March 2024: Anti-India sentiment builds, overtures made
February put the spotlight on the fluctuating relationship between Bangladesh's political parties and India over the years. Where Khaleda Zia made overtures to engage with India amidst domestic political challenges and the subsequent deterioration of ties due to the BNP's alliances with Islamic parties and accusations of terrorism, AL ramped up its relation-building efforts, too.
A new anti-India campaign launched by a group of Bangladeshi social media influencers suddenly gained momentum in the last week of March in the country after a senior leader of the BNP, the main opposition party in Bangladesh, publicly threw away his Indian shawl and called for the boycott of Indian products.
The cause for the anti-India sentiments of both social media influencers and the BNP leader they cited was the same: the role of India in Bangladesh's last parliamentary election. They accused India of extending support to the Sheikh Hasina government to retain power by holding a controversial election.
On 20 March, in front of the party's central office in Nayapaltan, BNP's Senior Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi staged the protest, adding fresh fuel to the campaign.
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What's his defence for such a boycott?
The BNP leader explained, "Social media is buzzing with the 'boycott India' campaign. There is public dissent against the import of Indian goods. The wave of boycotting Indian products is visible."
"Therefore, as a party representing the people, BNP and 63 democratic parties and patriotic citizens of the nation are expressing solidarity with the boycott of Indian products," he added.
Rizvi said that AL does not seek the mandate of the Bangladeshi people, instead "clinging to power through the backing of the Modi government and entering into bonds of subjugation."
He further accused the AL of perceiving Bangladesh as a "dummy state," alleging that the real power behind the AL is not the people of Bangladesh, but India. By supporting the Awami League, India is exercising control over Bangladesh, infringing upon the rights of its citizens, he added.
What Rizvi alleged is not a new thing. For a long time, when it comes to the India factor in Bangladesh politics, the opposition parties have raised the same allegations.
This time, before Rizvi, Gono Odhikar Parishad (GOP), a new political party and an ally of BNP, staged a rally in the capital on 16 February, the month after the national election, in support of the "India Out" campaign launched by social media influencers from abroad.
"The international community has for years been critical of this regime [Sheikh Hasina-led government], defined by democratic backsliding and increasingly authoritarian rule. But India has kept supporting the regime and taken a stand against the people of Bangladesh. So, we have had to launch the 'India Out' campaign," President of GOP, Nurul Haque Nuru, told the South China Monitoring Post.
The fresh spell of the anti-Indian campaign has mainly been driven on social media, and hashtags #IndiaOut, #BoycottIndia, and #BoycottIndianProducts have been trending on Facebook since the 7 January election.
Exiled Bangladeshi activist Pinaki Bhattacharya is one of the architects of the India Out campaign, according to media reports.
Talking to the South China Monitoring Post in February, Paris-based Bhattacharya said Hasina's Awami League managed to overwhelmingly win three "one-sided sham" general elections over the past decade, "all because of India's support."
"Hasina's government has long been the beneficiary of Indian interventions in the internal politics of Bangladesh. It comes as no surprise that the anger of the Bangladeshi public, which was previously aimed at the regime of their own nation, is now directed towards India," he said.
Several international media outlets, including some Indian newspapers, picked up the issue in February and March, given the history of the anti-India factor in Bangladesh's politics.
On 5 March, The Hindu, an influential Indian daily, ran a report under the headline "A new anti-India campaign in Bangladesh puts Indian influence in focus." The report says a group of Bangladeshis has launched an "India out" campaign that accuses India of interfering in its neighbour's politics.
Al Jazeera, on 7 February, in a report published on its website, said 'India Out' campaigns are simmering in Bangladesh amid election fallout. It says, "Calls to boycott Indian goods in Bangladesh follow allegations of Indian interference in national elections."
But what BNP Senior Leader Rizvi did worked like wildfire, triggering the most important question of whether his party opted for using the decades-old weapon in politics again, as few other BNP leaders supported Rizvi while others remained silent.
Two days later, 12 other small political parties extended their support to Rizvi's call at a meeting with the BNP leader.
On 24 March, Rizvi claimed that the call to boycott Indian products had garnered widespread acceptance and support from the people, fuelled by long-standing feelings of deprivation, humiliation, and resentment.
"Any individual or group can call for a boycott of Indian products, but it gained popularity across all segments of society. So, the solidarity we expressed in the boycott of Indian products is for the people of Bangladesh and for upholding democracy," he said while talking to reporters at BNP's Nayapaltan office in Dhaka.
Government response
The ruling Awami League, led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, did not waste time countering the campaign and nipping it in the bud.
Awami League General Secretary and Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader, on 24 March, said, "The BNP now wants to destroy the country's achievements in the name of boycotting Indian goods."
