Bangladesh’s “Mango Diplomacy” to Sweeten Relations With India

SALEEM SAMAD

Bangladeshi authorities are aware that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a strict vegan, but he has a particular fondness for mangoes. Modi has a craving for mangoes of Bengal (now a territory of Bangladesh). He cuts mangoes himself when he consumes them as dessert. He once told an actor when the celebrity asked how he ate mangoes.

The Chief Adviser of the Interim Government, Prof. Muhammad Yunus, sent 1,000 kilograms (approximately one ton) of the most delicious mango variety, “Haribhanga,” to New Delhi last week.

The mangoes are expected to be shared with dignitaries from the Indian Prime Minister’s Office, diplomats, and other officials within the next couple of days as part of a friendly exchange between the two neighboring countries, wrote a private news service, United News of Bangladesh (UNB).

Yunus’ government has initiated ‘mango diplomacy’ with India, weeks after the Foreign Ministry said New Delhi was willing to discuss all issues with Dhaka in a “conducive” environment. Yunus has also sent 300 kg of mangoes each to the neighboring states of West Bengal’s Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Tripura’s Chief Minister Manik Saha.

Bangladesh has a long-standing tradition of sending seasonal gifts, particularly mangoes, to the Indian PM and state leaders to reinforce cultural ties and regional diplomacy. This form of extending a gesture, often referred to as “mango diplomacy,” was also practiced under the previous administration of Sheikh Hasina, and it continues to serve as a symbol of goodwill and exchange, reports The Times of India.

Will the mango diplomacy likely thaw the strained relations after Delhi’s all-weather friend, Sheikh Hasina, was toppled and she sought refuge in a secure location, possibly in Delhi? The question among diplomatic circles is whether the mango diplomacy will reinforce cultural ties and regional diplomacy. Most of the observers are sceptical about the outcome of the bilateral talks.

Modi and Yunus last met in April on the sidelines of the BIMSTEC Summit in Bangkok, their first face-to-face meeting since the collapse of Bangladesh’s former autocratic regime. Prime Minister Modi reiterated India’s support for a democratic, stable, peaceful, progressive, and inclusive Bangladesh. He also underlined that India believed in a people-centric approach to the relationship, and highlighted the cooperation between the two countries over a long period of time that has delivered tangible benefits to people in both countries.

The practice of sending mangoes has existed since previous regimes. But the relations between Dhaka and New Delhi have been sour after former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted from power last year following massive student-led demonstrations. The Hasina government has close ties with New Delhi.

However, Bangladesh’s new caretaker government chose to court China and Pakistan, fanning regional instability. Beijing has been trying for years to spread its tentacles in the Indian subcontinent. Through arms deals and loans, China is rooting its influence in Pakistan and Bangladesh, aiming to align its interests with Beijing. Amid diplomatic unrest, Bangladesh’s “Mango Diplomacy”, a form of outreach, is seen as Dhaka’s move to sweeten ties with India.

Hours after sheltering Hasina, India has imposed a blanket moratorium on visa services to Bangladeshi nationals. The visa centers are manned by skeleton staff for emergency visa formalities, like healthcare, students studying in India, and those seeking visas for a third country having their visa office in Delhi.

The moratorium has brought the direct train, buses, and border crossing for Bangladesh to several Indian destinations to a standstill. Most flights between cities of Bangladesh and India have been significantly reduced due to the lack of visas. Earlier, thousands of Bangladesh nationals visited India every day for healthcare. Now, everything has almost stopped for the patients for medical checkups and surgery. The hotel occupancy in Kolkata, Bangalore, and Chennai has reached its lowest ebb. Restaurants no longer prepare Halal food in the absence of Bangladeshi customers.

Another category of tourists was on a shopping spree and buying an expensive dress for marriage celebrations. Whereas, Bangladesh missions in Indian capital and cities have continued to issue visas, and Indian journalists receive visas on a fast track. Well, the Agartala (Tripura State) and Kolkata (West Bengal) Bangladesh missions were attacked and vandalised, alleging that Bangladesh is not doing enough to protect the Hindus. The visa section was temporarily closed in fear of further attacks.

