‘An influential section throughout the BNP really feel that as a goodwill gesture in direction of the brand new authorities, India ought to have reversed a number of the retributory steps that it had taken throughout the interim authorities’s rule below Muhammad Yunus’.
| Photograph Credit score: Getty Pictures/iStockphoto
More than 100 days have handed because the Tarique Rahman authorities took cost in Bangladesh. Nonetheless, opposite to early expectations from his management, India-Bangladesh relations have remained kind of the identical as within the tough months of the interim authorities.
Actions, not rhetoric
India reached out twice earlier than Mr. Rahman turned the Bangladesh Prime Minister. The primary outreach was by Exterior Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar who visited Dhaka on December 31, 2025 to condole the passing of Mr. Rahman’s mom, former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia. The second time was via Overseas Secretary Vikram Misri, who carried Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s invitation letter, and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla who on February 17 participated within the swearing-in ceremony of Mr. Rahman. However sources within the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Get together (BNP) say such gestures in themselves are inadequate. An influential section throughout the BNP feels that as a goodwill gesture in direction of the brand new authorities, India ought to have reversed a number of the retributory steps that it had taken throughout the interim authorities’s rule below Muhammad Yunus. These steps included the restarting of transhipments for items from Bangladesh, full restoration of visa providers together with enterprise and medical visas, and stopping the restrictive market entry for Bangladeshi items. None of those measures has been applied to date, as per Dhaka. They argue that, by not reversing these selections, India has not delivered any advance incentives to Mr. Rahman who must have interaction with the Jamaat-e-Islami and a number of other anti-India scholar outfits earlier than normalising ties with India.
On its half, the BNP’s veteran leaders have tried to smoothen the connection by creating larger public acceptability of the place that the presence of the deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in India won’t maintain ties again, a departure from the hardline stance that the interim authorities had taken. Right here additionally, Dhaka feels that such makes an attempt haven’t discovered appreciation from the Indian facet.
As proof they confer with the aggressive use of ‘unlawful immigration’ in official communication from Delhi following the victory of the Bharatiya Janata Get together in West Bengal and Assam. Bangladeshi diplomats have identified that Dhaka anticipated much less rhetoric on delicate points resembling unlawful immigration, and extra deal with points resembling visa restoration and the renewal of the 1996 Ganga Water Treaty.
Dhaka had despatched Overseas Minister Khalilur Rahman to Delhi on April 7-8 for a short go to, to check the waters, the place he met Nationwide Safety Adviser Ajit Doval and Mr. Jaishankar. Nonetheless, the election marketing campaign in Assam and West Bengal round Bangladesh-related points and a flurry of interviews by exiled PM Sheikh Hasina have displayed that Mr. Rahman’s BNP, regardless of profitable a landslide majority in Bangladesh, has not managed to impress India. Whereas a senior diplomat in Dhaka mentioned that Bangladesh was assured that the language round State elections wouldn’t mirror New Delhi’s international coverage, the Ministry of Exterior Affairs’ strident place on unlawful immigration have generated ‘a way of betrayal’ in Dhaka’s secretariat.
In line with reviews, Mr. Rahman, sensing that the window for restoration of ties with India isn’t opening as per expectations, is within the last levels of contemplating visits to Malaysia and China which might be prone to happen within the final week of June.
Bangladesh’s dilemma
This flip to China nevertheless can not conceal the truth that it’s incumbent on Bangladesh, as a lot as it’s on India, to restore bilateral ties. Bangladesh’s ties with India stay damaged due to the 2024 rebellion and the next interim rule whereas its ties with China, the U.S. and different gamers have prospered since August 2024. Additional, a realistic evaluation exhibits that with out regular assurance from India on the primary river Padma (Ganga), Bangladesh’s different plans usually are not anticipated to proceed easily past 2026. River affairs skilled Ainun Nishat has acknowledged {that a} delay within the renewal of the 30-year-old Ganga treaty will put the Ganges-Kobadak irrigation mission in a difficult state of affairs affecting huge parts of western and central Bangladesh. The dearth of predictable water provide will have an effect on the upcoming sowing seasons, hurting Bangladesh’s economic system that’s already coping with the crippling results of the power disaster due to the U.S.-Israel conflict on Iran.
The compounded impact of those disruptive forces will improve stress on the Tarique Rahman authorities that’s already below criticism for its inept dealing with of the worst measles outbreak within the nation that has claimed the lives of at the least 600 infants. Critics have focused the federal government for its weak dealing with of the well being disaster in addition to the rising incidents of sexual violence, which is a symptom of the breakdown of legislation and order within the nation that’s but to make a restoration because the protests of August 2024. Rivals, together with Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League which might be mobilising on the bottom regardless of a ban, will probably be strengthened if Mr. Rahman fails to resume the Ganga river settlement with Delhi earlier than the deadline of December 31, 2026.
Such materials components on the bottom name for pragmatism in each the capitals because the challenges will quickly overwhelm Bangladesh, reverting it to instability, which once more isn’t in India’s rapid or long-term pursuits.
Revealed – June 09, 2026 12:33 am IST