Dhaka – Failure and frustration have marked the conversation between India and the Bangladesh National Party (BNP), particularly its chief Khaleda Zia, who is possibly one opposition politician of a neighbouring country every important Indian leader met in the past two years but with no results to show.
So as New Delhi threw its weight behind Zia’s opponent Sheikh Hasina in the just-concluded elections — which BNP boycotted — South Block is filled with disappointment that its attempts to appear even-handed counted for little, according to a The Indian Express.The conversations began with the Vice-President meeting her in 2011. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hosted an exclusive lunch for Zia when she visited India a year later. External Affairs ministers S M Krishna and Salman Khurshid too held talks with her. And then there was the failed attempt to get her to meet President Pranab Mukherjee when he visited Bangladesh in March. “But each attempt was followed by a setback.”
In November 2012, when Khaleda Zia met the Indian PM, she told him she had come with an “open mind” and with the “hope of a new era” that would include overcoming “past wounds” and “past bitterness”.
The visit was seen as a success by New Delhi until she returned and it was back to acerbic statements about Hasina being an Indian stooge.
What, however, got New Delhi agitated was Zia supporting the Jamaat-e-Islami’s line that Hasina was like Lhendup Dorjee, the first chief minister of Sikkim. This formulation was often used in Jamaat publications, but last month Zia became the first mainstream leader to say so publicly: “Do you want to be a slave? Will you be a lackey? This slavery will not save you. Read the story of Lhendup Dorjee.”
This was just weeks after she had met Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh and India had urged her to start negotiations with Hasina. At one point, during the discussions, sources said Khaleda Zia even mentioned that Jamaat was a “temporary ally” but still went on to take the Jamaat line on Dorjee. – UNB
