New Delhi Braces For Downturn In Ties With Dhaka As Another Row Erupts Over Flash Floods In Bangladesh

A full-scale row has broken out between India and Bangladesh, with Dhaka officially accusing India of causing floods in Bangladesh by releasing waters from a reservoir in Tripura. 

Heavy rains in the catchment areas of some rivers flowing into Bangladesh from Tripura, Assam, and Meghalaya have triggered flash floods in 12 districts of northern and northeastern Bangladesh. 

The flash floods, which have affected over 37 lakh people in Bangladesh, led the country’s Information & Broadcasting Advisor in the interim government, Nahid Islam, to accuse India of being responsible for the miseries of millions of his countrymen. 

Islam, who was one of the key coordinators of the ‘Students Against Reservation’ movement that unseated Sheikh Hasina from power, told reporters Thursday (22 August) that the floods were caused by India opening the gates of Dumbur dam on the river Gumti in Tripura. The river flows into Bangladesh. 

“Without any prior warning and without giving us time for preparation, the dam was opened. Through this, India showed an inhuman approach and is demonstrating non-cooperation with Bangladesh,” Islam said after a meeting of the advisory council headed by Muhammad Yunus.

“We will urge and hope that India will refrain from this kind of policy towards the people of Bangladesh soon. Students and people of Bangladesh are enraged by this policy of India,” said Islam.

That Islam was voicing the sentiments of the advisory council (which is, in effect, the council of ministers of the interim government in Bangladesh) was amply evident from the fact that he was accompanied at the press briefing by two other senior advisors. 

It is learnt that the meeting of the advisory council headed by Yunus discussed the floods and resolved to blame India for the disaster. 

Islam’s accusations come at the head of a vicious social media campaign in Bangladesh that blamed India for the floods that were, in reality, caused by very heavy rains.

TV channels and Bengali-language newspapers in the country, as well as social media influencers, vloggers, and podcasters, have been carrying out a shrill campaign blaming India for the floods. 

Islam’s unfounded allegations invited a strong riposte, and also a warning, from New Delhi. While strongly denying the accusations that the floods had been caused by the sudden release of water from a reservoir in Tripura, New Delhi warned the interim government in Bangladesh against giving official sanction to misplaced and fake narratives. 

India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said that “any official backing of such misplaced narratives is unhelpful to bilateral ties” and that “India continues to provide real-time flood data to Bangladesh as per a bilateral protocol.”

India is also angry over media reports in Bangladesh that the Indian envoy, Pranay Verma, had been summoned by Yunus on Thursday (22 August). Thursday’s meeting between Verma and Yunus was pre-scheduled, and any attempt to suggest otherwise is an attempt at disinformation, the MEA said. 

It is learnt that the false reports in the Bangladeshi media about the Indian high commissioner being summoned by Yunus were ‘inspired’ by one of the advisors who is close to Islamist hardliners. 

At Thursday’s meeting with Yunus, Verma raised the topic of the vicious anti-India campaign raging across Bangladesh and said that whipping up anti-India sentiments puts Indian diplomats and the Indian mission in Bangladesh at grave risk. He also raised the issue of attacks on minorities in Bangladesh.

Yunus, on his part, said that reports of attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh in the Indian media were exaggerated and invited Indian mediapersons to visit Bangladesh and see the ground reality.

Sources in the MEA told Swarajya that “this is just the beginning” of ties between the two countries hitting choppy waters. 

“We have seen this in the past under the BNP-Jamaat regimes and during military rule in Bangladesh. India used to be blamed for everything, even poverty and natural disasters in Bangladesh,” said a senior MEA officer. 

“Sections within the ruling establishments of those (pre-Awami League) times used to whip up anti-Indian sentiments through false accusations and misinformation. Radical Islamists would also use India as a bogey to whip hatred against Hindus and perpetuate their hold over the Muslim masses and radicalise them. We are now seeing a rerun of that,” said the MEA officer who had served in the Indian mission in Dhaka earlier. 

With the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh exercising a lot of power now, India’s foreign policy establishment foresees a downturn in ties.

“For the BNP-Jamaat, as well as the army, which is the power behind the throne now, blaming India for all the ills afflicting the country has been a favourite ploy. Quite like in Pakistan, these forces in Bangladesh also feel that the easiest ploy to cling to power is to buttress their ultra-nationalist credentials by whipping up anti-Indian sentiments,” said the MEA officer. 

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