Bangladesh Bows to Modi Govt on Sheikh Hasina Extradition Issue

India-Bangladesh Relations: After Sheikh Hasina lost power in August last year, Bangladesh adopted a more aggressive stance towards India, further demanding the extradition of the erstwhile Prime Minister. However, it seems that the country has softened its approach regarding this.

New Delhi must consider setting restrictions on Hasina’s movements

Md. Touhid Hossain, Advisor for Foreign Affairs for the Bangladesh Interim Government, in a talk with the Hindu, urged New Delhi to, at the minimum, implement regulations that would restrict movement of Sheikh Hasina, if the Indian government does not want to extradite the former Prime Minister to Dhaka at this moment.

Hossain’s claims support that New Delhi should place restrictions on Hasina in order to suppress her “indecent and false harangues”, which would have the effect of mitigating tensions in Bangladesh. A former foreign secretary and current adviser to the interim government of Bangladesh, Touhid Hossain stated that Hasina’s provocative speeches are inciting huge anger in Bangladesh because the people are furious about her pro-elite policies during the last fifteen years of her prime ministership.

After making egregious decisions her citizens resented, she was in power for 15 years. As such, we hope that the Indian government places some restrictions so that she cannot make any statements while in India.” 

Hossain asserted, “Even before the Sheikh Hasina era, both India and Bangladesh had strong relations and cooperative trade.” 

In refrence to the potential for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bangladesh Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus to have a private meeting at the BIMSTEC summit scheduled for April, Hossain stated both parties will focus on enhancing cooperstion between the two nations, which is encouraging. Furthermore, during a recent Multilateral conference in Muscat, the Bangladesh Foreign Advisor requested support from the Indian Government in reinstating SAARC.

The Bangladeshi advisor also noted that relations between India and Bangladesh should not be affected by the government in power in either of the countries. 

India - Bangladesh Relations 

India and Bangladesh relations are at their worst following the removal of Sheikh Hasina as Prime Minister, and the rise to power of an interim government head by Nobel prize winner Muhammad Yunus in Dhaka. 

The massive inter communal riots which targeted the minority groups in Bangladesh and especially the Hindus, worsens Dhaka’s relations with the New Delhi, where the later has been blaming the Yunus’s led interim government for its apathy and apologist policy towards the extreme Islamist violence against the Hindu minority population in the country.