, or in BGB battalions deployed to the 2024 protests or other force-suppressed protests until a human rights screening mechanism is established.

The report did not hesitate to document the aftermath of the protests, and the report also found police officers being revengefully targeted, Awami League members, and the police were perceived to be aligned with the Awami League, as well as some journalists presumed to be affiliated with Hasina’s regime.

Former Ambassador Humayun Kabir, chairman of Bangladesh Enterprise Institute, an influential think-tank when approached to comment on what is going to happen next, said now it is clear that Hasina is likely not to be tried in Bangladesh.

The UN fact-finding report is an authenticated investigative document which would be produced at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, The Netherlands.

The ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan after at a parley with Nobel laureate Prof Yunus has agreed to investigate and start a due process for the trial of Hasina for crimes against humanity. Once the ICC agrees to put Hasina on the docks to face crimes she has committed, The Hague court will seek her extradition from India, where she has been living in exile since 5 August.

It will surely be a severe diplomatic embarrassment for the bigwigs at New Delhi’s South Block where they do not have enough legal reasons to scuttle her extradition to The Hague.

On the other hand, despite a formal request by Bangladesh’s Foreign Ministry through diplomatic channels, Delhi has remained silent, except for the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs who has acknowledged receiving the ‘note verbale’ from Dhaka of her extradition.

Well, regarding the deportation of Hasina to Bangladesh, India has several arguments for not sending her to stand trial at the International Crimes Tribunal in Dhaka. But giving excuses to the ICC will be difficult for India.

First published in the Stratheia, a Policy Journal, Islamabad, Pakistan on 16 February 2025

Saleem Samad is an award-winning independent journalist based in Bangladesh. A media rights defender with the Reporters Without Borders (@RSF_inter). Recipient of Ashoka Fellowship and Hellman-Hammett Award. He could be reached at saleemsamad@hotmail.com; Twitter (X): @saleemsamad

Growing Pressure on Dr. Yunus for Early Elections

SALEEM SAMAD

When Sheikh Hasina came to power, the new generation (Gen Z) had not seen free, fair, and inclusive elections since 2008. Election observers described the parliament elections under her 15-year autocratic regime as fraud, and the poll results were cropped.

The international media had widely reported how elections in Bangladesh in 2014, 2018, and 2024 were held under the cover of darkness, keeping thousands of opposition leaders and members in prison.

The rights organizations repeatedly made loud noise, but Hasina ignored their calls to hold free and fair elections. Instead, she was beating African drums that the country belongs to her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who was ordained as the architect of Bangladesh’s independence signalling she has the right the govern with an iron hand.

Amid cheering crowds, she often boasted that her father had made the country independent and was known as Bangabandhu (Friend of Bangladesh). Otherwise, she explained, the nation would have been subjugated by Pakistan’s military establishment, making them second-class citizens.

Nobel laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus took charge of an Interim Government backed by defiant student leaders and the military after they forced the Iron Lady (Hasina) to abdicate her power and flee to India, where she is living in exile.

The political parties except the Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami have demanded an election at the soonest, indicating before the end of this year. Yunus charted a path to reforms to establish pluralism, democracy, and human rights, he announced in an address to the nation that several commissions suggested reforms to key state organs.

He conveyed to the political leaders that the elections would be held only after the reforms on Electoral System, Constitution, Public Administration, Judiciary, Financial Institutions, Media, Police Administration, and Anti-Corruption were made effective. The political parties and civil society welcomed his initiative.

When military dictator General Muhammad Ershad was ousted by students backed by the military in 1990, the mainstream opposition parties signed an election pledge prepared by the student leaders. The opposition leaders promised to implement the reforms in key state organs.

Sheikh Hasina, Khaleda Zia, and the Left Alliance jointly signed a tripartite political commitment that they will implement the reforms after winning the elections. Unfortunately, both the Begums went to power again and again but they deliberately avoided implementing the pro-people pledge.

After decades of bad governance, poor accountability and transparency, Yunus is determined to see a new Bangladesh, which adheres to the principles of international covenants to put the country at a respectable height on the world stage.