Despite repeated assurances from Bangladesh authorities that the perpetrators involved in the attacks on Hindus were arrested and hundreds of others are on the wanted list, the Indian media did not listen to the commitment against sectarian violence. The violence has drastically reduced. However, after a brief lull, the visa section resumed in Kolkata and Agartala’s Bangladesh missions.

In 2023, India hosted approximately 2.12 million tourists from Bangladesh, making them the largest group of foreign tourists visiting India. While Kolkata is a popular destination, other cities like Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur are also frequently visited by Bangladeshi travelers. Additionally, pilgrimage sites like Ajmer Sharif and locations in the Indian northeast, Kashmir, and Ladakh were popular destinations, according to a tourist site.

Ambassador Humayun Kabir explains that the mango diplomacy will not make much headway for a reconciliation very soon. Delhi believes that the conspiracy to overthrow Hasina was masterminded with the help of the United States and China to keep India under pressure in the new geopolitical phenomenon.

Indian conspiracy theory says the USA also brought Nobel laureate Prof Yunus to power after gathering moss under the rolling stone. The conspiratorial power lobbies brought India’s arch rivals, China and Pakistan, closer to Bangladesh. In South Asia, Dhaka angered Delhi when Yunus promised to hold the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit, even if India boycotts the event.

India officially boycotted the SAARC Summit scheduled to be held in Islamabad in November 2016. On Delhi’s instigation, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Afghanistan declined to participate, citing concerns about regional security and Pakistan’s alleged interference in their internal affairs with India. Since then, SAARC has remained dormant.

Ambassador Kabir understands that Delhi is likely to open a new chapter with Dhaka and develop the bilateral relations between the two neighboring countries, not to a new height. Delhi is waiting for the Yunus government to come to an end. A new political government will take responsibility after the much-hyped election scheduled in February next year. Let’s wait and see how Delhi reacts to the new political government, which overtly wants to develop friendship with China and wants Beijing to support their relationship.

First published in Stratheia Policy Journal, Islamabad, Pakistan, 21 July 2025

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

Chai-walla tête-à-tête with the inventor of social business

SALEEM SAMAD

News media in Bangladesh and India were agog due to the news that Prof Muhammad Yunus, Chief Advisor of the Interim Government, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met officially for the first time in a decade on the sidelines of the BIMSTEC Summit in Bangkok, Thailand, on 4 April.

The meeting buried all speculations on the question of ‘to be or not to be’ a tête-à-tête meeting between two neighboring countries, Bangladesh and India. They sat down for a meeting eight months after the change of guards in Bangladesh, after the bloody street protest, which ousted autocrat Sheikh Hasina from power.

The leaders of these two major South Asian countries greeted each other with mutual respect and a shared openness for dialogue. Their 40-minute exchange was candid, productive, and constructive, the Indian official spokesperson said.

Narendra Modi in a Tweet (now X) says: [I met] “Mr. Muhammad Yunus, the Chief Adviser of the interim government of Bangladesh. India remains committed to a constructive and people-centric relationship with Bangladesh. “I reiterated India’s support for peace, stability, inclusivity and democracy in Bangladesh. Discussed measures to prevent illegal border crossings and expressed our serious concern for the safety and well-being of Hindus and other minorities.”

The meeting was supposedly engineered by Pranay Kumar Verma, the Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh, who had made it possible for Yunus and Modi to meet face-to-face. Professor Yunus enquired about the status of Bangladesh’s formal request for the extradition of Sheikh Hasina, the former Prime Minister of Bangladesh, which remains pending with the Indian government. The journalists were told that Bangladesh reiterated Hasina’s possible extradition plan, India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said. “There were talks on Sheikh Hasina’s extradition. Can’t say more on that,” he furthermore added.

