Dozens of people have been killed in violent clashes in Bangladesh in recent days, including on Sunday, as our eastern neighbour battles with itself to discover its identity and soul. President Pranab Mukherjee has made Dhaka his first port of call since assuming office over seven months back — to underscore the importance this country accords to Bangladesh — and arrived in its capital on Sunday to a red-carpet welcome. And yet the wisdom of being welcomed during a major domestic upheaval in a host country appears questionable.
Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde and external affairs minister Salman Khurshid had preceded Mr Mukherjee in Dhaka to pave the way for the state visit. But it still looks extremely ill-timed. Street violence was reportedly intensifying as the President’s special aircraft landed in the middle of a three-day strike call given by elements opposed to the Hasina Wajed government hosting India’s President.
No one could have known how things would turn out when Mr Mukherjee’s visit was being prepared by both sides. But the opponents of the ruling Awami Party could read it as a strong endorsement of the Hasina government, and resent President Mukherjee’s trip. India, for good reasons, has a strong bond with the Hasina government. But when circumstances do change, and Begum Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party returns to power at a future date, the timing of President Mukherjee’s visit may well be negatively recalled. Begum Khaleda’s decision on Sunday to cancel her planned meeting with Mr Mukherjee on Monday was, therefore, not a good sign.
The street fights, stabbings and killings taking place in Bangladesh over the past week stem from the political division in the country since its war of independence from Pakistan in 1971, which was midwifed by India. The Pakistan Army, with the aid of local collaborators who were chiefly from the Jamaat-e-Islami Party, had killed and raped millions of Bengalis. Forty-two years later, war crimes tribunals have been set up to try 10 individuals. Three of them have already been convicted. When Abdul Qader Mollah was given life imprisonment, thousands of young people favouring a secular and democratic society protested wildly at Dhaka’s Shahbag Square and demanded he be awarded the death sentence. Days later, Jamaat-e-Islami vice-president Delwar Hossain Sayedee was given the death sentence, and this was a signal for the Jamaat to go on a rampage across Bangladesh. Begum Khaleda has backed the Jamaat, her party’s traditional ally.
The current violent turmoil in Bangladesh relates to its past and to recent judicial pronouncements, but also to competition between the idea of a secular public space and Islamist ideologues. India, a friend, should be careful not to be made a target by any quarter.