BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has blamed Awami League, not India, for failure to resolve outstanding bilateral issues.
Khaleda, whose party often resorts to anti-India rhetoric, also feels the “people of Bangladesh sincerely desire good relations with India”.
She said she had written to the new Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi twice to congratulate him and also phoned him.
In an interview to The Indian Express newspaper just after the visit of India’s external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, Khaleda said that Awami League manipulated the last Congress-led government to serve its own interest.
“This relationship should address the interests of the people of the two countries, not any particular political party or individual… I don’t want to hold anybody responsible but Awami League forced them to do this”.
“And the Indian government gave its support,” she said.
“…Ershad talks about it even now, that he had not gone for the elections, that he was forced to go for it, that he had sent his withdrawal letter and that it was not accepted”.
“So, the perception is that the Indian government played a role (in Jan 5 elections)”, she said.
She also mentioned foreign secretary Sujatha Singh’s visit just before elections.
“She asked HM Ershad to participate, otherwise elections will not take place and the fundamentalists will come to power. She tried to convince us also, but could not”, Khaleda told the Indian Express.
“We told her why we could not participate in the elections. We are a political party, not an underground outfit, but if elections are not fair, there is no point taking part”.
She, however, said “it is too early to make any definite judgment” about the difference between the new BJP-led government and previous the Congress-led government.
“However, any change raises hope for something better. Our interest is to see what happens in the area of our bilateral relations and in the region as a whole.
“His (Modi) government’s focus is on building relations with people in neighbouring countries and not just with any particular political party is a significant change”.
Khaleda blamed “failure” and “lack of will” of Awami League government to protect Bangladesh’s interests during the Congress led government.
“That is the perception of the people of Bangladesh. Actually, it is the failure or lack of will, of our government to protect the interests of the people of Bangladesh on unresolved issues that turned out to be the bigger problem”.
Khaleda has interacted with three Indian Prime Ministers – PV Narasimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and Manmohan Singh, when she was prime minister in two different terms.
But the issues particularly the land boundary agreement which was signed in 1974 remained unresolved.
She, however, felt that “Modi with a full majority will be able to do what previous governments could not”.
Khaleda described as a “misplaced concern” that if BNP came back to power, terrorist activities against India would go up.
“This is a motivated propaganda to create a wrong view of the BNP,” she said.
“We are committed to never allowing the territory of Bangladesh to be used against India or any of our neighbours”.
She said she had heard “illegal migrants” issue raised many a time during the election campaign, but said Sushma Swaraj did not raise the issue during her meeting with her.
She said during elections, “people say a lot of things to win — we too say a lot of things — but that does not mean everything will be implemented”.
“And I don’t think many Bangladeshis go to India… they are all doing quite well here”.
She once again cleared her party’s relations with Jamaat saying that “there is no ideological conformity”.
“This [BNP and Jamaat] is an arrangement for elections. They contest from some parts, we contest from some others. There is nothing beyond that. They follow their ideology, we follow ours,” she said.
She said her meeting with the new external affairs minister Swaraj was “very friendly”.
“They are yet to settle down,” was Khaleda’s observation on the Modi government.
She said Modi had invited her, but about her plans to visit India, she said: “You know what the situation in the country is now, I am quite busy”.
“There is no democracy in this country. Ninety-five per cent of people are with us, and they want free, fair, impartial and inclusive elections”.
Source: Bd news24
