Bugbears and baggage: Mending India-Bangladesh bilateral ties

Where do Bangladesh and India go from here? Literary gatherings are not exactly known to be hubs of policy discussion, but the mammoth Jaipur Literature Festival held each year in the western Indian state of Rajasthan offered an insight this past week. There I joined two former high commissioners of India to Bangladesh, Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty and Riva Ganguly Das, and the academician Sreeradha Datta, a frequent visitor to Bangladesh, to do some stocktaking and to highlight sticking points.

My core views are known to readers of this column; those who are unfamiliar can reach the internet archives of Dhaka Tribune. Largely, my views and suggestions are predicated upon India reducing the establishment-led dog-whistling towards Bangladesh to mitigate the post-Hasina bilateral meltdown, urgently mending border relations, fixing river water issues, simplifying the visa regime, rationalising tariffs and trade, and supporting Bangladesh’s transition from a least-developed country to the next stage of progress and recognition.

In turn, Bangladesh needs to reduce its fulminations – especially churlish commentary by members of the interim government and their hangers-on – and stick to the core aspects of a relationship that is as inescapable as the 4,096-km border that stitches the two countries. Moreover, it will be naïve of Bangladesh to…

Read more