Modi was told that Hasina had been making inflammatory remarks and accusations against the interim government of Bangladesh to various media outlets and attempting to destabilize the situation in Bangladesh, which seemed to be an abuse of the hospitality India has extended to her. “We request that the Government of India take appropriate measures to restrain her from continuing to make such incendiary statements while she remains in your country,” his press secretary, Shafiqul Alam stated.

Indian Prime Minister promptly blamed social media for the tensions around Sheikh Hasina’s remarks. However, Modi, in response to Hasina’s issue, stated that “rhetoric that vitiates the environment” is best avoided. One of the things he said in the meeting was that while India had good relations with Sheikh Hasina, “We saw her disrespectful behavior towards you. But we continued to respect and honor you.”

He clarified that India’s attachment is with a country, not with any individuals or political organization. “Our relationship is people-to-people,” Modi told Yunus. What he meant was that India did not pledge loyalty to Awami League only. Although in reality, Delhi has put all its eggs in one basket during 15-years of Hasina’s misrule.

India deliberately avoided mentioning the July-August uprising – Monsoon Revolution when 1,400 students and protesters (figure quoted from OHCHR Fact-Finding Report, February 2025) were killed by law enforcement forces and armed Awami League vigilantes. The UN report notes that the Prime Minister herself had ordered security forces to kill protesters  and specifically instructed them to “arrest the ringleaders, kill them, and hide their bodies.”

Hasina had pathological hatred against the opposition, critics, dissidents, independent journalists, human rights activists and social media users. The journalists, critics, human rights activists and social media influencers were booked under non-bailable charges under repressive cybercrime laws.

India or the Indian media hardly reacted to Hasina’s repressive regime. She ruled the country with an iron hand. This was the reason for rising enforced disappearances, the encampment in secret prisons managed by dreaded security agencies and extra-judicial deaths with impunity.

Public opinion in Bangladesh has turned against India over its decision to provide sanctuary to fugitive Hasina, while the Dhaka courts are waiting to put her on the dock for alleged crimes against humanity during the July-August street protests.

Regarding the official statement of Vikram Misri, it is argued that despite India having a functional democracy for seven decades, Delhi never gave sermons to Hasina to hold an inclusive election in 2014, 2018 and 2024. Instead, the Indian Prime Minister promptly congratulated Hasina for being re-elected to power.

All three elections were flawed. The regime kept tens of thousands languishing in prison until the elections were over, according to election observers and human rights groups. The bilateral relations plunged through the cracks of the fault line after India decided to give political shelter to ousted Sheikh Hasina in August last year.

“PM Modi reiterated India’s support for democratic, stable, peaceful, progressive and inclusive Bangladesh. He underlined India’s desire to forge a positive and constructive relationship with Bangladesh. The PM also urged that any rhetoric that vitiates the environment is best avoided,” Misri said.

Modi underlined India’s concerns over the safety and security of minorities, including Hindus in Bangladesh, and expressed his expectation that the Bangladesh government would ensure their security, including by thoroughly investigating the cases of atrocities committed against them. Responding to Modi’s concern over the condition of minorities in Bangladesh, the Chief Adviser said the reports of attacks on the minorities were hugely inflated and “the bulk of them were fake news”.

Yunus said he has instituted an effective system for monitoring every incident of religious and gender violence in the country, and his government was taking serious actions to stop any occurrence of such incidents. Yunus also raised the issue of border killings and stressed the need of working together to reduce the number of fatalities. “On the border, strict enforcement of the law and prevention of illegal border crossings, especially at night, is necessary for maintaining border security and stability. The bilateral mechanism could meet as appropriate to review and take forward our ties,” reads the Indian press statement. Modi furthermore explained that the Indian border troops opened fire only in self-defense and the fatalities occurred in Indian territories.

