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India reaches out to Dhaka, wants military to restore peace and normalcy

The Modi government has left to ousted leader Sheikh Hasina to decide her next steps.

Updated on: Aug 06, 2024 01:07 pm IST
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New Delhi: India has reached out to the military leadership of Bangladesh led by Army Chief General Waker-us-Zaman and asked for early restoration of peace, law and order and normalcy in the strife hit country.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Bangladesg Army chief General Waker-us-Zaman.

According to top government sources, the Modi government has already reached out to Army Chief and has extended any support to restoration of normalcy in the country after ouster of Sheikh Hasina on Monday.

It is understood that ousted Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina is being treated as the guest of the country and it is for her to decide her future stay.

S Jaishankar at all-party meeting

In the all party meeting, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar when asked by Opposition on whether Pakistan had any role to play in the ouster of Hasina, pointed to the displayed pictures of Bangladesh Opposition on social media accounts of Pakistani diplomats. He apparently said that the role of Pakistan interference was still being examined.

While Hasina is still to recover from her shocking exit from Dhaka, the Modi government will not let down India’s friend in the neighborhood and will leave the decision of political asylum in a third country to the ousted PM.

Even though the Army and euphoric radicals are celebrating the exit of Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh itself is on the verge of economic crisis like Pakistan, Maldives and Sri Lanka and will need support of western backed financial institutions to survive. Given the rate of unemployment, the radical students owing affiliation to Jamaat e Islami may turn against the Army if the solution offered is not to their liking.

Sheikh Hasina’s exit has left India between a rock and a hard place as a radical regime will pose a threat from the eastern front with New Delhi now facing an increasingly unstable neighborhood. While the Modi government will offer its support to stabilize the interim government in Bangladesh, anti-Sheikh Hasina supporters in the west will set their own anti-India play into motion. Barring Bhutan, all India’s neighbors are currently facing political turmoil and the situation is expected to get worse in future. The only option that India has is to insulate itself from cross border challenges through better security and advance intelligence apart from tackling the fifth columnists within.

 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shishir Gupta

Author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (2011, Hachette) and Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (2014, Hachette). Awarded K Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 by Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA) and the 2011 Ben Gurion Prize by Israel.

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Check India news real-time updates, latest news from India, latest IND vs NED Live Score at HindustanTime
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