Belligerent Bangladesh

Bangladesh has left no stone unturned to damage the bilateral relation with India. With the dethronement and then exile of the former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Bangladesh has entered a worst phase of regression. Vandalisation and destruction of the public property and targeting of the people belonging to the minority community has blatantly exposed the radical agenda of the so called caretaker government led by Mohammad Yunus. With each passing day Bangladesh is demonstrating the signs of a theocracy that wants to establish itself as the mirror image of Pakistan that had persecuted the people of East Bengal and subjected them to genocide. Who would have thought that history will repeat itself in a reverse order? It is a tragic turn of events that the people of Bangladesh who had stood against the genocidal attrition by the Pakistani Army regime and had come out on streets by organising the Mukti Bahini to demand freedom from the chains of Pakistan are emulating the ideals of its genocide enabler Pakistan to emerge as the worst radicalised place, showing no signs of recovery to behave as the normal democratic state. Now it has walked a step ahead and indulged in a spree of diplomatic offences to attack India and give clear signals that it does not want to be on friendly terms with India. It is the same India that opened its resources and reached out to save its people from genocide. But it is a paradox that it has chosen to appease and join hands with its tormentor. On Friday India summoned the Acting High Commissioner of Bangladesh, Muhammad Nural Islam to drive home the point that the statements coming out from Bangladesh are responsible for the persistent negativity and spoiling the bilateral relations. This development has taken place after Bangladesh raised objections about the speech of the former Bangladesh Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina. Bangladesh asked India to take appropriate measures to restrain her from making such statements. Clarifying India’s position on this issue the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson ,Randhir Jaiswal has said that the comments attributed to former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina have been made in her individual capacity in which India has no role to play. Conflating this with the Government of India’s position is not going to help add positivity to bilateral relations. In order to put things in perspective he has further added that while the Government of India will make efforts for a mutually beneficial relationship, we expect that Bangladesh will reciprocate similarly without vitiating the atmosphere.Her virtual address while being in exile in India has led to the vandalisation of the Dhaka residence of her father,Sheikh Mujibur Rehman,who is also the founder of Bangladesh.His house has been set on fire.Reacting to this act of vandalisation of her ancestral house she has said that the radical elements can demolish a building but not the history. She has also said that history takes revenge. Expressing her anguish on this incident she has underlined that these regressive elements are yet to have the strength to destroy the national flag, the constitution and the independence that we earned at the cost of lives of martyrs. In such a grave situation it needs to be understood that Bangladesh policy needs to be recalibrated to redefine India’s Bangladesh policy to uphold the national interest.