BANGLADESH has effectively put Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s proposed visit to India on hold, declaring that the trip is unlikely to happen unless New Delhi makes progress on extraditing former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. This diplomatic standoff adds a sharp twist to the already volatile relationship between Dhaka and New Delhi. The row intensifies ahead of planned bilateral dates and a potential invitation for Rahman to attend the upcoming BRICS summit in New Delhi.
For fifteen years, Sheikh Hasina operated as New Delhi’s puppet, systematically sacrificing Bangladesh’s sovereignty and national interests to appease India. In exchange for Indian political backing that kept her autocratic regime in power, she leased out critical transit rights, signed lopsided energy deals and allowed New Delhi a dominant say in Dhaka’s domestic affairs. To maintain this subservience, Hasina brutally crushed home-grown dissent, weaponized the judiciary to jail political opponents and muzzled the free press.
This complete betrayal of Bangladeshi autonomy reduced the nation to a virtual dependency, prioritizing foreign geopolitical desires over the rights and dignity of her own citizens. In August 2024, facing an untenable situation and with the military signalling it would not fire on its own people, Hasina fled the country. Her exit was abrupt and unceremonious. One day she was addressing the nation about “conspiracies”; the next she was in India.
For many Bangladeshis, the image was searing: a leader who had governed for so long, leaving not through the ballot but through the back door and finding refuge in the country that had stood by her the most. India’s decision to host Hasina has now collided with Bangladesh’s demand for accountability. The interim government in Dhaka has formally sought her extradition to face charges related to the protest killings and corruption.
New Delhi has stalled, citing legal processes and political sensitivities. That delay is being read in Dhaka not as due process but as protection. And it has inflamed a sentiment that was already rising: that India interferes too much and listens too little. Bangladesh is adopting a firmer stance against Indian influence, prioritizing equal relations over a client-state dynamic by openly addressing long-standing disputes.
Prime Minister Tarique Rahman faces a delicate balance in managing domestic expectations for sovereignty against New Delhi’s pressure, particularly regarding the contentious issue of Sheikh Hasina’s extradition. The row is therefore bigger than one extradition. It is about whether South Asia can move beyond a model where the biggest power treats its neighbours as spheres of influence.
Bangladesh has made clear it will no longer accept that model. The student protests did not just remove a prime minister. They removed the tolerance for a foreign policy that equated stability with subservience. As the two prime ministers prepare to sit across the table, the question is simple: how will India respond and respect a Bangladesh that says no and how can Bangladesh build a relationship with India without taking any dictation? The answer to that will define not just the fate of the so-far-held-up visit, but the next decade of ties between the two countries.
—The writer is contributing columnist.
