M Serajul Islam :
Ambassador Donald Lu, assistant secretary for South and Central Asia at the US state department, gave an interesting interview to Prothom Alo and Independent TV just before leaving Dhaka on the conclusion of his visit to Bangladesh in May 14–16. When asked by the interviewers to react to the allegations of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party that the Biden administration viewed Bangladesh through the ‘Indian prism’, Donald Lu dismissed it as ‘laughable.’ He also said that the Biden administration had not changed its pursuit of democracy and human rights in Bangladesh and would encourage the country to join the Indo-Pacific Strategy.
The interview appears stage-managed to cover for the Biden administration’s humiliation in the Bangladesh election. Donald Lu’s bias against the Bangladesh Nationalist Party was obvious in the interview from the way he reacted with the ‘laughable’ comment to dismiss and ridicule the BNP for its alleged ‘Indian prism’ comment. If the US embassy in Dhaka had briefed him properly, he would have known that the view that the United States sees Bangladesh through the ‘Indian prism’ is held by all shades of opinion in the country.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party later officially stated that it never had made such a comment. Prothom Alo and Independent TV are anti-BNP and enablers of the AL regime. Its journalists asked the question as a BNP allegation deliberately to bring from ambassador Lu the reaction he made that gave the impression to those who watched that the Biden administration was unhappy with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. The interviewers, thus, used the ambassador for political mileage for the Awami League against the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
Donald Lu’s visit was a sharp contrast from his January 2023 visit when the Awami League was nervous that the Biden administration would force it either to hold a free, fair and participatory general election or bring a regime change. Most people of Bangladesh were, therefore, excited that with the United States supporting the election backed by the European Union and the United Nations, they would be able to vote freely and fairly in a general election after failing to do so in the three previous elections.
To the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, the US engagement in the Bangladesh election was like the straw to the drowning man although neither side was in contact with the other. The Biden administration kept the Bangladesh Nationalist Party at arm’s length deliberately. The party had been on the run since the Awami League came to power in 2009, during which its leaders and activists were incarcerated, fell victim to enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings and other forms of oppression like no political party in South Asian history.
The Awami League’s actions against the BNP were the reasons the Biden administration engaged itself in Bangladesh in the first place. Its unilateral engagement for human rights and democracy with a focus on the general election was, nevertheless, an answer to the prayers of most of the people of Bangladesh as well as the BNP that was on the edge from the Awami League’s 15-year oppressive rule.
The Biden administration raised their hopes by imposing sanctions in December 2021 on the Rapid Action Battalion for ‘serious human rights violations’. It enhanced their hopes by issuing visa sanctions in September 2023 as a warning to the Awami League that the United States would cancel visas of those involved in the election with ulterior intentions. The warning extended to the families that caused sleepless nights for AL leaders, pro-regime businesspeople, bureaucrats in the civil administration, the law enforcement agencies and the Election Commission who had personal, family or business interests in the United States.
The Biden administration ignored Sheikh Hasina during her two visits to Washington in 2023 to caution her regime about a free and fair election. The role of US ambassador Peter Haas was significant. He was more passionate about and determined for a free and fair election than the BNP leaders who were restrained by their lack of freedom. The regime accused ambassador Haas of violating the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and many felt he did. The Biden administration, in between, warned the AL regime repeatedly of dire economic sanctions if it failed to hold the election the way it wanted. The election, however, ended as a major humiliation for the Biden administration.
Donald Lu, thus, visited Dhaka when most Bangladeshis felt betrayed by the Biden administration. They, therefore, expected to hear from him on why the Biden administration mysteriously withdrew from the election after its ‘full of sound and fury’ involvement for nearly two years. The Al regime was angry and upset with the Biden administration’s anti-AL role leading to the election. It did not welcome the ambassador. It was suspicious of his visit because the US state department announced that the Biden administration had not abandoned its initiatives for democracy in Bangladesh before the ambassador left for Dhaka.
Donald Lu did not explain why the United States withdrew from the election or failed to impose the sanctions that the Biden administration had threatened if the election was not free or fair. It was neither. It was bizarre. Instead, he invited Bangladesh to join a ‘free and open Indo-Pacific’ by embracing the Biden administration’s Indo-Pacific Strategy. He was in denial that the United States had squandered the best chance of sending a strong message for not just Bangladesh but the rest of South Asia and the Indo-Pacific to join the IPS with a free and fair general election in Bangladesh.
The US assistant secretary was also in denial that he encouraged Bangladesh to join the IPS at a time when the US failure in Bangladesh opened the door for China to move the closest to the AL regime. China had also, meanwhile, made major strides in the rest of South Asia at a time when India became unpopular across the region. The Maldives successfully expelled India with its ‘Out India Movement’. Similar sentiment prevails in Sri Lanka. A ‘Boycott India’ movement that started in Bangladesh soon after the election is gaining momentum.
The Biden administration is oblivious that India’s lack of acceptance in South Asia and problems with all its neighbours is harming its credibility in the region. Instead, it wants South Asia to join the IPS under the leadership of India, its strategic partner in the region. Ironically, the ‘India prism’ comment that upset ambassador Lu was not coined in Bangladesh and certainly not by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. It originated after the United States had given India the responsibility for its interests in the South Asia after the start of the war on terror because the region was too large for it to handle from Washington.
The widely-held bipartisan view in Bangladesh is that the Biden administration did not withdraw from the Bangladesh election for any mysterious reason. It did so for India. India, however, waited till it was obvious that the BNP would win a free and fair election by a landslide. The Bharatiya Janata Party-led India could not allow the Bangladesh Nationalist Party that it perceived as pro-Islam to be in power during India’s general election in May–June while it was contesting it on the anti-Muslim Hindutva mantra. It, thus, pressed the Biden administration to withdraw to let Awami League retain power. The Biden administration obliged but after raising false hopes of most of the people of Bangladesh.
It is perhaps time for the Biden administration to own the ‘India prism’ view and review it. The United States was also not gaining anything but discredit in South Asia by embracing India as a strategic partner at a time when the BJP government under Narendra Modi is leading India to adopt the racist Hindutva mantra as India’s official ideology. It should also, in its national interests, take a look at its strategic partnership with India.
Donald Lu did not meet prime minister Sheikh Hasina. Grapevines said that the US side had sought a courtesy call that was declined. The BNP ignored the visit as unimportant to the movement against the regime that it was preparing. The visit of ambassador Lu was unusual. He was not welcomed by any of the stakeholders in Bangladesh that flagged the Biden administration’s lack of credibility that it is currently facing worldwide for backing the Israeli regime. The Biden administration certainly has a major problem in choosing its friends.
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