The leaders agreed that strict enforcement of the law and prevention of illegal crossings would help to build trust and confidence and to strengthen the relationship between India and Bangladesh. India’s inconsistent stance on border killings has contributed to a rise in anti-India sentiments in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh's Chief Adviser’s Office gave a strong diplomatic message to India and the Indians when a photograph was presented to Modi. The photo is about Narendra Modi presenting a gold medal to Nobel laureate Professor Yunus at the 102nd Indian Science Congress that took place in Mumbai on 3 January 2015. The Indians cannot deny that Modi knew the inventor of social business and micro-credit, which salvaged millions of disadvantaged women from poverty.

Addressing the challenges facing the relationship between the two countries, Professor Yunus said, “Excellency, we seek to work together with you to set the relationship on the right track for the benefit of both our peoples.” “Bangladesh deeply values its relationship with India,” said Professor Yunus. “The deep-rooted friendship between our two countries is founded on intertwined histories, geographical proximity, and cultural affinity. We remain thankful for the unwavering support of the government and people of India during our most challenging time in 1971 [the brutal birth of Bangladesh].”

Al Jazeera writes: “Sheikh Hasina’s overthrow sent Bangladesh’s relationship with neighboring India into a tailspin, culminating in Yunus choosing to make his first state visit last month to China – India’s biggest rival. “Bangladesh has also moved closer to India’s arch-enemy Pakistan amid the diplomatic chill,” Al Jazeera remarked.

In an editorial, the largest circulated independent newspaper, the Prothom Alo writes: “Though delayed, we welcome the high-level meeting between Bangladesh and India. At the same time, we believe that one or two meetings alone are not sufficient to resolve the ongoing tensions in the bilateral relations of the two countries. Dialogue must be sustained at all levels. Bangladesh had long emphasized the need for such a meeting between the two heads of government.

“Since the fall of the Awami League government on 5 August last year and former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina seeking refuge in India, there have been certain strains in Bangladesh-India relations. Although the political transition in Bangladesh is entirely an internal matter, policymakers in Delhi have found it difficult to accept this reality.”

Prothom Alo urged for healthy bilateral relations, communication and movement between the peoples of both nations as essential.

Writer and researcher Mohiuddin Ahmad lamented that India has imposed a blanket moratorium on the issuance of visas to Bangladeshi nationals since August last year. The non-issuance of visas halted three direct train and bus services. The flights between the two countries have also significantly reduced. Bangladesh did not reciprocate to the Indian visa regime policy and instead asked all missions to issue visas to Indian nationals, especially for journalists on the fast track.

Another bone of contention was water sharing. Bangladesh and India not only share a land border of nearly four thousand kilometers but also 54 common rivers. While the issue of the land boundary was resolved during the tenure of the Modi government, the matter of water sharing from the common rivers remains unsettled. The Ganges water-sharing treaty is set to expire in 2026.

Harsh Pant, foreign policy head at the Observer Research Foundation, an Indian think tank, expressed hope that the meeting between Modi and Yunus would “start the process of rebuilding some engagement” between the two historically close nations. Several think tanks on both sides of the border stated after the meeting took place that it was clear that India wants to chart a new course in its relationships with Bangladesh.

First published in the Stratheia Policy Journal, Islamabad, Pakistan on 7 April 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

More people-to-people contact between two neighbours Bangladesh - India would allay misconception

For a greater understanding
More people-to-people contact between India and Bangladesh would go a long way in allaying the misconceptions that many in Assam harbour against Bangladeshi migrants.

NAVA THAKURIA

Bangladesh, Assam, border terrorism, NRC, West Bengal, Digital Security Act, Mamata Banerjee, Bangladeshi migrants

People from Bangladesh are often perceived as trouble makers and unwanted guests in Northeastern states, especially Assam. One of the Bangladesh-bordering states (apart from West Bengal, Meghalaya and Tripura), Assam has witnessed a massive uprising against illegal migrants from that country and its implications are still visible.

