Push-Ins Are Traps

The tension between India and Bangladesh seems to be getting worse. It seems like we are taking one step forward and two steps back. During the interim government, India repeatedly said it wanted to engage with an elected government in Bangladesh. When former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia passed away, the Indian foreign minister attended her funeral. He met Khaleda Zia’s family and expressed his condolences. A condolence motion was also passed in the Indian Lok Sabha. After the new government was elected in Bangladesh, India not only sent a congratulatory message but also attended the swearing-in ceremony. It gave a clear indication that India would be active in improving the strained relations with Bangladesh. Bangladesh was granted transshipment facilities at Indian ports and received fuel assistance during the recent energy crisis. But since the West Bengal Rajya Sabha elections, it appears that India has possibly returned to the old hostility through border killings and subsequent push-in attempts. Recently, when Zahed Ur Rahman, an advisor to the prime minister of Bangladesh, arrived at the Delhi airport to attend a meeting of senior officials of the regional organisation Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), Delhi immigration kept him seated for two hours. No wonder the people of Bangladesh, who are annoyed by India’s hostility and suspicious of its motives, did not take the immigration authorities’ behaviour towards Dr Zahed lightly. Rather, they are considering that behaviour on the same level as incidents like border killings and push-ins.

Is the rebuilding of Bangladesh-India relations collapsing? Is the optimism that was created tow normalise relations just an eyewash? Can the inhumane behaviour of the BSF at the border be explained?
The border killings and the push-in attempts are definitely part of the same plan. But I do not want to put the hostile attitude of Delhi immigration in that category. According to Indian media reports, Dr Zahed, who had been a staunch critic of the Awami regime, was on a kind of watchlist of India. His YouTube channel is still banned in India. Perhaps in that vein, Delhi immigration initially kept him at the airport. Later, with the intervention of Bangladesh High Commission officials, Delhi immigration allowed him to enter India. But Dr Zahed decided to return home instead of attending the IORA meeting. He described his return home as a protest against the inappropriate behaviour of Delhi immigration. The foreign minister called the incident unwelcome and regrettable. He said that Bangladesh would look into the entire matter and take appropriate action. Later, the Indian acting high commissioner was summoned to the Dhaka Foreign Office to lodge a protest. The good news is that in a press conference in Dhaka, Dr Zahed took a pragmatic and professional approach and stated that the discourteous attitude of the Delhi immigration authorities would not affect Bangladesh-India relations.
The question arises: why did Dr Zahed not travel on a diplomatic passport? The question arises: why did he refuse to enter Delhi after two and a half hours when he was requested by Indian immigration? Why did he not attend the IORA meeting? Is it appropriate to boycott a meeting of a regional organisation because of the rudeness of Indian immigration? Could not the rude behaviour of Delhi immigration have been protested by participating in the IORA meeting? This is like the incident of not playing the Cricket World Cup!
Like Dr Zahed, I also hope that the untoward incident at Delhi airport will not affect the relations between the two countries. I also hope that keeping this incident in mind, Delhi will be more cautious in the future.
On the contrary, I am afraid of border killings and push-ins. As the days go by, my fear is increasing that border incidents can push us towards a major disaster. This time, since the push-in attempt began, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) has been preventing it with commendable professionalism. In this regard, in some places, BGB has called on local villagers to inform them if they see any unusual incident happening on the border. The local villagers are enthusiastically present in the border areas along with BGB. This is where I see the biggest concern.
BGB is playing an active role in preventing push-ins at the field level. BGB DG recently held a meeting with Indian Border Security Force (BSF) DG in Delhi. Unfortunately, the issue was not resolved even at the DG-level meeting. In this case, if the issue is not addressed, discussed or resolved immediately at the political level, any kind of disaster may strike the border area at any time.
Given the kind of incidents that are happening on the border now and the way the local people are getting involved there, there is a fear that this crowd may start behaving like an uncontrolled mob. Who knows whether someone in this mob enters with nefarious intentions! Whether someone behaves stubbornly. BGB is a specialised force. Protecting the border is its basic responsibility. If BGB has to handle so many aspects like the hostile behaviour of BSF and the presence of helpless people in no man's land, along with the behaviour of the local people, then it is not irrational to fear that the situation may go beyond its capacity. That is why I think that instead of turning the border incident into a national security risk, it should be given utmost importance right now.
There are many crucial pending issues to discuss with India. We need to resolve those urgently. Border tensions could be an Indian tactic to pressure Bangladesh on those issues. Only active political and diplomatic initiatives can save us from this potential disaster.
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The writer is a former Bangladeshi Ambassador