"Is it possible to boycott Indian products? Amid the current context of Bangladesh and India, the transactions of essential commodities and the exchange that takes place...the proposal of the boycott is unrealistic," he said while talking to reporters at the secretariat.
He said BNP leaders themselves are tired of their failures, while their workers are disappointed.
"We do not see the similarity in the statements of any of the leaders. Moyeen Khan seeks India's cooperation, while Rizvi [BNP Senior Joint Secretary General] again calls for the boycott of Indian goods," he added.
"This is a deceptive strategy. In fact, the BNP leaders made distinct statements. Now, we want to hear what BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir says," he said.
On the same day, Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud said that cooperation between Bangladesh and India must be maintained in the greater interest of the people of both countries.
"India is a friendly country to Bangladesh. We share borders with India. We are supportive of each other," he told reporters at the foreign ministry while responding to a question.
He said Dhaka needs to ensure further development and progress in the region through cooperation with India.
On 28 March, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina herself joined the attack on the anti-India campaign and mocked the BNP leaders, as she sought to know the number of Indian saris in the possession of the wives of BNP leaders who had called for the boycott of Indian products.
"Why are they [BNP leaders] not bringing those saris from their wives and burning them?" she asked during a discussion at the Awami League office in Dhaka's Tejgaon.
What AL General Secretary Obaidul Quader predicted on 24 March—that the anti-India campaign might not have been launched by the BNP high command—was later proven right.
On 26 March night, at a Zoom meeting, BNP standing committee members observed that the party should not yet get involved in the ongoing campaign for boycotting Indian products, according to media reports.
They said that although there is pressure from within for supporting the campaign, the party is yet to finalise its stance regarding the matter.
The top leaders believe that some people, including online activists, called for the campaign in late January out of their grievances against India over the 7 January national polls, according to media reports.
"BNP has nothing to do with the campaign. But if the party joins the campaign, it will be given a political colour, which may in the end backfire," said a BNP standing committee member who attended a virtual meeting of the committee on Monday night, The Daily Star reports.
He said there is no doubt that anti-Indian sentiment is running high among the party's rank and file, especially after the national election.
Good sense prevailed?
Good sense prevailed in the high command of the party. An abrupt boycott of Indian goods in Bangladesh may bring disastrous consequences for the country's economy.
India is Bangladesh's largest export destination in Asia, with approximately USD 2 billion worth of Bangladeshi exports to India in FY 2022-23. In FY 2022-23, total bilateral trade was reported to be USD 15.9 billion. Bangladesh imports a huge amount of daily essentials, such as rice, wheat, onion, chilli, and sugar. So a sudden boycott of Indian goods is unrealistic.
After the standing committee meeting, none of the senior BNP leaders spoke in public about the issue. So, the anti-India campaign died down for the time being.
This became the latest example of how the main opposition party has been suffering from a leadership crisis. After failing to resist the 7 January national election, which it boycotted as it was not held under a non-partisan election-time government, the party seems to be running without any well-coordinated strategy. Media reports say anti-India sentiment grew bigger among the BNP rank and file after the January election. But the BNP high command has yet to decide its next course on the issue.
The BNP, in the past, used the anti-India card to gain political mileage by branding the AL as a close ally of India. Even in the 1990s, BNP chief Khaleda Zia, in numerous public rallies, had accused the AL of turning Bangladesh into a "subservient state" of India. This was political rhetoric, but she had never called for a boycott of Indian products.
Even on 4 March 2013, Zia, then Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, cancelled a meeting with a visiting Indian foreign minister, Salman Khurshid, just before the general election, drawing sharp criticism from AL. However, even she never made any call to boycott Indian products.
Her stance was then considered a strategy to avoid displeasing her party's key ally Jamaat-e-Islami. Jamaat-e-Islami was enforcing a hartal on that day in protest against the trial of its top leaders on charges of war crimes committed during the liberation war of Bangladesh.
So, Khaleda Zia, according to BNP leaders, did not defy the Jamaat-enforced hartal to meet the Indian president at a city hotel. That incident annoyed the Indian government. Interestingly, in the previous year, in November 2012, Khaleda Zia had visited
India and met Indian President Pranab Mukherjee. India then said it was ready to do business with any party in power in Bangladesh. She had also assured Indian leaders that her party, if voted into power, would not allow insurgents and terrorists to use Bangladesh's territory.
At that time, it seemed the BNP chief was making a "new beginning" in ties with New Delhi, changing her anti-India stance. However, the 2014 parliamentary election once again altered the BNP's stance, as India backed the Hasina-led government to stage a one-sided election to remain in power. The BNP-led opposition alliance boycotted that election. Before the polls, the Indian foreign secretary flew into Dhaka and met with the leadership.