But lately, India and Bangladesh have reached a steady bilateral relationship after many decades of diplomatic hiccups. The governments in New Delhi and Dhaka now regularly share common issues in an atmosphere of confidence and friendship. The mutual trust has been further heightened after resolving half-a-century- old border demarcation disputes. Duty-free trade, joint venture infrastructure projects, commerce, tourism, visa regime, communication through road, rail, river and air were a few areas of discussion between both nations. The talks on sharing of water from 56 international rivers are also in progress.

With authentic intelligence sharing by both New Delhi and Dhaka, cross-border terrorism has reduced to a great extent. At least the rigorous crackdowns on separatist militants hailing from Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya and Tripura by various Bangladeshi government agencies have made the country almost free from those armed leaders and their cadres.

Interacting with a group of Guwahati- based scribes through video conferencing from Dhaka recently, senior Bangladeshi journalist and political commentator Saleem Samad said that there should not be any North-eastern separatist leader running their militant camps from Bangladesh. Many leaders including United Liberation Front of Assam president Arabinda Rajkhowa were silently handed over to Indian agencies by Dhaka in the recent past.

“Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is committed to making Bangladesh free from cross-border terrorism. Because of Dhaka’s relentless crackdown on terrorism, the North-eastern militants have fled the country. Many of the separatist leaders were pushed back into India. The only fugitive on the run is Paresh Barua (supreme leader of Ulfa-Independent), who also faces capital punishment in Bangladesh,” said Samad.

The special correspondent at the Asian Age, published from Dhaka, also insisted that New Delhi should officially acknowledge efforts of the Hasina government, which has led to a significant decrease of budget for the five-decade-long anti-insurgency operation and deployment of law-enforcing agencies in the various troubled North-eastern localities. The anti-insurgency budget can now be diverted to infrastructure development, human development and industrial parks in the region.

A keen observer of socio-political situations in South Asia and a regular contributor to different Indian media outlets, Samad, however, admitted that the recent rise of Islamist extremism has been posing a serious threat to his Muslim majority country along with its neighbouring Indian states like West Bengal, Assam and Tripura. He narrated how secularist bloggers and LGBT activists are increasingly becoming the target of radicalised Muslims forces in the populous country, which has otherwise slowly, but steadily marched on the path of becoming a country of one nationality (Bangladeshi), one language (Bangla) and one religion (Sunni Muslim).

Citing how a network of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh was busted in West Bengal few years ago, Samad urged the North-eastern region to remain alert about jihadi elements after the ongoing crackdown on Islamist forces. He revealed that thousands of Bangladeshi youths had joined various militia groups in Syria, Iraq, Chechnya, Indonesia, Philippines, Afghanistan, and Pakistan et al to fight alongside the jihadis there. He also expressed concern over the new Digital Security Act 2018, which has already come under fire from journalists, including editors, rights defenders and anti-corruption advocates. International rights watchdogs have condemned the draconian law, which looks to criminalise freedom of press, speech and expression in that country.

Claiming that no visiting Indian political leader had ever spoken about illegal Bangladeshi migrants in India during parleys with their Bangladeshi counterparts, Samad pointed out that for the people of Bangladesh the issue of the National Register of Citizens updation in Assam remains an internal affair of India. “Though Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee made a hue and cry about the Assam NRC draft, Bangladeshi politicians and the civil society are still reluctant to comment on the sensitive matter. Even Dhaka-based media outlets had little coverage about the process and its larger implications,” said Samad.

It may be noted that Banerjee termed the massive citizenship scanning process in Assam, which is being monitored by the Supreme Court of India, as anti-Bengali but her views were not endorsed by anybody in Assam including those Bengali-speaking inhabitants in the Barak valley. Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal termed the release of the NRC draft as historic.

He expressed his heartfelt appreciation and gratitude to the Supreme Court, congratulated the 55,000 government officials engaged in the process and the people living across the Barak and Brahmaputra valleys, plains and hills of the state. It may be noted here that the first NRC in India was prepared in 1951 following a census the same year. Assam has been preparing a new NRC following the direction of the apex court of the country. Earlier, the first NRC draft in Assam was released on 31 December 2017.

