India, Bangladesh and lessons from Sri Lanka

Argument
By Editor_1
By Jaydeep Gadhavi

In the aftermath of Aruna Kumara Dissanayake’s maiden visit to India as the president of Sri Lanka, let’s look at another important neighbour Bangladesh and make sense of the ‘Aragalaya movement’ in Sri Lanka in 2022 and the protests against the quota reforms in Bangladesh, earlier this year, and why the former didn’t have the same adverse impact on India-Sri Lanka ties, as the latter on India’s ties with Bangladesh.

Firstly, there’s a difference in the character of the movements. While the movement in Sri Lanka was mostly for economic reasons, the protests in Bangladesh were much more political in nature. As a result, in Sri Lanka, a government of traditional parties supporting a traditional political figure like Ranil Wickremesinghe as the president overlooked the initial phase of the economic stabilization process securing a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). On the other hand, an interim government led by unelected advisors is expected to reform the most important aspects of the political system in Bangladesh, including the judiciary.

The antipathy not just towards the political elite but also the older political system in Bangladesh is reflected in the reports that suggest while the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) might be willing to let the Awami League (AL) participate in what everyone expects to be a free and fair election in Bangladesh, the representatives of the student movement might be advocating for a ban on AL. While on one hand, BNP leader and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia insisted on ‘no anger’ or ‘no revenge’, the interim government began a trial against deposed PM Hasina in the Internal Crimes Tribunal (ICT) of Bangladesh and seems firm on her extradition from India signalling further challenges that the relationship may face.

China, which had a big economic presence in Sri Lanka before the protests in 2022 and was indeed a firm partner of the Sheikh Hasina regime in Bangladesh, isn’t a significant political issue in either country as India is. This can be taken as evidence of the larger cultural affinities and animosities India experiences in its neighbourhood compared to China and prompts one to reflect on policies in the region.

Let’s consider some meetings: Indian PM Modi’s meeting with the then opposition leader Mahinda Rajapaksa during his visit to Sri Lanka in  June 2019, when there was already an attempt made by President Sirisena and Rajapaksa together to overthrow the government of PM Wickremesinghe in 2018, which the Supreme court overturned. Then there is the visit of then-opposition leader Aruna Kumara Dissanayake to New Delhi in February 2024. On the other hand, there was this warm meet-up that Sheikh Hasina had with the first family of the Indian National Congress (INC) when she visited India for PM Modi’s swearing-in, earlier this year as well as the meeting the former PM of Bangladesh had with the Chief Mister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee in 2019. These random examples suggest that India maintained a cross-partisan approach towards Sri Lanka and that PM Sheikh

Hasina also did the same with all political forces in India.

The question here is whether India took all political forces into consideration while building this extremely important relationship with Bangladesh. One can point to the meeting PM Modi had with the opposition leader in Bangladesh Begum Khaleda Zia in 2015. One can also argue that the hyper-partisan nature of Bangladeshi politics compared to that of Sri Lanka makes it difficult for India to pursue nonpartisan relations. However, if we take a look at the violent protests that took place during PM Modi’s bilateral visit to Bangladesh in March 2021, we can conclude that India completely left a big political constituency, beyond the traditional AL and to a certain extent even the BNP, undressed. The Minister of External Affairs  (MEA) first statement in parliament on the issue, which raised concerns regarding attacks on minorities in Bangladesh and didn’t include the mention of students killed during the protests against the quota reforms, demonstrates the negligence of India further on.

-The Print

 

Editor_1
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