Delhi to invite Tarique Rahman for early visit to India after taking over as PM of Bangladesh

New Delhi: With New Delhi keen on a reset with Dhaka after strains in ties over the past 18 months, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is likely to extend an invitation to Tarique Rahman for an early visit to India soon after the Bangladesh Nationalist Party chief takes the reins of the neighbouring country.

As Rahman is set to be sworn in as the new prime minister of Bangladesh on Tuesday, New Delhi has decided to send Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to Dhaka to represent India at the oath-taking ceremony.

Birla will be accompanied by Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri. An invitation from the prime minister to his new counterpart in Dhaka for an early visit to New Delhi is also likely to be conveyed soon after the ceremony.

Rahman led the BNP to win the recent parliamentary elections in Bangladesh, beating its former ally Jamaat-e-Islami.

The participation of the Lok Sabha Speaker at this important event would underscore the deep and enduring friendship between the peoples of India and Bangladesh. It would also reaffirm India's steadfast commitment to the democratic values that bind it to Bangladesh, the Ministry of External Affairs stated in New Delhi on Sunday.

The BNP had invited Modi to attend the swearing-in ceremony in Dhaka on Tuesday. New Delhi, however, conveyed to the BNP that the prime minister would not be able to attend the ceremony as he would have to host French President Emmanuel Macron for a meeting in Mumbai on the same day.

“As neighbours united by a shared history, culture, and mutual respect, India welcomes Bangladesh's transition to an elected government under the leadership of Tarique Rahman, whose vision and values have received an overwhelming mandate of the people,” MEA added in its statement.

Modi on Friday called and congratulated Rahman after his BNP won the elections, which were held without the participation of the Awami League – the party that had won the last four parliamentary elections in the 54-year-old nation.

Dhaka’s relations with New Delhi had come under stress during Rahman’s mother, Khaleda Zia’s stints as prime minister of Bangladesh. Her government had allowed the militant organisation operating in the northeastern states of India to set up camps in Bangladesh. She had turned down New Delhi’s request to Dhaka for connectivity through Bangladesh between India’s landlocked northeastern states and its mainland. The clashes between border guards of the two nations had often escalated tension between the two nations.

The bilateral relations returned to a positive trajectory after Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League returned to power in early 2009.

The BNP, even till a few months back, criticised New Delhi for allowing the deposed prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, and other leaders of her Awami League to stay in India and hatch a conspiracy to destabilise Bangladesh.

Hasina’s AL government had collapsed in the wake of a mass protest by students and youths in July-August 2024. She had flown to an airbase near New Delhi on August 5, 2024, and had since been staying in India.

New Delhi has been voicing concerns over the rise of the radical forces and the persecution of the Hindus and other minority communities in Bangladesh in the past 18 months. This was one of the irritants between India and Muhammad Yunus’s interim government, which had taken over after the fall of Hasina’s government in Bangladesh.

As the health of Khaleda Zia deteriorated and she had been put on a ventilator in a hospital in Dhaka since November 23, New Delhi had on December 1 offered support for her medical care. After her demise, Modi sent External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to Dhaka, who had not only attended her funeral but had also met Rahman. Jaishankar had handed over to Rahman a personal condolence letter from Modi.