India factor missing from Bangladesh polls campaign: Indian Express
The India factor — which has been part of the pre-election rhetoric in the past — is missing from electioneering in Bangladesh, said The Indian Express on Friday.
According to the Indian media outlet, in the previous polls, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), led by former prime minister Khaleda Zia, who is now in jail in a corruption case, would accuse the ruling Awami League, led by prime minister Sheikh Hasina, of being “pro-India”
“It’s very interesting to see that India did not get mentioned at all by the two prominent political parties during their election campaign,” an Indian diplomat in Dhaka was quoted to have said in the report.
It added that none of the leaders from either the BNP or Awami League churned up anti-India sentiments during the campaign.
“I think they realised that the BNP was not benefitting by alienating India,” the diplomat was also quoted.
Sabihuddin, foreign affairs advisor to Khaleda Zia, told The Indian Express that India is not a factor here this time.
“We should not be bothered whether BJP or Congress is in power in Delhi. Similarly, the Indian government should not bother whether Awami League or the BNP wins the elections,” the BNP leader told the Indian media.
The report says, “The BNP, which has traditionally led the charge against India in previous elections, nuanced its position, having burnt its fingers in 2014. As the BNP had boycotted the elections, Delhi did not push the Hasina-led Bangladesh government to hold re-elections — rather, it endorsed Hasina’s victory. That was a huge setback, which many within the BNP felt was a ‘blunder’”.
According to The Indian Express, India worked on the Bangladesh relationship quite seriously over the last few years, suggests some of the increased interaction at the highest level.
“There were 10 meetings between prime minister Narendra Modi and Sheikh Hasina, six video conferences and five telephone calls in the last five years — 19 development projects were inaugurated jointly by the two leaders, and they signed over 90 bilateral agreements in new areas like space, IT, electronics, cybersecurity, civil nuclear energy among others,” the report added.
It adds that India’s development assistance to Bangladesh increased from $3 billion to $8 billion in three years. Bilateral trade has increased by 31.5 per cent from $7 billion to $9.3 billion.
Ashikur Rahman, a senior economist at the Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh, told The Indian Express: “I think Sheikh Hasina has navigated the geopolitical terrain quite skilfully. And, Awami League has a win-win partnership with all international stakeholders.”