Indian daily ‘The Hindu’ in a New Year editorial has suggested that post-election Bangladesh appears headed for “more volatility” and New Delhi’s relations with the new government “will only get more complicated”.The ruling Awami League is set to return to power after the Jan 5 elections as the main opposition, BNP, is boycotting the polls resulting in more than half of the seats returning uncontested winners.
The editorial, headlined “Uncertainty in Bangladesh”, said India could have helped “at least by counselling” Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to take a “less reckless” position against her opponents, “but it is too late for that now”.
It made the comment after giving a context of the political situation including the recent violence on the street and said the crisis poses “a serious challenge for India’s policy on Bangladesh”.
“It is no secret that New Delhi’s relations with Dhaka have been best with the Awami League in power”.
It said, from India’s foreign policy point of view, and particularly national security objectives, “ties have never been better than in the last five years”.
Prime Minister Hasina cracked down on Islamist extremism and on safe havens for militants from the north-eastern States.
“Yet, this very equation has set off an incredible amount of anti-India feeling within Bangladesh, especially as New Delhi was seen as not reciprocating Dhaka’s “concessions” in equal measure — the non-implementation of the Teesta Accord is one sore point”.
There seems little chance of any understanding between Bangladesh’s two main political forces emerging ahead of the scheduled elections, the editorial said.
“But in such a moth-eaten election, a victory will have nowhere near the kind of legitimacy that it enjoyed when it won in 2008,” it also wrote.-bdnews24.com
