It’s a bit rich on the part of present transitional government in Bangladesh to seek extradition of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina from India on the prompt of discredited International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) which has sentenced her to death — all this while the Islamists are plunging day-to-day life of Bangladesh into violence and murders across the minority and political spectrum. Some lives matter and some don’t in today’s Bangladesh.
The extradition treaty between the two countries, initially signed in 2013 to make criminals, smugglers and terrorists accountable who shuttle between the two borders to evade arrest and justice was expanded in 2016 to include even the political entities if they were culpable of causing murder, homicide and manslaughter.
India has been diplomatic and evasive on Hasina’s extradition for good reasons: One, the process has been dubious and the prompt came from a transitional government which is unelected and chose anarchy to throw out the elected government of Sheikh Hasina.
Further, it’s not that Sheikh Hasina has sought asylum in India. She is in exile in India and has set her sights on asylum in the United Kingdom though it doesn’t seem feasible at the moment. UK officially considers asylum only to those who reach its shores first and not through some other country. It seems a bizarre tangle but then West is known to twist legality to suits them.
India won’t betray Sheikh Hasina for a variety of reasons: One, it would lose trust and credibility with its friends which Sheikh Hasina truly has been. Two, without Hasina’s Awami League, there is no other credible party which could stop the frenzy of Islamic fundamentalism in Bangladesh. The nation would be thrown to the wolves of religious types and extremists across the border would’ve found a seat in the political pantheon, if not control of the Bangladesh itself. Pakistan is now a pal of present-day Bangladesh and extremism, that too directed against India, is arguably its most common vector.
Sure enough the Islamic extremism in Bangladesh, in which Hefazit-e-Islam (HeI) is emerging as a gravitating node, would be a potent factor influencing the general elections due in February ’26. HeI is not a political unit yet but clearly its interference and influence on the present-day government is there for everyone to see. While Sheikh Hasina used to tip-toe around them, Muhammad Yunus’ government has literally given them a free hand to do as they like even if it means terrorising the minority and citizenry.
The burgeoning Islamist forces in Bangladesh find it handy to stoke anger against India, initially during the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) conundrum but now when New Delhi has expressed its resolve to send illegal Bangladeshis back to where they belong.
Bangladesh’s hostility towards India is not just because of its proximity to Sheikh Hasina and her Awami League. Washington, whose machinations bear the footprints in overturning the government in Dhaka, has reasons to create anarchy at the borders of India and China. It’s in the US interest to keep India and China destabilized and Bangladesh is an excellent pawn in this game. Besides, Bangladesh could also be allowing US navy to station itself in Bay of Bengal, if not allow them a military base within its borders. The regime change recently in Nepal, not to say in Pakistan and Sri Lanka in recent past, must be seen through this same prism.
The growing Islamisation around India is a cause of worry. They have allegiances in India to similar fundamentalist forces. India is unlikely to accede to Sheikh Hasina’s extradition: It needs as many friends as possible who could act as a counterweight to Islamic fundamentalism. The present government in Bangladesh is hostile and would remain hostile even if India allows the extradition to go through.
