"Greatest Strategic Challenge Since 1971": S Tharoor-Led Panel On Bangladesh

The current situation in Bangladesh poses the "greatest strategic challenge" for India since the Liberation war of 1971 and while the situation "will not descend into chaos and anarchy", India needs to be careful in handling it, said a parliamentary committee headed by Congress's Shashi Tharoor. The committee has handed the government a series of recommendations, tracing the development of the unrest to a combination of the rise of Islamic radicals, "intensifying Chinese and Pakistani influence" and the "collapse of the dominance of Sheikh Hasina's Awami League".      

"While the challenge in 1971 was existential, a humanitarian and a birth of a new nation, the latter was of a graver, a generational discontinuity, a shift of political order, and a potential strategic realignment away from India," the Committee has said.

"If India fails to recalibrate at this moment, it risks losing strategic space in Dhaka not to war, but to irrelevance," it added. 

The committee has expressed concern about a recalibration of Bangladesh's relation with Pakistan and the expanding footprint of China -- especially in terms of infrastructure, port development, and defence-related cooperation. In this context, it cited projects like the expansion of Mongla Port , Lalmonirhat Airbase, and the submarine base at Pekua that is capable of accommodating eight submarines when BAndladesh has only two. 

China, it said, is also engaging all sections in Banglades including the Jammat-i-Islami. The Islamic group has even visited China.

The panel has recommended that the government strictly monitor to keep any foreign powers from setting up military foothold in Bangladesh and offer Dhaka a comparative advantage in development, connectivity and port access.

About the growing control of Islamists, the panel pointed out that Jamat-e-Islami, which was previously banned, has had its electoral registration reinstated, which will enable it to participate in the upcoming elections.

The interim government in Dhaka, meanwhile, has imposed a ban on the Awami League which also bars it from electoral participation. 

"The continuing ban on the Awami League will obviously call into question the inclusiveness of any future elections in Bangladesh," the panel pointed out. 

Amid the worsening security situation in Bangladesh, New Delhi has taken a measured response to the statements coming out of Bangladesh that directly threaten the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India.

There has been attacks on minorities, and open hate towards India, especially the Northeast, under the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus. 

The interim government has been seeking closer ties with Pakistan and China at the cost of Bangladesh's historic ties with India.

This week, three Indian visa application centres, including the one in Dhaka, were shut after a group of radical Islamists, under the banner of "July Oikya", organised a protest march near the Indian High Commission, pressing several demands, including the return of ousted premier Sheikh Hasina.

A leader of Bangladesh's National Citizen Party (NCP) has also threatened that Dhaka would shelter forces hostile to Delhi and help sever India's "seven sisters"- a term used to describe the country's northeastern states-- from India.