Tharoor: India should prioritize Bangladeshi people, not any political party

News Desk

Indian National Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has said India should prioritize the Bangladeshi people, not any particular party.

“As a friendly neighbour, we should signal at all levels that our commitment is to the well-being of the people of Bangladesh,” instead of giving “the impression that we are more concerned about either a particular political party or a particular community,” Tharoor, a member of parliament and chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee Committee on External Affairs, said during a conversation at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club (FCC) in conjunction with a book launch, reports PTI.

The Indian politician warned that Bangladesh may be “our soft underbelly” and that India could be extremely susceptible if an adversarial administration were to take power there.

He said New Delhi will need to keep a close eye on what is occurring in Bangladesh.

Tharoor affirmed that there should be no question about the welcome and shelter shown to Sheikh Hasina, the deposed former prime minister of Bangladesh who fled to India amid nationwide protests demanding her resignation.

Following his remarks as the session’s chair, Tharoor took questions from the audience on topics ranging from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US to the intricacies of parliamentary democracy, as well as the situation in Bangladesh and relations with Pakistan.

The senior Congress leader responded to a question on the situation in Bangladesh saying: “I think what is happening in Bangladesh is something we have to watch closely and carefully for the obvious reason that they are right next door to us.”

“And, anything that happens there, will have some significant… and using a sort of American language, they are in many ways in the soft underbelly of India, and we could be very vulnerable if a hostile government were to come to power,” he said.

“I don’t think the present interim government can be described as hostile,” he said, adding that there is also a certain amount of caution.

He was also questioned about claims that Dhaka and Islamabad are reportedly becoming closer.

“On Bangladesh, as I said both those aspects are very important and, I even mentioned that don’t forget if anything goes seriously wrong… that Bangladesh could be our soft underbelly, that is a place where you are most vulnerable, because it’s not under your control since it’s a foreign country, a lot of damage can be done to you, that is what the expression implies,” he said.

“So, you have to be attentive, you have to be careful, you have to be conscious, you have to be on your guard, and frankly you have to cultivate good relations with whoever is in power,” the Lok Sabha member said.

And, he noted, that is the case with any bilateral partnership.

“You don’t get to choose who rules a particular country. You have to learn to work with them. And, that is something we have to do,” Tharoor, a former UPA administration minister of state for external affairs, said.

He acknowledged that Hasina’s recent comments have made everything “complicated.”

After former prime minister Hasina’s comments, “we are in a bit of a bind,” Tharoor said,

During the discussion, he presented what he called his two “cardinal yardsticks,” or guiding policies, in relation to Bangladesh.

“Two things I will stress, we should not do anything overtly or covertly that implies an interference with internal affairs of Bangladesh…

“And, secondly, we should keep uppermost the interest of the people, the well-being of the people, of Bangladesh rather than conveying anyway the impression that we are more concerned about either a particular political party or a particular community,” Tharoor said.

India as a “friendly neighbour should signal at all levels that our commitment is to the well-being of the people of Bangladesh”, he said.

He talked about the dynamics of foreign policy formation and the roles played by the government and parliament in that process earlier in his opening remarks.

“Don’t have an illusion that foreign policy decisions… those things are not decided by Parliament, those things are decided by the government,” the Congress MP said.

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