The background for the NRC is traced to the Assam Accord, which was signed in 1985 by the Centre with leaders of Assam movement. The historic memorandum of understanding, signed by leaders of All Assam Students Union and Gana Sangram Parishad in presence of then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi drew the curtain on the six-year-long Assam agitation that erupted in 1979. The Accord reposed responsibility on New Delhi to detect and deport all migrants (read East Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals), who entered Assam after the midnight of 24 March 1971. In other words, the agitating leaders agreed to accept all residents of Assam prior to the dateline as Indian nationals.

One can see that the influx of millions of illegal Bangladeshis is a vital socio-political issue for Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Manipur. The region shares an international border of 5,182 km (about 99 percent of its total geographical boundary) with Tibet (now under China), Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and Bangladesh. Its border with Bangladesh is as long as 1,596 km. During the interaction, Samad strongly advocated more people-to-people contact between Assam and Bangladesh.

He even lamented how the state had missed the bus despite being so closely located, while other states like Bengal and Tripura launched multiple projects to improve rail, road and river connectivity with Bangladesh. Stressing on regular direct bus and air links between Guwahati and Dhaka, the Bangladeshi journalist said that improved trade and commerce along with cultural ties would help in erasing many misconceptions and suspicions prevailing on both sides. He also claimed more students and patients would move from both sides and that would obviously boost tourism.

First published in The Statesman, Kolkata on 15 October 2018

Nava Thakuria is the Guwahati-based Special Representative of The Statesman.

What lies beyond this U-turn?

Photo: REACHING ACROSS: President Pranab Mukherjee (right) with BNP leader Khaleda Zia at Rashtrapati Bhavan

HAROON HABIB

There is every possibility that Khaleda Zia’s recanting of her long-held anti-India views is mere pre-election posturing

KHALEDA ZIA, Bangladesh’s leader of the opposition in Parliament, made some significant statements during her October 28-November 3 visit to India that deserve scrutiny.

As far as her Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is concerned, the visit had a dual purpose: one, to establish a stronger relationship between the two countries, and two, to remove the mistrust that India perceivably has towards the BNP.

One of Ms Khaleda Zia’s close aides who accompanied her to New Delhi, said the high-profile visit, roughly a year ahead of the next general election, dispelled the perception that “India favours one political party” in Bangladesh.

During the visit, which was closely watched in both the countries, Ms. Khaleda Zia met key Indian leaders including President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, senior BJP leader L.K. Advani, BJP president Nitin Gadkari, National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon and Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai.

In her meetings, Ms Khaleda Zia, for the first time, appreciated India’s security concerns and gave an assurance that terrorists and anti-India insurgents would not be allowed on Bangladeshi soil if she comes to power again.

The former Prime Minister, who was a staunch critic of the present Sheikh Hasina government’s improved relations with India, also reportedly supported India’s transit and transshipment through Bangladesh, and also India’s participation in a consortium with China to build a deep-sea port at Bangladesh’s Sonadia.

Like Ms Khaleda Zia, Jatiya Party chairman General H.M. Ershad and Awami League’s general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam had also visited India in recent times on New Delhi’s invitations. Reportedly, the main thrust of Indian interactions with Ms Khaleda Zia was sustaining the relations the two countries had built in the last four years.

This visit was certainly more important than her tour of India in 2006 as the Prime Minister; and is reminiscent of a similar high-profile visit to New Delhi by the then opposition leader, Sheikh Hasina, in 2006.

Happy host

The Indian External Affairs Ministry was also happy with the outcome as its spokesman quoted Ms Khaleda Zia as saying that the visit marked a “new beginning” and “let’s look forward and not look in the rear view mirror”.

There are varying interpretations of the visit. Some say it is in the interest of both India and BNP to build ties ahead of the next general elections in which the ruling Awami League may face a debacle due to anti-incumbency factors. According to pro-Khaleda analysts, the “positive changes” in the BNP were being closely watched by India, and these were first underlined when the then Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee visited Dhaka in May this year. After a meeting with Ms Khaleda Zia, he said India was interested in building relations with Bangladesh and not just with one party.

