Indian envoy in Bangladesh to smooth months of tensions

DHAKA: India´s top career diplomat was in Bangladesh on Monday to defuse tensions between the two neighbours arising from the August overthrow of autocratic ex-premier Sheikh Hasina in a student-led revolution.

Hasina´s iron-fisted rule was strongly backed by India and the 77-year-old remains in New Delhi where she took refuge after her ouster, despite Bangladesh announcing it would seek her extradition.

Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, leader of an interim government tasked with implementing democratic reforms, has condemned acts of “Indian aggression” that he alleged were intended to destabilise his administration.

Vikram Misri, the secretary of India´s foreign ministry, arrived in Dhaka on Monday for the first in-person meeting between top officials of both countries since Hasina´s ouster. “India desires a positive, constructive, and mutually beneficial relationship with Bangladesh,” Misri told reporters in the Bangladeshi capital.

“There is no reason why this mutually beneficial cooperation should not continue to deliver in the interest of both our peoples.” Misri was slated to meet with de facto foreign minister Touhid Hossain and Yunus while in Dhaka.

Yunus, 84, faced numerous criminal proceedings during Hasina´s regime that her critics say were concocted to sideline one of her most high-profile potential rivals. He has been a vocal critic of India for backing Hasina´s rule to the hilt despite the mounting rights abuses seen over her 15-year tenure.

India, for its part, has accused Muslim-majority Bangladesh of failing to adequately protect its minority Hindu community from reprisal attacks after Hasina´s toppling. The arrest of a prominent Hindu priest in Bangladesh on sedition charges last month further added to tensions, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi´s right-wing supporters urging his government to take a more hardline stance on Dhaka.

Yunus´s administration has repeatedly acknowledged and condemned attacks on Hindus, but also insists that in many cases they were motivated by politics rather than religion. Yunus has accused India of exaggerating the scale of the violence and running a “propaganda campaign” against his government.

Adding to potential tensions between the two neighbours is Hasina´s decision to re-emerge from her exile in New Delhi to address supporters abroad by videolink. On Sunday she spoke to several hundred of members of her Awami League party based in London, accusing Yunus´ government of deliberately targeting minorities.

Her supporters at the event insisted that Hasina remained the lawful head of Bangladesh despite the popular uprising that forced her to flee to India. “She´s the head of the country, she´s the head of the government,” Awami League senior secretary Noim Uddin Riaz told AFP.

“We hope the world listens to us and she will take over her position in Bangladesh very soon,” he added. The head of Bangladesh´s foreign ministry, Md. Jashim Uddin, said that Dhaka had raised “certain comments” Hasina had made while in India during Monday´s meeting with Misri.

“In reply, our counterpart said that her presence does not have any bearing on our relationship,” he added. Numerous anti-India street demonstrations have been staged in Bangladesh since Hasina´s ouster.

On Sunday hundreds of activists from the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) marched to India´s embassy in Dhaka but dispersed peacefully after their route was blocked by police. They were protesting against the attempted storming of a Bangladeshi consulate in India by Hindu activists some days earlier, which prompted Dhaka to lodge a formal protest and recall two of its diplomats.

Misri said he had discussed “regrettable attacks... on cultural, religious and diplomatic properties” in his meetings with the interim government. “We look forward moving the relationship forward in a positive, forward-looking and constructive direction,” he added.