Five-fold embrace for Khalida

Is Khalida Zia seeking India’s support in a bid to marginalise her rival Sheikh Hasina? Should not India hold back on the deliverables to Bangladesh to be dispensed later to a more secular regime led by Sheikh Hasina?

India’s problem has only partly to do with the unending political confrontation between the Khalida Zia and her rival Sheikh Hasina, which has turned deadly and debilitating.

Our real problem is the larger-than-life image of India’s role in Bangladesh’s domestic politics. The perceptions across the political divide in Bangladesh about India’s political preferences have acquired a life of their own and have prevented New Delhi from an effective engagement with Dhaka.

Second, Manmohan Singh should simply listen to the many political and economic grievances that Dhaka has nursed against New Delhi. That some of these grievances are exaggerated is beside the point.

India is seen in Bangladesh as an insensitive neighbour, which is obsessed with great power politics with no time for the region. Whether it is the question of sharing water resources or the growing trade imbalance between the two countries, India must first demonstrate some empathy with what Dhaka has to say.

Third, the Prime Minister must lay out in clear terms India’s own expectations on its security concerns in Bangladesh. Whether it is the Bangladeshi support to Indian insurgent groups or the question of better border management, India must move from general complaints about Dhaka’s policies to identification of specific benchmarks, which can actually be met and noticed in New Delhi.

Fourth, unilateral Indian gestures on the economic front have long been overdue. Despite enjoying a huge trade surplus with Bangladesh, New Delhi has been miserly in offering market access to Dhaka.

India’s myopic trade policy has been inexplicable from the point of view of New Delhi’s own long-term interest in economic integration with Bangladesh.

In his talks with Khalida Zia, Manmohan Singh must be ready to proclaim some unilateral decisions on market access and non-tariff barriers without demanding any quid pro quos on transit trade, which New Delhi has long sought.

It is up to India to convince Bangladesh that greater economic integration is in mutual interest. If India cannot act in its own self-interest in economic cooperation, it has no right to expect the same from...