Now is the opportunity for India to improve relations with Bangladesh, says Khushi Kabir

Renowned Dhaka-based activist Khushi Kabir says she wants to see quick improvement in the relationship between India and Bangladesh with the new prime minister taking charge on February 17 following the elections – the first since the July 2024 revolution – that saw the Tarique Rahman-led Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) securing a landslide win.

“However, the relationship must be built on mutual respect and understanding, and not as that of a bigger nation to a smaller nation. The needs of the people of Bangladesh and the nation should not be made subservient. Once India realises this and renews its relationship with Bangladesh, relations will improve and move further forward. It is in the interest of Bangladesh to have good, healthy relations with its largest neighbour, but not at the cost of its people or interests,” Kabir tells Open, emphasising that India has to first look at itself closely to review how it assesses its role with its neighbours.

Responding to a question about Bangladesh getting close to China, which is building the Lalmonirhat Airbase near India’s borders, Kabir says that, as the largest country in the region, India’s relationships must be conducted more sensitively with its smaller neighbours — with respect and understanding, and not as an either-or situation (either a vassal state or an enemy). Until India learns to do this, each of the neighbouring countries, including Bangladesh, will look for other opportunities and support for its survival, Kabir adds.

Kabir, who is also a feminist, peace activist and an environmentalist, says that since India is the largest neighbour of Bangladesh, it is in mutual interest to have a healthy neighbourly relationship. “The people of Bangladesh welcome a rebuilding of ties, but not at the expense of the interests of its people or the nation,” she avers. “Having heard Tarique Rahman’s response to a question posed to him at his recent press conference gave us hope when he reiterated that he would try to revive SAARC and regional cooperation.”

Explaining why the country gave an emphatic mandate to the BNP in the February 12 election, she says that with the Awami League (AL) led by former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is in exile in India since the 2024 Revolution, not allowed to participate in the elections, the number of choices was minimal.

“Other parties that were close to the AL also lost ground. BNP was the main party that people knew, the other contender being Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh. Other parties formed coalitions with either of the two major players in this election,” she says.

The newly formed NCP, which received a lot of support and privileges from the Interim Government (IG), also joined the Jamaat during this election, she explains, which led to some leaders leaving the newly formed party. Kabir explains: “The Jamaat too was seen by the people as being given much privilege and support by the IG. Apart from the confirmed BNP voters, it is a widely held view that, with very few alternatives available, a number of people cast their votes in favour of the BNP. Secondly, to ensure that Jamaat, with all the support they were enjoying from the IG, would not form the next government, many who would otherwise not have voted – and are most likely not BNP supporters – decided to go to the voting centres to vote for the BNP.”

The activist points out that Jamaat’s role in 1971 has not been forgotten. “Their perceived anti-women stance, stated during the speeches of their leaders during the election campaign, and the fact that they are a religion-based party were reasons for their rejection. The vote does not signify a rejection of Islam but of religion-based political parties. Most people may not be very savvy about the difference between Islam and Islamism. Jamaat, however, will be a strong opposition, having secured 68 seats out of 297 seats (two results withheld and one election postponed due to the death of a candidate),” she elaborates. 

She says that one of the biggest challenges for Tarique Rahman will be to de-politicise institutions that are rendered weak. “The politicisation of institutions did not just begin with the Awami League in 2009. This has been a practice for long before that. With the Awami League being in power for fifteen and a half years, without any accountability, this politicisation became so strongly entrenched that even under the Interim Government, the institutions still appeared to be governed by the same principles of pleasing those in power.”

Tarique Rahman certainly has his work cut out for him in trying to bring discipline, accountability and independence to all the institutions that have been so severely affected, she notes. Dwelling on measures of reconciliations that the newly elected government will have to launch, Kabir, who has won several awards for her decades-long work at Nijera Kori, an NGO that helped organise over landless people in Bangladesh's country side, puts emphasis on the youth.

“The 2024 uprising was a movement initiated and led by the youth, most of whom were students. After the ouster of the AL government and the departure of Sheikh Hasina, an Interim Government was formed. A few of the students and youth leaders from the movement were incorporated into the new government. Those who were very active and vocal decided to form a party, the NCP (National Citizen’s Party), which was given a lot of support by the interim government. Women and their concerns and views were particularly sidelined. Also ignored and sidelined were those who professed liberal or leftist positions and views,” she says.

She also notes that the wounds of 2024 have not yet healed. “During the tenure of the IG, an International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) was reorganised, primarily to try those responsible for the mass killings of protestors in the summer of 2024. Apart from a few verdicts, which in turn are controversial, generally not much has been achieved. Revenge is never, or should never be, the answer. Many random people, assumed to be AL members or close to the AL, have been arrested, both in cases before the ICT as well as in the functioning courts — all denied bail, going against the basic principles of human rights.”

“Rule of law is what Tarique Rahman promised would be the way to deal with these issues. We hope that this is something that can be established,” she adds.