India has seemingly softened its tone in a major shift in its foreign policy towards Bangladesh with hints to retreat from its earlier stance in which Delhi was accused of meddling into Bangladesh's internal affairs.
This is clear when Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in a recent interview with an Indian Television Channel, NDTV, said that what had happened in Bangladesh that resulted in the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government on August 5 was its internal matter. He also underlined the maxim that neighbouring nations are dependent on each other and pointed out that India is interested in continuing a stable relationship with its closest neighbor.
Similar views were expressed by Nobel laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus soon after he assumed office as the Chief Adviser of the Bangladesh's interim government on August 8 saying that Dhaka is keen to maintain the status quo ante in its friendly relationships with New Delhi based on mutual respect, fairness and equality.
Despite the positive missives and apparent amicable understandings from both sides, Dhaka's request for a tete-a-tete between Dr Yunus and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the upcoming UN General Assembly in New York has not been yet either confirmed or declined. This prompted political analysts to say that this high level meeting though every important at the moment is unlikely.
This is probably because of some comments made by Dr Yunus in a recent interview with the Indian news agency, PTI, which were not well received by the Indian government. The gist of the interview was that Dr Yunus wanted Sheikh Hasina to keep mum while she is in exile in India and requested Delhi government to move beyond its narrative that every political party other than Sheikh Hasina's Awami League is Islamist in Bangladesh.
In spite of such misunderstanding and differences in opinions, we are in view that a meeting between the two leaders is very critical at this juncture of a changed political scenario in Bangladesh as we have some bilateral issues which need to be addressed sooner or later in the interest of both countries.
Among the issues, water sharing of at least 54 transboundary rivers and indiscriminate border killings are the most prominent. In the absence of the water sharing deals except the Ganga water treaty that also expires by 2026, many areas of Bangladesh dry up during the summer season and are flooded during the monsoon. For instance, at least 11 districts of Bangladesh's eastern part recently experienced devastating floods due to release of rivers' water by India.
Border killing of Bangladeshi people by the members of the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) is quite rampant that has stymied our relationships. Most recently, BSF killed a 16-year old girl, Swarna Das, that had stirred uproar in Bangladesh.
People of Bangladesh believe that the outstanding issues between Bangladesh and India will be resolved amicably in the years to come.
