On December 15, Indian foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said that India-Bangladesh ties have reached a high point. He is correct. However, India cannot look the other way when the United States (US) seems to be going all out to haul up the Sheikh Hasina government. The American hostility became evident when Washington did not invite Bangladesh to the Democracy Summit. Instead, the likes of Pakistan and Philippines were invited, despite their long, black record of extrajudicial executions and persecution of religious and ethnic minorities.
Immediately after the summit, the US sanctioned 15 individuals and 10 entities for “involvement in gross violation of human rights” in several countries. That included seven senior Bangladesh law enforcement officials, including the current police chief, Benzir Ahmed, and officials of the elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB). It was also reported that the US visa of former army chief General Aziz Ahmed had been cancelled, following media reports of corruption and links with criminal elements. The US neither confirmed nor denied the charge.
The US action can encourage fresh agitations by the Islamist opposition in Bangladesh. Sanctions against law enforcement officials may deter serving personnel from taking on violent street agitations that can unsettle the Hasina government. Bangladesh security officials contend that there is no alternative to “tough policing” to contain the Islamist radicals who seek to bring down the “murtad” (apostate) government of Hasina by street agitations and terror strikes. That is why Hasina called out the border guards and RAB units to control anti-Hindu violence provoked by the Islamist hardliners during Durga Puja. In fact, the Islamist ecosystem, ranging from political parties like Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami to radical groups like Hifazat-e-Islam and terrorist outfits such as Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh and HUJI has historically operated in tandem to oust the Awami League.
Their anti-Indian pitch seamlessly flows into their vitriolic anti-minority campaign because the Islamist parties and radical groups see the Awami League as an Indian surrogate and minorities as an Indian fifth column, hardly different from the way Pakistan’s military junta saw it before 1971.
In 1971, the US and China backed the bloodthirsty Yahya Khan regime, despite repeated warnings by their diplomats such as Archer Blood about the unfolding genocide. The Central Intelligence Agency played a major role, according to authors such as Lawrence Lifschultz, in the 1975 coup that liquidated almost the entire family of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, except his two daughters, one of who is now PM. During the last days of the Bangladesh military regimes, the US started seeking military bases on the Bangladesh coast. Hasina’s return to power in 1996 put a freeze on those efforts because there was no way she would provide military bases to a power responsible for her father’s assassination and opposing her country’s freedom.
The 1971 equations have changed. China is friendly to Bangladesh as India is and a huge source of funds for infrastructure development. Hasina walks a tight rope between India and China. The US continues to have issues with Bangladesh, specially the Hasina government, ostensibly for its improved relations with China. But India and US are strategic partners, and Delhi is no longer in a position to oppose Washington if it needles the Hasina regime. But after the hasty US military withdrawal from Afghanistan that brought down the India-friendly Ashraf Ghani regime and led to the Taliban takeover, India cannot afford US actions unchallenged in its eastern neighborhood, which can unsettle a close ally and harm Indian interests substantially.
Hasina has comprehensively addressed India’s security and connectivity concerns by cracking down against Northeastern rebels and allowing use of its ports and transit to Northeast. So, after the Afghan debacle, Delhi cannot afford a double whammy from Uncle Sam.
Subir Bhaumik is a former BBC correspondent and author who has reported extensively from Bangladesh and India’s NortheastThe views expressed are personal
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