Trade curbs, push-back of illegal migrants, 'Greater Bangladesh' map add to Delhi-Dhaka tensions

New Delhi: The relations between New Delhi and Dhaka worsened over the past few days as Muhammad Yunus’s interim government urged people living along the border to help resist India’s bid to repatriate illegal migrants from Bangladesh.

What also added to the strains in the bilateral relations is Dhaka’s move to restrict India’s exports to Bangladesh and the recent retaliation by New Delhi.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government recently decided to impose restrictions on exports of certain products from Bangladesh to the northeastern states of India through the land routes – a move, which, according to a source in New Delhi, was intended to “restore equality” in the relationship.

Besides, the maps of “Greater Bangladesh”, showing Jharkhand, Odisha and the northeastern states of India as parts of Bangladesh, were pasted on the walls in the university campuses in the neighbouring country, raising the hackles in New Delhi.

New Delhi also recently expressed its concern over the decision of the interim government in Dhaka to ban the Awami League, which had been in power in Bangladesh till August 5, 2024, when a massive protest against the crackdown on students and youths agitating against the reservation in public sector recruitment led to the collapse of the government led by Sheikh Hasina as prime minister.

India, as a democracy, is naturally concerned about the curtailment of democratic freedoms and shrinking political space in Bangladesh, Randhir Jaiswal, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, said in New Delhi, stressing “early holding of free, fair and inclusive elections” in the neighbouring country.

A large number of people, who had allegedly entered India from Bangladesh without any valid travel documents and had been staying in India illegally, were apprehended in Tripura, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Delhi over the past couple of weeks. They were handed over to the BSF, taken to the India-Bangladesh border and “pushed back” to the neighbouring country across the border.

Dhaka objected to the way and conveyed to New Delhi that if anyone suspected of being a citizen of Bangladesh was found illegally entering into or staying in India, she or he should be repatriated after confirming nationality status through established procedure, instead of being forcibly pushed in.

Push-in or pushback (by India) is not a lawful process, said Mohammed Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, the advisor on home affairs in the interim government of Bangladesh.

He added that if the local community (along the Bangladesh-India border) remained united and vigilant, such attempts by India to push back people to Bangladesh, instead of going by the legal repatriation process, could be thwarted.

He cited the example of a purported incident along the Bangladesh-India border on Friday, when the local residents helped the Border Guards Bangladesh foil the BSF’s bid to push back a large number of people from India to Bangladesh.

A source in New Delhi said on Sunday that India’s trade relationship with Bangladesh would be based on reciprocity. The source reminded that Yunus’s interim government in Dhaka itself had been seeking equality in its engagement with New Delhi.

The import of readymade garments and other products from Bangladesh to India was restricted to only two seaports (Kolkata and Nhava Sheva, Mumbai). It was a reciprocal measure after Bangladesh imposed similar trade restrictions on the export of yarn and rice from India, as well as selectively enhanced inspection on all goods from India exported to Bangladesh.

New Delhi on Saturday barred the imports of readymade garments, fruit and fruit-flavoured beverages, carbonated drinks, baked goods, chips, snacks, confectionery, cotton and yarn waste, PVC and other plastic products, and wooden furniture from Bangladesh to India through the land customs stations.

New Delhi’s move might affect Bangladesh’s exports worth $770 million (nearly 42% of the total value of exports) to India, according to the Global Trade Research Initiative.

The Modi Government had, early last month, withdrawn the free transit facility it provided since 2018 for Bangladesh’s exporters to send consignments to third countries through Land Customs Stations, airports and seaports in India.

New Delhi had made the move just days after Yunus, head of the interim government in the neighbouring country, suggested that China could use Bangladesh to expand its economic influence on the ‘landlocked’ northeastern states of India.

The reports about China building an airstrip in Bangladesh, close to the ‘Chicken’s Neck’ corridor – the link between India’s northeastern region and its mainland – had also irked New Delhi. Dhaka had also invited Beijing to take part in a river conservation project close to Bangladesh’s border with India, near the Chicken’s Neck corridor.

Hasina has been living in India ever since she flew from Dhaka to the Indian Air Force base at Hindon near New Delhi aboard a military aircraft on August 5 last year, just three days before Yunus took over as the chief advisor of the interim government.

Yunus’s government, on December 23, 2024, formally requested New Delhi for the extradition of Hasina to Bangladesh, where she had been implicated in multiple criminal cases over the past few months, including the ones related to corruption, murders, abductions, crimes against humanity, and genocide.

New Delhi has not yet responded to the extradition request from Dhaka.