Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has warned that the violent protests in Bangladesh are constraining India's ability to assist ordinary Bangladeshis, while invoking a well-worn maxim of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee: geography, he said, is immutable.
Speaking against the backdrop of attacks on media houses, mounting street protests and a fresh diplomatic exchange between New Delhi and Dhaka, Tharoor pointed to the immediate, practical consequences of the unrest.
"Due to violence, they've had to shut down two of the visa centres, which is a disappointment because Bangladeshis who want to come to India are the ones who've been complaining that they're not getting visas as easily as before," he said. "These situations are making it difficult for our government to help them."
"I hope normalisation will happen sooner rather than later, and I would call upon the people and government of Bangladesh to place greater value on this close relationship with their neighbour. As Vajpayee Saheb famously said about Pakistan, we cannot change our geography," he said. "We are where we are, they are where they are. They should learn to work with us."
The Congress MP went on to stress that New Delhi would be watching events closely. "The government will have to monitor the situation very carefully," he said, adding that Indian officials in Dhaka would engage directly with the Bangladeshi authorities. "They will certainly, at the level of the High Commission in Dhaka, reach out to the government and the authorities in Dhaka and request that they do whatever they can to calm down the situation."
The immediate trigger for the latest wave of unrest was the death of Sharif Osman Hadi, a spokesperson for the Inqilab Moncho culture group, who died in a hospital in Singapore late on Thursday after a week-long battle for his life.
Hadi had been shot on the streets of Dhaka last Friday while riding in a rickshaw. According to investigators, two men on a motorbike followed him; one opened fire before the pair fled the scene. After initial treatment in Dhaka, Hadi was flown to Singapore in critical condition. He died of his injuries days later.
Hadi was a fierce critic of both India and Bangladesh's former prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, whose 15-year rule ended in last year's mass uprising. He had emerged as a prominent voice in the turbulent political space that followed her ouster.
The Inqilab Moncho group, formed after Hasina was forced from power, has organised repeated street protests and campaigns denouncing both her legacy and what it describes as India's influence in Bangladesh.
Hadi, who planned to contest the next national elections as an independent candidate in a major Dhaka constituency, had become one of the most recognisable faces of this movement. The interim government has announced that elections will be held in February.
Since Hasina's removal, Inqilab Moncho has actively promoted anti-Indian sentiment in the Muslim-majority country. The former prime minister herself now lives in self-imposed exile in India.