The reforms are supposed to guarantee democracy, pluralism, accountability, transparency, independence of the judiciary, independent election commission, freedom of expression, press freedom, and human rights. He has reiterated that the elections will be held once the reforms have taken off the ground zero.

Most political scientists and think tanks believe that the political parties would agree not to disagree. Later the politicians, when elected, the painstakingly homework for reforms would be binned. For more than five decades the political parties that ruled the nation were intolerant and arrogant. At times reacted very violently.

The politicians publicly flouted the rule of law, punished the journalists for exposing their corruption, and ignored the accountability of elected representatives of public offices. They often coerced police and judiciary to ensure that their blue-eyed boys were kept out of prison for extortion from traders and protection money from industrialists, while their rivals were severely punished and blocked from politics.

The visible challenges in front of Yunus are acting as a stumbling block in the accountability of bureaucracy, judiciary and law and order situation. The police are unable to restore lawlessness and control price hikes in kitchen markets.

There is no guarantee clause to be signed by politicians, that the reforms should be taken into cognizance in “good faith” by the ‘untamed’ political parties. Yunus told in an interview with an editor of a Bangladesh newspaper that the leaders of the political parties when they held parleys with him were polite and humble.

However, when they spoke to the journalists, they gave a different statement which they did not put on the table of discussion with the Chief Adviser of the Interim Government. It is strange but it is a fact, he told the editor.

The recent spree of vandalism and demolition of the Bangabandhu Museum, the former residence of the first President of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on 5 February. Students went berserk in several cities and towns in the looting and arson of Awami League senior leaders, who were deemed icons of accomplices to autocratic Hasina’s misrule.

The Chief Adviser in a tone of warning that certain groups are pushing the nation into anarchy and lawlessness. The inventor of micro-credit Prof Yunus calls on all citizens “to immediately restore complete law and order and to ensure there will be no further attacks on properties” associated with the family of the ousted Sheikh Hasina and politicians of the fascist Awami League party or against any citizen on any pretext.

He, however, said the outrage has sparked from her (Hasina) refuge in New Delhi, and from there she continues to mobilize her militants to hamper Bangladesh’s recovery from years of abuse under her 15-year rule.

If any attempt is made to destabilize the country through any kind of provocative activities, law enforcement agencies will immediately take strict action against anyone acting to create chaos and anarchy, which includes the destruction of property. The government will bring the responsible individuals and groups to justice, he stated.

While the vandalism and looting, the law enforcement agencies were playing as silent spectators when the mobs were rioting. Several civil society, rights, and citizens groups strongly condemned the vandalism, arson, and looting of family members of Hasina and Awami League leaders.

Celebrated feminist Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen, who lives in exile in India, has called the demolition of Sheikh Mujib’s residence an act of “Islamic terrorists”.

The Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Dr Shafiqur Rahman said “If the ongoing madness does not stop, Bangladesh will be heading towards civil war.” While, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) said in a statement that they will hold talks with Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus as soon as possible to express their concern over the country’s “deteriorating” law and order situation, especially the demolition of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s residence in Dhaka.

They fear that these attacks and vandalism in the last two days could pose a serious threat to national stability and disrupt the upcoming national election, a BNP statement said. It is understood that on the issue of appalling law and order status, the political parties will press Yunus to hold elections in the coming winter.

Most political analysts argue that Yunus may not agree to their demand for an early election, unless the reforms get tacit approval from all political parties, except for the former ruling party Awami League. Most of the like-minded political parties, except the Islamist parties, are lisping the same jargon as the BNP’s political agenda of early election.

Will an election roadmap neutralize the political crisis? Writer and researcher on political history Mohiuddin Ahmad does not believe that the situation will improve; rather, it may worsen.

Most political parties have extended their support to the Interim Government led by Prof Yunus. However, they argue that in the last six months, the government has failed in various areas, including controlling the price of daily essentials and improving the law and order situation.

As a result, there are doubts about their ability to control any situation in the country. The last two days of vandalism have added to the crisis of confidence. Ahmad remarked that if the government announces an election roadmap, there will be a further crisis when local party leaders clash with rivals in electioneering.

