Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with the interim advisor of Bangladesh at the Bimstec summit in Bangkok on 4 April has created some controversy, as it could have been expected, given our experience of our previous meetings at the level of foreign ministers and foreign secretaries. After these meetings, Bangladeshi Press briefing focused on listing controversial issues with India, addressed Bangladeshi demands and denied India’s concerns. Its purpose is to state that Bangladesh stands in India to reflect a new mood in the country towards its neighbor.
After the expulsion of Sheikh Hasina, the atmosphere in the Indo-Bangladesh relations has declined rapidly. It is widely accepted that Jamaat-e-Islami is now building real power in Bangladesh. These forces are behind the attack on the legacy of Mujibur Rahman, draft a new Bangladesh constitution, pushing for an Islamic state, leading to Pakistan, attacking Hindu and other minorities, hostility against India, and so on.
‘Revolution’
Yunse’s close advisors are Islamists and have a grip on it, as was dramatically clear when at the Clinton Foundation event at Washington DC in September 2024, he introduced Mahfooz Alam as the “brain” behind the student -led movement, which had not excluded Sheikh Hasina with “revolutionary” “revolution”.
In December 2014, Mahfuz Alam showed some areas of Northeast India and West Bengal as parts of Bangladesh. He claimed that the cultures of Northeast India and Bangladesh have been suppressed by the ‘anti-Bengal’ attitude of Hindu extremists and upper caste Hindus. With such advisors and Islamist environment in which he is working, Yunus, which is parachute in his Prime Minister’s position – as generally believed – by Americans, with his own political base, but a Nobel Prize sponsored by Clinton to give him some credibility, seems to be a puppet in the hands of these newly retrograde forces.
India has tried to keep the channels of communication open with Bangladesh despite provoking, and to preserve the very concrete gains in bilateral relations, it is in business, connectivity, regional development, or security, which is achieved during the rule of Hasina. While the attack on Hindu minority in Bangladesh is a sensitive issue for the Government of India, New Delhi has relatively restrained in expressing its concerns, keeping them within acceptable diplomatic borders. This is despite the fact that the Yunus government has refused to accept the validity of India’s concerns.
India has been sociable
India has avoided any improper pressure on Bangladesh or exploiting its weaknesses on the economic front, allowing food and grain supply and power transmission. A long -term approach is given priority, not a short -term immediate squeeze. It is easy for India to flex your muscles, but the issue is always of proportional. A good political decision is necessary. This does not mean that India should ignore the opening between Bangladesh and Pakistan, engagement of the two countries at the military level, some bilateral bloating purchases, as well as for China of Dhaka.
India is to reach various political forces in Bangladesh, mainly BNP, with which it has a disturbed relationship with at least due to its Jamaat-e-Islami link, shelter of anti-Indian rebels, encouragement for illegal migration in India, and opposition to any transit rights through Bangladesh. Times have changed with the expulsion of Hasina and Awami Party under the attack. BNP would like to hold initial elections in the country, which has become promising after the draft of a new constitution by the end of Yunus 2025 or in early 2026. Whether this can happen or not, as the student movement wants to form a political party of its own, while Jamaat-e-Islami will not have any share in any democratic renewal.
Interview for a German magazine
Unus of Younus’s misleading, pragmatist and reality-conversion interview Germany The Mirror On March 27, 2025, how stable the situation in Bangladesh is, on 25 February, the Bangladesh chief talked about the deteriorating law and order situation and warned political groups that if they did not move beyond their differences and continued to fight among themselves, the freedom and integrity of the country would be at risk. “The anarchy we have seen is created by us,” the General said.
