Relations between India and Bangladesh have taken on a downward slide in the last few years since the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) assumed power in 2001 under the dispensation of the hawkish Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia. That the Begum rode to power on the plank that her predecessor Sheikh Hasina was guilty of appeasing India has only added to her hard-line stance. How the Begum carries herself during her present stay in New Delhi will therefore be watched with keen interest both by the South Asian and the Global community who are as much concerned over Dacca’s covert support to forces inimical to peace.
The bilateral engagement on the part of New Delhi on all issues of concerns—illegal immigration, transit route facilities, border management and energy security—has made little headway. It is also no secret that Bangladesh gives tacit support to anti-India activities and New Delhi knows that Dacca has done little to prevent such covert and overt designs. Bangladesh appears to have acquiesced in the increased activity by Pakistani intelligence agencies besides the presence of training camps of Indian rebel groups. Reports submitted by security agencies in India document details on how such camps function on Bangladeshi soil with the patronage and protection from both the army and Bangladesh Rifles (BDR).
Some of the blame would have to be borne by the establishment in India for the lack of firmness in it’s policy towards Bangladesh, despite a clutch of evidence that suggest that the establishment in Dhaka and especially the present regime under Prime Minister Khaleda Zia has hostile designs on India’s north eastern states. This is despite the fact that for over 15 years, India’s military establishment had documented about Bangladesh’s role in aiding and abetting rebel groups from the north-east.
Another contentious issue in bilateral relation is that of illegal Bangladeshi migration. This has changed the demographic profile in the Northeast to such proportions that it has led to a major security dilemma for India. Dacca on its part would claim that India often pushed Bangla-speaking Muslim Indian nationals into its territories.
The latest visit of Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia to India though long overdue should be taken as a good enough opportunity for the political leadership in India to raise all the contentious issue head on without wasting anymore time. India can ill afford to allow some of the bilateral areas of concern with Dacca to fester. To do otherwise would entail a threat to its national security.
The countries surrounding India although small in size are important factors in the preservation and development of its national security. While historic and economic links provide common ties, paradoxically these very links have also proved to be sources of friction such as the border and immigration problem with Bangladesh. The bilateral concerns with Dacca deals with at least some of the issue of national security and therefore it would be foolish on the part of India to relax.