The government and mainstream political parties should focus on the country’s image and stability. Because if there is no stability, everything including democracy and elections will suffer, said political scientist Professor Mahbub Ullah to BBC Bangla Service.

First published in the Stratheia, Policy Journal, Islamabad, Pakistan, 9 February 2025

Saleem Samad is an award-winning independent journalist based in Bangladesh. A media rights defender with the Reporters Without Borders (@RSF_inter). Recipient of Ashoka Fellowship and Hellman-Hammett Award. He could be reached at saleemsamad@hotmail.com; Twitter (X): @saleemsamad

India Irks Bangladesh for Extension of Visa to Sheikh Hasina

SALEEM SAMAD

India seems to have deliberately extended the visa of Sheikh Hasina, to a former democratically elected autocratic prime minister to stay comfy at a two-room safe house in a military base at Delhi.

A reputed Delhi-based Hindustan Times writes that extending the visa for another six months is unprecedented. This has annoyed the five-month-old Interim Government of Nobel laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus.

The news was another dent amid growing tension between the two countries after the fall of Hasina in early August last year. She fled to India after a bloody student uprising. India seems uncomfortable providing asylum and its relationship with neighboring countries has turned from sweet to sour.

Officials close to the Chief Advisor’s (Yunus) office said they did not expect but were not surprised that Delhi offered Hasina to live in exile, amid a call for her extradition.

Dhaka has officially asked Delhi through diplomatic channels to extradite Hasina to face the music of justice for committing crimes against humanity. She has been accused of ordering law enforcement to shoot and kill unarmed students and protesters during the bloody Monsoon Revolution last year July-August.

The gesture confirms that India is unwilling to extradite Hasina. Indian media is harping that she is unlikely to get a fair trial if she stands on the dock for crimes of putting to deaths of hundreds of protesters.

An official, who requested to remain anonymous, as the person is not authorized to speak to journalists, said the latest decision to extend the visa gives a strong message.

The message was loud and clear that India does not wish to normalize the bilateral relations with its neighbor, which has a shared history of and common heritage originating from the Bengal (West Bengal became an Indian state and East Bengal became Bangladesh) region, linguistic and cultural ties, passion for music, literature and the arts.

The half a century of trade, commerce, regional infrastructure development, transit, and people-to-people contacts will fall flat. The gesture confirms that India is unwilling to extradite Hasina.

Unfortunately, India could not reconcile the fact that Hasina is no longer at the helm of Bangladesh's affairs. Political observers here argue that South Block in New Delhi foolishly kept all its eggs in Hasina's basket. Such actions contradict ancient India’s visionary strategist Chanakya’s wisdom on war and peace with the neighboring states.

Political stalwarts among the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) do not believe that Hasina is a ‘spent fuel’ and cannot be replenished or recharged to lead the new population of 51 million Gen-Z in a country of 174 million.

Thousands of Gen-Z, students from college and university students in the capital and countryside sparked the revolt which forced the Awami League despots from power to crumble.

The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), despite several attempts to unseat Hasina through violent anti-government movements in the last 15 years, miserably failed. They could not dent the invincible Hasina regime.

Delhi failed to acknowledge the Monsoon Revolution which killed more than a thousand students and protesters in police firing and armed vigilantes recruited from Awami League’s student and youth organizations which clashed with students on the educational campuses.

Political historian Mohiuddin Ahmad said he has a feeling if Hasina is brought back from India, the country will plunge into chaos and the distraught Interim Government will be overwhelmed.

Thousands of students and protesters would march the streets of the capital and elsewhere demanding Hasina to be punished immediately. Many journalists covering politics echoed with Ahmad that the presence of Hasina in the safest custody would turn into political pressure for the Yunus administration.

India despite being the largest functional democratic nation, accepted Hasina’s flawed elections in 2014, 2018 and 2024 sans the participation of the mainstream opposition.

Delhi was conspicuously silent when appalling human rights violations were being committed, including extra-judicial deaths, enforced disappearances and confinement of political opposition, critics and dissidents in secret prisons by security agencies.

