Dhaka, March 3: In a diplomatic snub to India that could mark the watershed moment for New Delhi’s strategic choices in Bangladesh, leader of Opposition Begum Khaleda Zia refused to meet President Pranab Mukherjee, who is on a state visit to Dhaka.
Meetings with leaders of the Opposition are necessarily a part of diplomatic courtesies extended by countries during state visits.
“We had the meeting with Begum Khaleda Zia fixed well in advance. The President was in fact looking forward to it. Our external affairs minister (Salman Khurshid) had met the Begum on February 17. She had also met the President in India during her visit in November,” foreign secretary Ranjan Mathai said.
Asked if the cancellation of the meeting was a breach of diplomatic protocol, the foreign secretary said: “She had, as recently as two weeks ago, met our external affairs minister. And the meeting was fixed well in advance. Beyond that it is not for me to comment. May be the spokesperson of Begum Khaleda Zia would probably be able to throw more light on it.”
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader, also twice Prime Minister of the country, was scheduled to call on President Mukherjee in his hotel suite tomorrow afternoon.
Foreign secretary Mathai said the Indian high commission in Dhaka had received an email from the Begum Zia’s secretary that cited that there were hartals in Bangladesh from March 3 to 5, the duration of the President’s visit.
The Jamaat-e-Islami has called the bandhs on March 3 and March 4 and the BNP itself has issued the call for a bandh on March 5, the day of the President’s departure.
The email to the high commission said: “Such hartals often become violent so the proposed timetable with the President would not be suitable.”
Zia’s political adviser Shamser Mobin Chowdhury said the BNP was committed to its programme of protest against the International Crimes Tribunal’s verdicts. Begum Khaleda Zia had alleged on Saturday (Sunday is a working day in Bangladesh) that the Awami League-led government was “indulging in genocide” after the ICT’s sentence of death to the Jamaat leader Delwar Hossein Sayedee.
In the two weeks since Begum Zia met Salman Khurshid, the political landscape of Bangladesh has posed questions within her BNP, too, that is divided on the perceived proximity of the party to the Jamaat-e-Islami, nine of whose leaders are facing the ICT. Two BNP leaders are also among the alleged war criminals to be judged by the ICT.
The ruling Awami League and the BNP are also heading for elections around the end of the year and the popular upsurge in Shahbag — that the BNP has opposed — could determine the trend. The league had about 36 per cent vote share in the 2008 elections that swept Sheikh Hasina to power with a huge margin but the BNP, with just around 30 seats in a National Assembly of 300, still retained 32 per cent of the vote share. The Jamaat that got only two seats had about 4 per cent of the votes. The Jamaat vote share is precious to the BNP to be able to make a dent in the forthcoming elections.
But the electoral compulsions of the BNP are also making it take a hardline that New Delhi is wary of.
Zia’s calling off of her meeting with Mukherjee came after India had, during her visit to New Delhi, made it clear that it was ready to do business with any party in power Bangladesh and there was no reason to conclude that New Delhi was close to the Awami League led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
In Delhi in November last year, Begum Zia sounded good to India after she said she would not allow anti-India elements to use Bangladeshi territory if voted to power. The Jamaat is vocal with its campaign against India, having accused the Shahbag upsurge being provoked by “atheists”, “blasphemers” and “Indian agents”.
