Hasina, floods, visas: What’s troubling India-Bangladesh relations?
Meghalaya

Hasina, floods, visas: What’s troubling India-Bangladesh relations?

By Ncr Ink
3

Last September, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina as a special guest on the margins of the G20 Summit in New Delhi. It was a gesture of warmth towards a neighbour that India viewed as an especially close partner.

Now, a year later, that proximity to Hasina has turned into a headache for India. Earlier this month, student protests forced Hasina out of power after 15 years. Hasina fled to India.

And weeks after Hasina’s overthrow, anti-India sentiment in Bangladesh remains high — visible in everything from growing calls for New Delhi to extradite Hasina to accusations that India is using visas and water alike to target its neighbour.

Here’s a breakdown of all that is ailing relations between the two countries:

Opposition demands for Hasina’s extradition

Hasina fled Bangladesh on August 5 by military helicopter and landed at a military base close to New Delhi, where she was greeted by India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval. She is since believed to have been living in and around the Indian capital.

But calls for Hasina’s extradition back to Bangladesh are growing.

On Monday, the general secretary of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, told Indian media that Hasina must be extradited and tried in Bangladesh. Muhammed Quader, the chairman of the Jatiya Party, echoed this demand on the same day. Quader was the opposition leader of the Bangladesh parliament dissolved on August 6.

“India should help Bangladesh seek accountability from her as she has evidently done great deal of harm to Bangladesh,” Alamgir was quoted as saying by Indian media. A slew of legal cases, including murder probes, face Hasina.

Last week, Bangladesh’s interim government under Nobel laureate Mohammed Yunus cancelled Hasina’s diplomatic visa. Without that, it is unclear how long Hasina can legally stay in India. The Indian government has not commented on the issue.

Ali Riaz, professor and political scientist at Illinois State University, said that people in Bangladesh were seeking Hasina’s extradition to hold her accountable for alleged enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings that took place in Bangladesh during her 15 years of rule.

The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) paramilitary force was sanctioned by the United Nations for its involvement in the killings and disappearances.

Since Hasina rose to the top job in 2009, “over 600 disappearances” were committed by security forces, according to Human Rights Watch last year.

Is India responsible for the floods in Bangladesh?

Bangladesh, alongside parts of northeast India including Tripura, Assam and Meghalaya experienced a downpour of heavy rainfall during the month of August.

Bangladesh’s Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief said on August 23 that approximately 190,000 people were taken to emergency relief shelters. Of Bangladesh’s 64 districts, 11 were hit by the flooding, the ministry said. More than one million people have been cut off from the rest of the country by the flooding.

On Bangladeshi cyberspace, however, rumours started circulating that the floods were caused by India’s deliberate opening of the Dumbur Dam, which is upstream of the Gumti River in India’s Tripura State. The Gumti River flows from India to Bangladesh. There is no evidence so far to back this assertion.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs released a statement on August 22, saying that the flooding was from excessive rain and water from large catchments downstream of the dam. “We remain committed to resolving issues and mutual concerns in water resources and river water management through bilateral consultations and technical discussions,” said the statement. There are 54 transboundary rivers between India and Bangladesh.

Earlier this week, Pranay Verma, India’s high commissioner to Bangladesh, told Yunus that the water from the dam was “released automatically” due to elevated levels.

Officials at Bangladesh’s Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre in Bangladesh have, however, told Al Jazeera that unlike in the past, India did not issue a warning to its neighbour on the release of water. That warning, he added, could have helped prevent deaths and destruction.

Regardless of what what caused the flooding, many Bangladeshis have been quick to blame India because of past experiences with water sharing, said Riaz. Bangladesh has long sought access to more water from their shared rivers — a pact for one such agreement has been in limbo for more than a decade, a sore point for Dhaka.

“Previously during monsoon, we have seen that Bangladesh is inundated with water whereas during the dry season, Bangladesh never got what they wanted,” said Riaz.

What is happening in Indian visa centres in Bangladesh?

Indian visa application centres (IVACS) remained closed in Dhaka and Sathkira in southwestern Bangladesh on Tuesday.

This was a day after hundreds of people protested against delays in the processing of their visas. India has scaled back its diplomatic presence in Dhaka amid security concerns following Hasina’s overthrow. At the protests, people demanded that their their passports be returned.

About 1.6 million Bangladeshis visited India in 2023 — the top destination for the country’s citizens. Tourism and medical treatment rank as the biggest reasons that draw Bangladeshis to India.

Why is the relationship between Bangladesh and India troubled?

New Delhi and Dhaka have long shared strong diplomatic and trade relations. The Indian army played a critical role in helping Bangladesh gain independence from Pakistan in 1971.

However, in recent decades, it has increasingly viewed Hasina and her secular Awami League party as better aligned with India’s interests. Many of Hasina’s critics have accused India of trying to prop up her regime, despite mounting evidence of undemocratic acts, including the crushing of dissent, arrests of critics and alleged attempts to manipulate elections.

Riaz said that anger against India within Bangladesh was “a reflection of the discontent that has been simmering for years over legitimate issues”.

“India’s unqualified support for Hasina,” he said, meant that it had supported “three fraudulent elections and egregious violations of human rights”.

He cited the example of former Indian Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh visiting Bangladesh before the 2014 election to dissuade the Jatiya Party from boycotting the polls. “This gave Awami League a lifeline”. Most opposition parties boycotted the election, which followed the arrests of senior BNP leaders, including its chief, Begum Khaleda Zia.

Meanwhile, incidents, after Hasina’s overthrow, of attacks on Bangladeshi Hindus — the country’s largest minority group —  sparked outrage in India. Modi also sounded an alarm internationally by discussing the issue with US President Joe Biden.

Hundreds of protesters rallied in Dhaka on August 9 against violence targeting the country’s Hindus, who make up 8 percent of the population. The Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council — an umbrella group representing the country’s religious minorities — estimated that at least 52 districts saw communal violence since Hasina’s resignation.

Yunus, the caretaker prime minister of Bangladesh, called Modi on August 16 to assure him of the safety of Hindus in the country. “Reiterated India’s support for a democratic, stable, peaceful and progressive Bangladesh,” the Indian prime minister wrote on X.

Riaz said that the mending of ties between the two countries was “India’s responsibility, by all means,” because Hasina’s regime survived because of India’s support.

“Bangladesh has entered a new chapter,” Riaz said, referring to the end of Hasina’s long rule.

“Indians should recalibrate their policy instead of crying foul on their issue. Accept the fact that Bangladesh has moved on, and move on, too”.





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