The People’s Republic of Bangladesh represents one Muslim-majority society where the majority is against it being an Islamic state. Yet, its largest and strongest neighbour had refused to understand and process for nearly half a century the fact that the country to the east of West Bengal, fraught with religious and political polarisation, was expecting India to play a momentous but friendly role for it, sans its big-brother identity. Finally, a Prime Minister, who had shown deep commitment in the past to a particular religion in his own country, realised that an overwhelming majority in Bangladesh greatly admires India’s political stability and zeal for progress, refuting challenges handed down by its one-time colonial masters. Bangladesh at large detests militant fanaticism though it has seen severe undercurrents of it over time. Narendra Modi has quickly assimilated the sense of what the iconic Bengali poet Sudhindranath Dutta wrote, that “hell does not fail to let loose if one remains blind”. The Prime Minister realised that if South Block did not move, the reasonably friendly neighbour may quickly turn into another distraught regional detractor. Mr. Modi stepped up his pace, and the primary task for him was to get Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on board.
Mr. Modi’s team made Ms. Banerjee understand the geostrategic significance of Bangladesh and how she may indeed expedite her own fall by working against its interest. Thereafter Ms. Banerjee made two quick visits to Dhaka, after having refused to accompany the then Prime Minister on his visit in 2011. Secondly, Mr. Modi ensured the safe passage of the land boundary settlement bill and managed to assemble a clear consensus across party lines — a rarer than rare commodity in India — on Bangladesh. That unanimity helped Mr. Modi put in place a road map to reduce the trade gap, facilitate transit and trans-shipment, and finally to promise a solution on river-water sharing. The consensus-building across India did not go unnoticed in Bangladesh, where Mr. Modi is now being referred to as “a genuine friend”. Thus, it is not coincidental that most of the mainstream media have had only favourable reportage and comments on the deals. The two key opponents of the Awami League – the Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party — have also welcomed the visit and the deals respectively. To an extent, at least a certain part of the credit for the impressive set of deals struck, goes to the previous UPA government and to at least one decisive action it took. The UPA managers convinced the international community that rattling India over Bangladesh is not a wise thing to do. Now, in the next phase, India needs to implement the agreements, before another season of election sets in.
