India needs to do more to win over people of Bangladesh

After weeks of civil unrest that forced the resignation of the Sheikh Hasina-led government, an interim government headed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus has taken over in Bangladesh, hoping to end the persistent targeted violence quickly, and move on to hold elections in the next few months and bring in a government with due legitimacy. The situation is evolving, as our government said. The anxieties of our exporters and businesses that have invested in manufacturing facilities in Bangladesh are slowly abating with normalcy in sight, but they are more likely to face uncertain prospects in the medium term because of certain negative perceptions about our government in the minds of people in Bangladesh. 
 

Movements of trucks carrying cargo from India to Bangladesh through land customs stations have started slowly after disruptions due to countrywide political unrest that culminated in the fall of the Awami League government. 
 

The congestion at the Chittagong port is also slowly easing with importers, who were delaying clearance of import cargo for want of security on the highways where there is hardly any police presence, starting to move their goods. Almost all readymade garment industries and textile mills have reopened. 
 

So, some semblance of normalcy has already been restored, as reflected in the Dhaka Stock Exchange where the benchmark index gained 13 per cent in just three days after the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government last Monday. However, the Bangladesh economy is going through difficulties that are unlikely to go away very soon. 
 

 The first task of the interim government is to restore law and order and stop the targeted attacks on people seen as having supported Sheikh Hasina – the police, the workers, and leaders of the Awami League, some bureaucrats, and some minorities. The second task is to ensure that  businesses function smoothly so that their economic losses due to the disruptions in the last few weeks are recouped. The third task is to see that the institutions start functioning independently. The fourth, and perhaps the most important task, is to arrest high inflation, debt burden, and a sharp fall in foreign exchange reserves that could constrain the ability to import essential items to keep its economy going and fix the structural weaknesses in the 

economy such as a disproportionate reliance on its readymade garment industry.

 The widespread perception in Bangladesh is that India supported Sheikh Hasina to the hilt to advance its own self interest. “India's unabashed selfishness in promoting a regime that clearly violated all rules of liberal democracy proves highly short-sighted, more now than ever”, says Salimullah Khan, professor of general education in the University of Liberal Arts, Dhaka, in an article titled ‘Regime change in Bangladesh: The fallout for India’, in The Daily Star, a leading English newspaper of Bangladesh. 
 

Many people in Bangladesh have not forgotten that they were called termites, infiltrators, and many other derogatory terms by our top political leaders, more so during the election campaigns and discussions in the Parliament on the Citizenship Amendment Bill.  
 

Our government has done well to convey its best wishes to the interim government and assure commitment to work with it to fulfil the shared aspirations for peace, security, and development. 
 

India must do more, such as helping its economy revive, to win the minds of people in Bangladesh. 

Email : tncrajagopalan@gmail.com