India Must Ask Yunus To Release Jailed Hindu Monk And Set Tough Pre-Conditions For A Meeting With PM Modi

Bangladesh has made repeated requests to India for a meeting between the head of its unelected interim government, Mohammad Yunus, and Prime Minister Minister Narendra Modi at the BIMSTEC summit in Bangkok next week. 

Such a meeting, even a brief one, on the sidelines of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical & Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) to be held in Thailand’s capital Bangkok from April 2 to 4 is important for Bangladesh. 

Why Modi-Yunus meeting is important for Dhaka

A meeting with the Indian Prime Minister will strengthen and burnish Yunus’ credentials and accord him a lot of legitimacy. 

Yunus, and the others in the interim administration, have been battling mounting criticism that they are an unelected, and hence an illegitimate, dispensation that should hold elections and make way for an elected government at the earliest. 

Being the immediate large neighbour which had close ties with the Sheikh Hasina regime, India’s support is crucial for Yunus. A meeting with Prime Minister Modi will grant him a measure of legitimacy that he badly needs now. 

In fact, a meeting with Modi is more important for Yunus than his forthcoming meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his visit to China from tomorrow (March 26).

Apart from routine platitudes and reaffirmation of ties, as well as some handouts that are expected from China, the meeting between Jinping and Yunus will be only symbolic and will not yield any great tangible benefits for Bangladesh. 

But a meeting with Prime Minister Modi will not only buttress the image of the Yunus administration, but also provide Dhaka a stepping stone to reach out to the Trump administration. 

The recent statement of US Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, from New Delhi criticising Bangladesh for atrocities against religious minorities as well as its links with global Islamists has unnerved Bangladesh (read this).

Dhaka hopes that a meeting with the Indian Prime Minister will provide Yunus an opportunity to request Modi to facilitate an outreach to the Trump administration by Bangladesh which attaches more importance to its relations with the USA than its ties with China. 

That is why New Delhi must leverage the advantage and lay down some pre-conditions for the Modi-Yunus meeting to happen. 

Setting incarcerated Hindu monk free

The foremost pre-condition should be the immediate release of Hindu monk Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari who has been in jail for four months on false charges of sedition.  

The monk was arrested November 25 and has been repeatedly denied bail. He was the moving force behind the Bangladesh Sanmilita Sanatan Jagaran Jote, an organisation formed last year to protest attacks on Hindus in that country. 

The Jote organised a massive rally in Chittagong on October 25 where demands were raised for constitutional safeguards for Hindus. That infuriated Bangladesh’s powerful Islamists who wield a lot of power over the interim government there. 

Bangladesh’s radical Islamists, who had been kept in check by Sheikh Hasina, have received patronage from the Yunus dispensation and have grown powerful. 

At the October 25 rally in Chittagong, a saffron flag was hoisted atop the Bangladesh national flag by some unknown person. That was used as an excuse by the Yunus government to slap charges of sedition on Das and some other leaders of the Jote. 

“At best, charges of disrespecting the national flag and violating the flag code, which are bailable offences, could have been brought against the person who hoisted another flag atop the national flag. Arresting and incarcerating people who had nothing to do with the offence, and that too on very grave charges of sedition, is a mockery of the law and the Constitution,” Bangladesh Supreme Court advocate A Hussain Arif told Swarajya. Arif is in hiding in a Southeast Asian country because of his close association with the Awami League. 

After his arrest on November 25 from Dhaka airport while he was about to board a flight to Chittagong, Das was repeatedly denied bail. The next bail hearing for the monk is scheduled for April 23 before the Bangladesh High Court. 

New Delhi must make it clear to Dhaka that Das’ continued incarceration for such a long time, and that too on false charges, is unacceptable. 

India must insist that Das has to be released, and immediately, if a Modi-Yunus meeting has to happen in Bangkok next week.

Dhaka may argue that the case is sub-judice and it is for the courts to decide on the monk’s bail petition. But as is well known, Bangladesh’s courts are subservient to the executive. 

This is amply evident from the removal and forced resignation of judges, including that of Supreme Court Chief Justice Obaidul Hassan, days after Yunus was installed as head of the interim government. 

Those judges have been replaced by ones who are known for their proximity to non-Awami League parties, Islamists, and the current dispensation in Bangladesh. 

Other judges of the Supreme Court and the Bangladesh High Court, as well as those of lower courts, have bowed down and surrendered to the executive.  

Hence, it should not be difficult at all for the interim government to ask the pliant judges of the High Court to conduct an urgent hearing of the bail petition and grant Chinmoy Krishna Das bail immediately. 

India must also insist that not only are the charges of sedition dropped against the Hindu monk, he should also be allowed to work for the Bangladesh Sanmilita Sanatan Jagaran Jote in a completely unrestricted manner. 

Protection of religious minorities, cessation of anti-India activities

New Delhi must also ask Dhaka to take strong and tangible steps to protect the country’s religious minorities. These steps should include prosecuting all, including, and especially, members of radical Islamist groups who carried out attacks on Hindus and other religious minorities since the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government on August 5 last. 

While the Yunus government has been paying only lip service to protection of religious minorities, its complete laxity in prosecuting those who carry out attacks on minorities has only emboldened the Islamists there. 

