Horses of the President’s Bodyguards. The same breed will be gifted to the Bangladeshi general

New Delhi, Feb. 21: India has decided not to put the cart before the horse when Bangladesh’s power-behind-the throne, General Moeen U. Ahmed, comes visiting next week.

The army’s Remount Veterinary Corps (RVC) has been asked to choose six horses from among its fine breeding stock and present them to Ahmed during a rare visit by the Bangladesh army chief to New Delhi.

Stallions Valiant and Arzoo and four mares — numbered HBBM 1371, 1406, 1407 and 1417 — will be formally gifted to the general on February 25. Ahmed will, of course, not ride away on them. The horses will be transported in six trucks to the Haridaspur-Binapur border point, about 70km from Calcutta, where the Indian Army will hand them over to the Bangladesh army.

“It is a goodwill gesture. An effort to cement ties with the government in Dhaka and also with the Bangladesh army,” said Lt Gen. Narayan Mohanty, the director-general of the RVC, who was tasked to personally supervise the selection of the animals from the RVC’s equine stud farm.

In the weeks preceding the general’s imminent visit, the Indian Army had made quiet inquiries into what gifts it can choose for the Bangla army. The military establishment in Dhaka conveyed that it would be interested in horses.

The Indian Army had never before exported or gifted animals from its RVC. The Bangla army is apparently interested in encouraging equestrian sports.

The request was received and India’s army chief, General Deepak Kapoor, promptly tasked Lt General Mohanty. The message from the Union government to the defence ministry was also explicit. Ahmed’s visit was to be taken seriously. The stallions would cost about Rs 1 crore each and the mares about Rs 40 lakh each.

Ahmed was scheduled to visit Delhi in January last year. But with the promulgation of emergency following the overthrow of the Khaleda Zia government, he deferred his visit. Since then it has been on the back-burner but India has remained keen. The visit is an acknowledgement that Dhaka is finding Delhi’s willingness to do business with Bangladesh, irrespective of the government, positive.

Ahmed himself is an exceptional chief of the army staff. He is the first officer commissioned into service post-liberation to rise to be the army chief. Among the Indian Army top brass, there is a sense that Ahmed is willing to crack down on the fundamentalist outfits in his country.

The Bangladesh army chief is expected to meet the President, the Prime Minister and the defence minister as well as national security adviser M.K. Narayanan. His talks with General Kapoor, the navy chief, Admiral Sureesh Mehta, and the Indian Air Force head, Air Chief Marshal Fali H. Major, are likely to be extensive.

India will seek to sound out Dhaka’s willingness to clamp down on suspected Indian militant outfits in its territory. Dhaka’s policy so far has been one of denying the very existence of such camps.

Bangladesh, on its part, will sound India out on arms exports and training opportunities.

Both sides are aware that the fragile military-to-military relations between the two countries are being renewed after decades.