By Ashis Biswas
KOLKATA: Rare exceptions apart, diplomats as well as foreign policy spokesmen in Delhi as well as Dhaka have in recent times observed protocol-related niceties and established norms while referring to current developments in Bangladesh. Their mutual restraint has been praiseworthy: Post Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s fall from power and the spectacular decline of her Awami League party (for the moment), Indo/Bangla bilateral relations have turned a great deal frostier than before.
At the apex level of engagement, it has been somewhat different. If Indian Prime Minister Mr, Narendra Modi made it clear to Bangladesh that targeted terror against the minority Hindus was unacceptable, Dr Mohammad Yunus who succeeded Mrs Hasina in a caretaker capacity, has equally promptly dismissed such concerns as ‘misplaced and exaggerated’.
Clearly, the old days are gone but hopefully both countries have taken care to maintain peace at the long international border and pledged to maintain co-ordination and co-operation in trade and related matters.
There are clear signs nevertheless of frayed tempers below the surface in both capitals. For once the importance of social media coverage of recent events and the attitude of Bangladeshis towards India’s response to political changes in its immediate neighbourhood, can be appreciated. Popular sentiments spontaneously expressed by large number of people anywhere are certainly a more reliable indicator of prevailing social moods than official reactions at any level.
If TV panel discussions and media debates in the wide-ranging Bangladeshi electronic media are any indication, it can be safely said that popular opinion remains sharply divided on how the country should deal with India. The suggestions made by various people, including foreign policy experts, diplomats and academicians have been, as expected, varied, ranging from the practical to the insane.
There were suggestions made on record by Bangladeshis to revive their earlier relationship with Pakistan and if necessary to exercise the nuclear military option against an ‘aggressive India’ — this from a local ‘academician’! A younger hothead offered ‘help’ to Trinamool Congress in case Indian “Hindutvavadis’ attacked West Bengal and so on.
To be fair, there were many more sober voices calling for a firmer and businesslike approach towards Bangladesh’s biggest and nearest neighbour, despite an overriding hostility towards India.
So far so bad. But things have gone to worse after US President elect Donald Trump’s unexpected warning to Bangladesh about the continuing mistreatment of the Hindus and the enthusiastic endorsement of Trump response in the Indian press. It is no secret that while Dr Yunus enjoys near total support from the US democrats, the Clinton foundation and other influential organisations, his equation with the Republicans has not been particularly warm. Worse, being the unorthodox leader that he is Mr. Trump lost no time, according to the US press reports, asking about what Dr Yunus, whom he recalled as a fundraiser for Democrats, was up to in Bangladesh.
Naturally most Indian leaders as well as large sections of the Indian media saw no reason to conceal their glee at both Mr Trump’s re-election as President and his support for the Hindus who have always been the favourite whipping boys in Bangladesh over the years. Even more than Delhi’s jubilation, the return of the Republicans brought much cheer for the beleaguered Awami League (AL) and deposed PM Mrs Hasina. Not unexpectedly AL demonstrators and protestors carried Trump’s pictures along with those of the late Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Sheikh Hasina, as they staged their first major protest rally in Bangladesh after about three months.
It is common knowledge that the present caretaker administration brutally cracked down on AL supporters, using unnecessary force and preventive arrests, to intimidate all opposition activists into submission. Dhaka mass media duly reported that people carrying Trump’s were also arrested, which caused little surprise in either Bangladesh or India, given the manner in which most ruling dispensations treat major opposition parties.
Even as Bangladeshi administrators strongly denied any special hostility shown towards those who had carried pro-Trump posters etc, obviously to ensure that their government did not offend Republican Party sentiments, sections within the Bangladeshi print media were angry with the way the Indian press had reported the entire episode.
In particular, Bangladeshi papers/commentators found the unconcealed joy, it was alleged, within large powerful sections of the Indian press — over Trump’s support for the Hindus and also Dhaka’s frantic denials of its police etc carrying out a brutal crackdown against the pro-Trump Bangladeshis, as highly objectionable. A prominent Delhi-based organisation, along with some others was named in this connection in a Bangladeshi website. Readers/netizens were reminded that despite its size and relative importance within South Asia as a whole, the Indian press was totally dominated by the pro-Modi, Hindutvavadi “Godi” establishment. Its support for Bangladesh had ended with the ouster of the Awami league from power and so on.
Surprisingly, one Bangladeshi website even quoted a serving American diplomat in Dhaka, who agreed wholeheartedly with the attack against the press coverage of recent Bangladeshi events in India. What is more, he further said that certain sections of people in and out of Bangladesh were still determined to ensure a political ‘return to power’ by the ousted PM Sheikh Hasina! Kolkata-based analysts wondered whether the concerned diplomat was still pursuing the regional diplomatic objectives as laid down by the outgoing Democratic administration in the US! (IPA
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