Sheikh Shahariar Zaman
‘Equations will be mended through pragmatism and a doctrine of mutually beneficial and interlocking relationships, based on enlightened national interest’
Photo- AFP
In 1988 former Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom was fighting off a coup and sought help from the then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Within the next 24 hours, 1,600 Indian soldiers landed in Male, the capital of the Maldives, to restore order. In 1987, he also asked Sri Lanka not to allow the formation of a military base from any other country. These are examples of New Delhi’s determination to respond to any intervention of foreign nature in South Asia, which it considers as their domain of influence.
Last year, Indian Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh visited three South Asian countries – Nepal, the Maldives and Bangladesh – just before their elections and had meetings with a series of political leaders in those countries. In all those cases, Sujatha was very vocal on the election’s issues, which showed that they did not change their policy in meddling with internal affairs of other countries. Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid in December last year said India’s understanding of Bangladesh should be helpful to the US.
The Congress-led government has adopted interference in regional countries as a part of their foreign policy and consequently we have seen the Indian Foreign Secretary moving from one country to another to deal with elections, which is in every respect an internal affair of any country.
Sujatha Singh came to Dhaka in December, one month before the January 5 polls, which was boycotted by the major political party, and advocated for holding the election in due time. She had one-on-one meetings with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad and interacted with members of press, where she asserted that the election must be held.
This attitude and practice, in foreign relations, resemble the Monroe Doctrine which was the US foreign policy regarding Latin American countries in the early 19th century.
US President James Monroe first stated the doctrine during his seventh annual State of the Union Address to Congress. The apparent objective of the doctrine was undisturbed exertion of its own influence on the newly independent colonies in Latin America.
Will this policy practised by the Congress be continued by the would-be BJP-led government, which swept the Indian national election a few days back?
In its election manifesto 2014, BJP said it would pursue a foreign policy following the idea that, “Equations will be mended through pragmatism and a doctrine of mutually beneficial and interlocking relationships, based on enlightened national interest.”
During the last term of the BJP government, it showed pragmatism in dealing with neighbours and we could witness that after working with the Awami League government for over three years, it did not interfere in the 2001 parliamentary elections in which BNP won two-third majority. The then Indian Prime Minister AB Vajpayee sent a congratulatory message to the then Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and sent his special envoy Brajesh Mishra to discuss future course of cooperation.
The prime minister-elect Narendra Modi announced that his focus would be growth, revival of the economy, creation of jobs and overall development of India. Washington has already showed an olive branch to work with Modi, who was denied a US visa earlier. If the Modi government plans on working closely with the Obama administration, it will provide Washington with more space to shape up its foreign policy for South Asia.
It also said in its manifesto that BJP would work towards strengthening regional forums like SAARC and ASEAN, which indicated that it would like to have a good relationship with Pakistan.
The Indian Foreign Policy of the new government would be clear after the declaration of a few statements made by the top leadership regarding who would be appointed as foreign minister and what his or her global view is. Being a “responsible” regional power, it is not expected that India will continue to maintain control over the countries in the region as it will fuel anti-India sentiment.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
The bottom line is: India can only meddle in our internal affairs if we allow them to do it. For that we must have national unity and a truly representative and responsible government. Unfortunately, our current political turmoil and political culture inherited since our independence is simply not in a position to meet this vital requirement. That leaves the 160m Bangladeshis second- guessing their future relationship with India.