Also, the visit took place at a time when international politics has changed. Myanmar’s willingness to come out of the cold and the United States’ overtures towards it have made Bangladesh’s geopolitical location of immense importance.

Watch the curve

A secular-democratic Bangladesh has no reason to be perturbed with Ms Khaleda Zia’s radical postures towards India. But it must keep a watch on the U-turn that she is making on her long-held policies.

It is possible that, as in the run-up to the 2001 election, Ms Khaleda Zia is trying to sell the line that a government led by her, despite its Islamist orientation and pronounced anti-India bias, is better suited to deliver on promises made to India than Sheikh Hasina’s secular Awami League. Arch rivals can turn friends, and true changes of heart are welcome. However, those on the vanguard of a secular-democratic Bangladesh doubt Ms. Khaleda Zia can follow through on her assurances while keeping parties like Jamaat-e-Islami and other Islamists in the fold. Therefore, the question remains: Is this a genuine change of heart or posturing ahead of the next general election?

Bangladeshis would recall her repeated statements when she was Prime Minister, calling India’s north-east insurgents “freedom fighters”. It was during the BNP-Jamaat alliance’s rule that a massive arms haul was made in Chittagong in April, 2004. The then Prime Minister reportedly had full knowledge of these arms, which were unmistakably meant for insurgent outfits like ULFA.

Bangladesh, which had enjoyed a liberal polity, also turned a happy hunting ground for religious extremists during her regime. Therefore, secular democrats would like to see verification of such pronouncements in action.

One would remember that on return to power in 2001, BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami went about implementing with full vigour their communal agenda, resorting to ‘minority cleansing’ on a scale that Bangladesh had never witnessed except for 1971 and turned the country into a sanctuary for international Islamist terrorist groups.

The present dispensation

When Awami League swept into power in the 2008 general elections, one of the priorities of Prime Minister Shiekh Hasina was to visit New Delhi to extend a warm hand of friendship. Despite stumbling blocks, it was Ms Hasina who boldly initiated a new beginning in India-Bangladesh ties — a first since the two joined hands in the 1971 war for independence of East Pakistan.

Indeed, the Hasina government has initiated a new era of regional connectivity and has also removed a vital security concern of India by bringing north-east insurgents to task.

All these actions, until her recent visit to New Delhi, were persistently challenged by Ms. Khaleda Zia and her Islamist allies, who termed the Hasina government, as usual, “an Indian stooge”.

Given the anti-incumbency factor, the government led by Sheikh Hasina may not be in a commanding position in the coming general election, especially in urban areas. But there is no credible sign that the ratings of the BNP and its Islamist allies have had a substantive rise. Therefore, the perceived defeat of the Awami League may be too hasty a conclusion.

Bangladesh’s politics is fundamentally linked to its Liberation War, and the ongoing trial of “war criminals” initiated by the Hasina government represents an effort to come to terms with the past. It is in the interest of a strong, secular Bangladesh that justice be done. But the BNP, a staunch ally of the Jamaat-e-Islami which has many of its leaders among the top accused, has demanded the trial be suspended and the accused freed.

Ms. Khaleda Zia’s high-profile visit to India has also sent confusing signals to the secular parties and grouping. Rhetoric apart, the confusion can be judged from a recent remark by Awami League’s spokesman Mahbub-ul Alam Hanif, who said that having failed to get support at home, the BNP was trying to get back to power with Indian support.

Despite all the debates, the fact is that Ms. Khaleda Zia has announced a considerable shift from what she and her party have stood for ever since she took over the reins of BNP in the early 1980s. If this change of heart is real and durable, it is welcome in the interest of restoring a healthy regional environment based on understanding and cooperation.

Haroon Habib is a journalist, writer and liberation war veteran. He is Bangladesh correspondent for The Hindu for 3 decades.

First published in The Hindu, Chennai, India, November 17, 2012