India must avoid the partisan pitfalls in Bangladesh, keep options open

India should be ready to do business with any government in Dhaka. Ties with the Awami League appear on track even as the BNP seems to be turning a new leaf recognising the emerging realities

By playing a partisan role in the domestic politics of Bangladesh, India could well be making the same mistake as in Nepal and Sri Lanka. The summary deportation of a British lawyer Lord Alexander Carlile is a pointer in that direction.

Carlile was to address a press conference in Delhi on the ongoing legal case against his client, Begum Khaleda Zia, a former prime minister of Bangladesh and the chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). For this, he had a business visa. However, a benign exercise was transformed into a potentially criminal act by the Ministry of External Affairs