New Delhi must insist that all attacks on minorities must be probed fairly and transparently, strong charges framed against the accused and the perpetrators of crime against minorities prosecuted. 

India must also tell Bangladesh in no uncertain terms that hate speeches against India by those part of or connected to the interim government must stop. 

Many advisors (de facto ministers) in the interim government have been blaming India for the internal turmoil in Bangladesh and accusing India of interfering in the internal affairs of the country. 

Ever since Yunus assumed the reins of Bangladesh, there has been a sharp rise in anti-Indian sentiments in that country. 

It is well known that these sentiments are being stoked by Islamists and others who are part of or close to the interim administration. 

The leaders of the Anti-Discrimination Students’ Movement (ADSM) who are part of or affiliated to the Yunus administration, as well as the leaders of the Jatiyo Nagorik Party (JNP) which was formed by ADSM leaders, have been frequently criticising India. 

Yunus must be told that he must exert his considerable influence over these people to stop them from stoking anti-India sentiments. Yunus cannot be allowed to meet Prime Minister Modi even as his close associates continue to indulge in anti-India rhetoric. 

Belligerence on border must stop

Dhaka must also be told that the recent belligerence of the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) along the Indo-Bangladesh border must stop immediately. 

The BGB has been objecting to construction of the boundary fence along the unfenced portions of the border even though the fence is being constructed 150 metres away from the ‘zero line’ and inside Indian territory. 

The BGB has also been objecting very vociferously to punitive actions taken by India’s Border Security Force (BSF) against Bangladeshi smugglers and traffickers who breach the border. 

The BGB chief, Major General Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman Siddiqui, has gone on record with threats to retaliate against the BSF for any strong action against Bangladeshi smugglers and traffickers. 

According to the BSF, the Bangladesh smugglers and traffickers are in league with the BGB which facilitates their cross-border movements in exchange for money. 

Dhaka must be told that the BGB has to bear responsibility for border transgressions by Bangladeshi criminals, just as the BSF is responsible for Indian criminals who try to smuggle out cattle, foodstuff etc to Bangladesh. 

Yunus must ask the BGB chief to stand down and ask his force to ensure that Bangladeshis do not cross the border illegally. India has to make it clear to Bangladesh that the border is sacrosanct and cannot be violated. 

A secure international border free of transgressions is the bedrock of good ties between the two countries. New Delhi has to make this another pre-condition for a Modi-Yunus meeting to take place in Bangkok. 

Honouring trade and transit agreements

Another pre-condition should be the honouring of all trade and transit agreements signed between the two countries during the reign of Sheikh Hasina. 

Associates of Yunus and the Islamists that Yunus patronises have been carrying out a misinformation campaign against these agreements and alleging that they are loaded against Bangladesh. 

There is apprehension in India that a sustained campaign against such agreements signed in the past will be used by the Yunus regime to rescind those agreements. 

This, New Delhi must make it clear to Dhaka, must stop immediately. The agreements signed with the Awami League government must not only be honoured, but the ones in the pipeline must also be concluded in a time-bound manner. 

While these transit agreements that facilitate faster and easier movement of cargo through Bangladesh to Northeast India are beneficial to India, Bangladesh also earns huge revenue from such transit. 

Dhaka also has to guarantee that Indian investments in Bangladesh will not be harmed. 

Dhaka’s ties with other countries must not hurt India’s interests

While Bangladesh, as a sovereign nation, is free to forge ties with any other country it chooses to, such ties should not be detrimental to India’s interests, especially its security. 

The Yunus government has been striving very hard to forge very close ties, including military ties, with Pakistan. Yunus has been pushing the Bangladesh army chief, General Waker-uz-Zaman, to agree to close links with the Pakistani army, including its notorious Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) that was responsible for masterminding terror strikes in India in the past.

The ISI chief, Lieutenant General Asim Malik, visited Bangladesh in late January and met not only people in the interim government, but also heads of Islamist groups and parties in Bangladesh. 

The ISI had, in the past (in the last two decades of the past century and the first decade of this century), used Bangladeshi territory to host, train, arms and fund militants of Northeast India. 

It was only after Sheikh Hasina came to power in 2009 that the ISI was forced out of the country and Pakistan’s large footprints in Bangladesh obliterated, cadres and leaders of militant groups of Northeast India outfits arrested or driven away and anti-Indian activities halted in Bangladesh. 

India has genuine grounds to apprehend that Pakistan will once again try similar misadventures from Bangladesh against India. 

Yunus must be told that he will have to offer iron-clad guarantees that Pakistan will not be allowed to target India from Bangladesh. The consequences for that, Yunus must be sternly warned, will be grave for Bangladesh. 

Yunus must be told that he must publicly affirm his commitment to not only maintaining the good ties with India that existed between the two countries when Sheikh Hasina was in power, but also to strengthening bilateral ties while protecting India’s interests. 

At the same time, Yunus must take demonstrable steps to distance himself and his interim government from Bangladesh’s radical Islamists and also curb the activities of these Islamists, especially the anti-Indian Islamist groups in Bangladesh. 

Only if Dhaka agrees to these pre-conditions should Yunus be allowed to meet Prime Minister Modi. Otherwise, even a photo-op with Modi in Bangkok should be off the table.