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. The bilateral engagement on the part of New Delhi on all issues of concerns, be it illegal immigration, transit route facilities, border management and energy security has made little headway since.
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 of elements inimical to India’s security along its eastern planks. Bangladesh appears to have acquiesced in the increased activity by Pakistani intelligence agencies besides the presence of training camps of Indian rebel groups such as ULFA. 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). Cox’s Bazar in Chittagong district is notorious as a transit point for shipment of weapons and explosives. The destination is anybody’s guess.
According to reports in the international media there now seems to be willingness in Dhaka to tolerate even Al Qaeda groups as well.
A recent column written in The Morung Express has put some of the blame on ‘the lack of firmness in India’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. The intelligence agencies have also collected details about the role played by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in using Bangladesh as a base to foment trouble in 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 given that there is endless possibility for the ISI to toy with the situation, which would be detrimental to India’s interest. Dacca on its part would claim that India often pushed Bangla-speaking Muslim Indian nationals into its territories.
On February 1, 2003, matters grew to a head with around 200 persons stranded on the zero line-the no man’s land-of the India-Bangladesh border. Bangladeshi authorities would not allow them to enter their country, saying they were Indian Muslims being illegally pushed in by the Border Security Force (BSF) of India, which was refuted by the latter. After almost six days of stand-off between the BSF and BDR, the ‘Bangladeshi citizens’ quietly crossed over into their country. That India and Bangladesh could bicker for days about what are easily verifiable matters of facts reflects the complete lack of trust and cooperation between the two neighbors on the sensitive immigration issue.
The latest visit of Foreign Minister Natwar Singh to Dacca though long overdue should come as a reminder that New Delhi can ill afford to allow some of the bilateral areas of concern with Dacca to fester. To do otherwise would entail a threat to India’s national security.
The most striking feature of South Asia is the pre-eminent position of India which bestrides the region almost like a colossus. 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. While such conflict is inbuilt into the South Asian geo-political system, India, to be a regional and global power must also enjoy the full confidence of its neighbors without compromising on its national security. The recent focus of upgrading national security was the result of the Kargil review committees calling for a full scale review of national security mechanisms. The GoM report called for putting in place 4 task forces on intelligence, internal security, border management and defense.
The bilateral concerns with Dacca deals with at least two of the issue and therefore it would be foolish on the part of India to relax not withstanding the hawkish posture of the Begum Khaleda.