In mirror Interview, Younus also shed the demolition by an excavation of Mujibur Rahman’s house, which people of Hasina’s exile knew. Yunus made extraordinary claims in the interview that Bangladesh, the sea border in the south and the Himalay border in the north, “potentially allowed unlimited hydroelectric, therefore, energy is not a problem”. This was equal to his comment in China that the Northeast of India – which he called a country and then corrected himself – was landlock, there was no access to the sea, and that Bangladesh was the only patron of the Ocean in the region. He invited China to treat Bangladesh as an extension of the Chinese economy, using Dhaka as a sea drain to the northeastern states of India, Nepal and Bhutan. It probably inspired the Foreign Minister to the state at the Bimstec meeting on 3 April that “our northeastern region, especially with innumerable networks of roads, railways, waterways, grids and pipelines, is emerging as a connectivity hub for Bimstec.
Opportunity lost?
Somebody would have hoped that PM Modi has been hinted at holding a formal meeting with an interim advisor who has not done almost anything to reach India, handling the deteriorating relations, used as an opportunity to start a new approach.
Unfortunately, the press notes of the Indian Press briefing and the Foreign Office of Bangladesh on the Modi-Unus meeting are of a separate tanner, in which the list of Bangladeshi side is with complaints and demands, such as expressing deep concern over the killing of Bangladeshi National on the border, issues of priority of Hasina’s priority, long-term water-sailies, and long-term watering. India’s concerns about the “alleged” growth of “extremism” and “oppression of minority” have been rejected with the advice that a reality was required to be investigated against social media propagation.
According to the press briefing of Foreign Secretary Misri, Modi reiterated India’s support for a democratic, stable, peaceful, progressive and inclusive Bangladesh, highlighted cooperation between the two countries between the two countries, which made people in the two countries flew, and reiterated a positive and creative relationship with a positive and creative relationship of India. Modi also urged in this regard that any rhetoric that failed the environment was best saved. There is a need to address an illegal border crossing through the existing bilateral mechanisms. The most important thing is that Modi underlined India’s concerns about the safety and safety and safety of minorities in Bangladesh, including Hindus, and expressed his hope that all cases of atrocities against him would be thoroughly investigated.
A controversial post
In the social media post, Yunus’s press secretary, Shafiqul Alam, has created more controversy by distorting the Modi-Unus exchange as per domestic needs. His loose talk also shows the lack of discipline in Younus’s entry on very sensitive matters. Alam said Yunus picked up Modi with a Bangladesh request for Hasina’s extradition, and “the response was not negative”. Alam claimed that Modi had said, “We saw it [Hasina’s] Abusive behavior towards you [Yunus],
Indian sources have called Modi’s significance “wrong”, a symptom of Modi’s comment about relations with Younus and the previous Bangladesh government, and called his position “mischievous and politically motivated”. At the request of extradition, he has said that such a strategy questions both “seriousness and good faith of the interim government”, saying that Bangladeshi disputes that were attack on minorities, a social media coniferous, was rejected as a contradiction of facts on the ground. Modi, he says, on various issues raised by Yunus, replied that they were discussed by the foreign ministers of both countries.
India’s message
These antics by Bangladesh have reacted as a kind of warning across the bow from New Delhi. There is hope that the message has been noted. On 8 April, India canceled the June 2020 system, allowing trans-showing of export cargo to third countries from Bangladesh through Indian airports and ports. Bangladesh used the arrangement of transferring cargo through Indian land customs stations to send to sites in Europe, West Asia and other regions.
Despite stimulating Bangladeshi behavior, it was understood for Modi to meet Younus in Bangkok. India has talked to Pakistani leaders even when Pakistan was scrambling terrorist on us. Similarly, Modi has met Xi Jinping, even if the situation on the border is not completely resolved and soldiers of the two countries continue to face each other. India wants to infect more lives in Bimstec to promote regional cooperation without taking hostage for India-Pakistan relations. The Secretariat of BIMSTEC is located in Dhaka, and it is to be done by us in our decisions.
(Kanwal Sibal was Foreign Secretary and Ambassador to Türkiye, Egypt, France and Russia, and was the Deputy Chief of Mission in Washington.)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author