At the moment, the presence of Sheikh Hasina on Indian soil is a very big discomfort in the relationship between India and Bangladesh government!
After 5 August, India officially stated several times that it was granted because the ousted Prime Minister of Bangladesh sought ‘temporary’ asylum in India on that day. At least once, India’s Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal also mentioned that he had been granted asylum in the country for ‘security reasons’.
Whatever the root cause, the reality is that the ruler himself is now under the shelter and hospitality of the neighboring country, against whose rule the July-August mass coup in Bangladesh took place.
Many observers believe that there was an anti-Indian dimension to the coup – as activists believed it would have been impossible for Sheikh Hasina to hold on to power for so long without India’s support – and that it was India that eventually sheltered the ousted prime minister, fueling diplomatic suspicion and mistrust. has become stronger
Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus himself said in an interview given to the Indian news agency PTI, that India should take care that Sheikh Hasina does not make political statements while sitting on Indian soil.
Dhaka’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also recently admitted that they have asked India several times to rein in Sheikh Hasina – but there has been no response.
In addition to this, several advisors of the interim government have also said that Sheikh Hasina should be brought back to India so that she can be brought before the court in Bangladesh for the trial of ‘genocide’. Some of them also mentioned the extradition agreement between the two countries.
Probably knowing that India would never hand him over to Bangladesh, but the damage done to diplomatic relations.
Smruti Patnaik, a senior fellow of Manohar Parrikar IDSA, a leading think tank in Delhi, and a Bangladesh expert, has been saying since the first day that it would have been the best option for Delhi if Sheikh Hasina had not been kept in India!
He was saying to BBC Bangla, ‘I still think that if Sheikh Hasina could have moved to a third country, that would have been the best solution for Delhi. Maybe even for Sheikh Hasina!’
“But since that was not possible and now India has no choice but to stand by Sheikh Hasina – so we have to suffer the consequences.”
One aspect of this outcome is diplomatic bargaining with the new government in Dhaka.
Foreign policy analyst Sriradha Dutta wrote in an article in ‘The Diplomat’ magazine in mid-August, “India never interferes in the internal politics of Bangladesh, this ‘myth’ was discredited by the fact that Sheikh Hasina was given safe haven in India.”
As a result, Sheikh Hasina remained in power with India’s support – Many observers believe that this theory, which has been in the form of speculation in Bangladesh for the past decade and a half, has now received a kind of ‘confirmation’, and for the same reason, the relationship between Dhaka and Delhi is becoming more and more bitter.
But in the interest of improving bilateral relations, can India ever consider handing over Sheikh Hasina to Bangladesh for trial?
No questions arise. Firstly, there is no guarantee that he will get a fair trial in Bangladesh. Why would India go to push him in front of a kangaroo court?’
“Secondly, if today India withdraws from Sheikh Hasina’s side in her moment of crisis, then no leader of any country in our neighborhood can trust India’s friendship ever again,” former top Indian diplomat TCA Raghavan told the BBC.
As a result, it can be assumed that Sheikh Hasina is now staying in India for a long time – and as long as that happens, it is very difficult for diplomatic relations between Dhaka and Delhi to normalize!