Before the 2018 parliamentary election, however, the BNP tried to improve ties with India. In June 2018, a high-profile BNP delegation went to New Delhi to attend interactive sessions organised by some reputed Indian think-tanks, reportedly on Indo-Bangladesh relations, Bangladesh's current policies, and the country's upcoming general election. BNP leaders had admitted at the time that they had taken the initiative for engagement "on the advice of the party's acting chairman Tarique Rahman."
Rahman was even quoted as saying, "The hostile policy attitude (towards India) was 'wrong and misguided'," implying they were looking for a change. The following month, in July 2018, HT Imam, political adviser to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, attended a similar interactive session in New Delhi. He termed the BNP a "pro-Pakistan and pro-China" political party and urged New Delhi not to give it any leeway. Imam stated that BNP would not succeed in swaying India to its side because
New Delhi would not give any leeway to a party "which had worked against its interests and whose leaders were pro-Pakistan and had links with terrorists."
BNP and other opposition parties joined the December 2018 election held under the Hasina government.
However, that election was allegedly manipulated by the administration in favour of the ruling Awami League (AL), which won a landslide victory. Anti-India sentiment continued to grow. In 2021, some Islamic parties demonstrated in the streets against Modi's visit to Dhaka as the chief guest at the country's golden jubilee celebrations of independence.
Protesters said he was unwelcome in Bangladesh and called Modi the "Butcher of Gujarat" – referring to the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom in the western Indian state in which more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed. The anti-Modi protests ended in clashes with police, and at least 13 people were killed in shootings.
Lastly, in the 7 January election this year, India firmly stood by the Hasina-led government to help her weather the tremendous pressure built up by Western countries, including the USA, over the election. It was widely believed that the USA refrained from taking any punitive measures in line with its announced visa policy against the government and administration's high-ups because of India. The USA did not want to antagonise India, its key ally in the region, to contain the influence of China.
AL General Secretary Obaidul Quader acknowledged this at a public programme on 16 March. "No powerful country could interfere in the last national parliament election as India stood beside Bangladesh. India did not interfere in Bangladesh's election, while many powerful countries tried to influence the polls," he said while addressing the biennial conference of Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad at Dhakeshwari National Temple. Quader stated, "We conducted our elections. India did not interfere. Many powers in the world wanted to play an evil game here, but India stood strongly by our side." He said the relationship between the two countries had reached new heights under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi.
Before the 2014 election, Bangladesh had never re-elected an incumbent government. However, Hasina managed to win three consecutive elections since 2014, staying in power thanks to India's wholehearted support for her regime, which addressed India's security concerns regarding its northeastern region.
Why was the relationship between India and the current regime of Bangladesh so strong?
The BNP government had made some efforts between 2001 and 2006 to strengthen its relations with India, which marked a clear shift from its decades-old stance of using anti-India sentiment to gain political mileage. However, its involvement with Islamic political parties and alleged patronisation of insurgent organisations in India created tensions and harmed bilateral relations.
From 2001 to 2006, during BNP rule, India accused the Bangladeshi government of allowing Indian insurgent groups to use Bangladeshi soil for carrying arms and ammunition to create instability in India's seven sister states. The ten trucks arms haul scandal in 2004 was another turning point.
2004 ten arms trucks haul
Police had seized ten trucks of weapons and ammunition from the state-owned Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Ltd (CUFL) jetty in Chittagong while they were being offloaded from trawlers in the early hours of 2 April 2004. Around 1,500 wooden boxes containing submachine guns, AK-47 assault rifles, submachine carbines, Chinese pistols, rocket shells and launchers, hand grenades, and bullets were seized. The discovery of the huge cache of arms had triggered widespread uproar.
Investigations found the involvement of former Industries Minister Matiur Rahman Nizami, BNP leader and former State Minister Babar, former Acting Industries Secretary Nurul Amin, India's ULFA leader Paresh Barua, former National Security Intelligence (NSI) chief Major General (rtd) Rezzakul Haider Chowdhury, former NSI chief Brigadier General (rtd) Abdur Rahim, former NSI Director Wing Commander (rtd) Shahabuddin, former NSI Deputy Director Major (rtd) Liakat Hossain, and former NSI Field Officer (rtd) Akbar Hossain. The arms scandal widened the distrust between the BNP and the Indian administration.
After returning to power in 2009, Sheikh Hasina's government addressed all of India's security concerns. This significantly strengthened the ties between her government and India. During a press conference after her visit to West Bengal in May 2018, Sheikh Hasina stated, "India will always remember Bangladesh for returning it to peace. Bangladesh helped India get rid of daily bombing and shootings. We've returned them to peace; they have to remember this." She also said the present government did not want anything in return from India. "There's nothing to get in return."
However, the reality is that what she has received in return is enormously significant in her political life. It is widely believed that she has been ruling Bangladesh for more than a decade thanks to India's wholehearted support.