With credible investigations, the Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have exposed the dark era of Hasina’s regime. It was picked up by international media, including several independent Indian media. The political language of India did not change.

The media was another soft sector and was throttled by draconian cybercrime laws. Many journalists were arrested and tortured which was reported by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).

Hasina’s government refused to probe into the allegations of enforced disappearance, secret prisons and extra-judicial deaths after several requests by the United Nations, European Union and other Western countries.

The former government instead blamed the BNP and Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami for orchestrating the propaganda to tarnish the image of her regime. All through her tyrannical rule, India never raised questions nor was Hasina given any advice to act as a benevolent dictator.

Earlier, Prof Yunus urged India to ensure that Hasina remains quiet and not give sermons through social media which is being amplified by her loyalists living in the West. First ever India-Bangladesh Foreign Secretary-level meeting was held at Dhaka, which is believed to have melted some ice.

Prof Yunus and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will likely meet in November on the sidelines of the BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) summit in Thailand.

BIMSTEC is India's brainchild to avoid SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) and bypass Pakistan for regional cooperation.

Until Yunus meets Modi at the end of the year nothing tangible could be achieved from the biggest neighbor India on bilateral relations and regional cooperation.

First published in the Stratheia Policy Journal, Islamabad, Pakistan, 09 January 2025

Saleem Samad is an award-winning independent journalist based in Bangladesh. A media rights defender with the Reporters Without Borders (@RSF_inter). Recipient of Ashoka Fellowship and Hellman-Hammett Award. He could be reached at saleemsamad@hotmail.com; Twitter (X): @saleemsamad

India’s ‘Neighborhood First’ Testament Fails Bangladesh

SALEEM SAMAD

Ancient India’s visionary strategist Chanakya gave six-fold policy deals on war and peace with the neighboring states, how a king should assess his power, and what actions he needed to take to deal with the states.

Nearly 2316 years ago, the Indian philosopher, economist, jurist, and royal advisor professed diplomatic principles that still have relevance in modern diplomacy.

Chanakya who lived around 300 BCE was a key figure in the establishment of the glorious Mauryan Empire and is known for writing Arthashastra, an ancient Indian treatise on politics and economics.

Unfortunately, the South Block in New Delhi is manned by chosen blue-eyed civil officers who inherited the legacy of the British Raj instead of the marvel of Chanakya’s diplomacy.

South Block in New Delhi houses the Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), and the Ministry of Defense.

India had invested heavily in her continued hegemony among the neighbors, which has adopted a much trumped-up policy of ‘Neighborhood First’.

Earlier Delhi pursued the ‘Look East Policy’ to yield positive results in the region and Bangladesh and several South Asian countries were partners in progress and economic development.

Not to be misunderstood for the ‘Neighborhood First’ policy, but the Hindutava (an ideology or movement seeking to establish Hinduism and Hindu culture as dominant in India) pursued by the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has irked most South Asian nations.

Presently India’s relationships with neighbors are blowing hot and cold. Some countries have developed love and hate with India after arch-enemy China made a dent in the region with China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) mega projects, especially in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives, and Bangladesh. Now those countries are on the fresh list of disapproval by the helms of affairs in Delhi’s South Block.

Bangladesh on the diplomatic front is the opening batsman in a bid to bring to life the weakened SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation). Bangladesh is expecting the SAARC foreign secretary-level meeting will be held soon, which has been halted for the last 10 years.The SAARC summit has also stalled for 10 years, because of the India-Pakistan conflicts.

“SAARC appears dead but it should not be buried,” Touhid Hossain, a Bangladesh Adviser for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs remarked. The regional cooperation was extremely important for improving trade and economy and reducing poverty in the South Asian region, the adviser said.

Yunus told the New Age, “India is not responding seriously. Indians explain that they have problems with Pakistan.” The bone of contention between Bangladesh and India is centered around Hasina, who is living in exile near Delhi.

Bangladesh has formally asked India to extradite deposed Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the MEA spokesperson refused to make any statement on Dhaka’s request when Indian journalists asked for a comment.

Now it seems that Delhi will remain silent on the issue of extradition. Both countries signed a treaty in 2013 and amended it in 2016. The treaty was signed to deport northeast India’s separatist leaders harbored in Bangladesh.

Similarly, two fugitive military officers indicted for the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the independence hero were hiding in India. Yunus told editor Kabir that if India does not officially respond to the extradition of Hasina, Dhaka will make a follow-up request after a month with Delhi.

Dhaka has repeatedly requested Delhi to ensure that Hasina remains quiet and refrain from making fiery political speeches over the phone to her loyalists, which often emerges in social media.

Most of the central leaders of Hasina’s Awami League have fled to India through clandestine routes. Many have taken refuge in Australia, Canada, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States and other destinations.

Those who couldn’t escape have been arrested. They were accused of the deaths of students and protesters. The political prisoners are languishing in prison without bail for the last four months.

Last week, Foreign Adviser Touhid Hossain and Chief of Army Staff General Waker-Uz-Zaman in separate media engagements have extended an olive branch to restore the bilateral relations with India.

General Waker, who is described by senior officers as a professional soldier in an interview with editor Matiur Rahman of Prothom Alo, the largest Bangla newspaper said that India is an important neighbor.

“We are dependent on India in many ways. And India is getting facilities from us too. A large number of their people are working in Bangladesh, formally and informally…So India has a lot of interest in Bangladesh’s stability,” he observed.

“This is a give-and-take relationship….We have to maintain good relations based on equality. The people in no way should feel India is dominating over us, which goes against our interests,” the COAS.

Waker is incidentally the husband of Sheikh Hasina’s cousin and last June was made COAS. He was a hard nut in negotiating with Hasina to quit and flee to India on 5 August last year.

On the other hand, the Foreign Advisor on the eve of New Year suggested that Bangladesh maintain “balanced relations” with India, China, and the United States, as all three nations hold “strategic importance” for the country.

Relations between Bangladesh and India have to be built on the basis of sovereignty, mutual interest, and dignity as the dimension and equation of Bangladesh’s relation with India have changed after 5 August, noted Hossain.

On the other hand, Indian news media NDTV, CNN-IBN News18, Times Now, Republic TV and several other media outlets have been amplifying fake stories that General Waker has ceased power from Hasina. The Nobel laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus is a façade (stooge) and the Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami is dominating the Interim Government.

Prof Yunus in an interview with the New Age editor Nurul Kabir expressed his frustration over Indian media spreading concocted stories on Bangladesh and even described the Interim Government as an Islamist regime.

The Indian media along with the central leaders, as well as the state Chief Ministers of BJP have demonized Bangladesh for revenge attacks upon the 13 million Hindus and held Yunus responsible for the atrocities in the country.

“When Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called me and alleged that the religious minority community was being persecuted here in Bangladesh, I told him that the narrative was an exaggerated one,” Yunus said in an interview with the anti-establishment newspaper.

Hossain said that the role played by Indian media was not at all conducive to establishing normal relations between the two countries.

Indian media, academicians, and political stalwarts are forgetting that the territory that is now Bangladesh was thrice partitioned. The British Raj partitioned in 1905 and 1947 to create Pakistan based on a Muslim-majority region in India. The third partition was in 1971, when it finally bifurcated from Pakistan after rejecting the Two-Nation theory, said political historian Mohiuddin Ahmad.

India must accept the political reality that Hasina has gone for now and must condemn the wanton deaths of more than a thousand students and protesters during the July-August so-called Monsoon Revolution, said Ahmad.

Historian Mohiuddin Ahmad concluded that unless Delhi recognizes the bloody student revolution that ousted the autocratic regime of Sheikh Hasina and gives hope on extradition, bilateral relations will continue to limp, which will severely affect regional cooperation (SAARC).

First published in the Stratheia Policy Journal, Islamabad, Pakistan on 5 January 2025

Saleem Samad is an award-winning independent journalist based in Bangladesh. A media rights defender with the Reporters Without Borders (@RSF_inter). Recipient of Ashoka Fellowship and Hellman-Hammett Award. He could be reached at saleemsamad@hotmail.com; Twitter (X): @saleemsamad