 "No tourists, no hospital services: How India is protesting against Hindu attacks in Bangladesh")
India and Bangladesh — two South Asian neighbours — used to share friendly ties. Now, not so much. In the months since Sheikh Hasina, who was seen by many as an ally to New Delhi, was toppled as Bangladesh’s leader by a popular students’ uprising and her subsequent fleeing to India, relations between the two nations have become strained — with some saying they are now tenuous.
These ties have further worsened with the arrest of Chinmoy Krishna Das , a former Iskcon Hindu monk in Bangladesh. Moreover, New Delhi alleges that the interim government, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, isn’t doing enough to protect minorities in the country.
We explore the various ways the India-Bangladesh relations are souring and what the impact of this could be.
Trade ties hit
New Delhi and Dhaka have historically been strong trade partners — with Bangladesh being India’s largest trading partner in South Asia. However, the strained ties between the two are risking this partnership.
On Monday, the Exporters & Importers Association of Assam’s Sribhumi district announced the suspension of all trade activities with Bangladesh through the Sutarkandi land port. Imdadul Haque Chowdhury, a leader of the association, was quoted by ANI as saying, “We have decided to suspend all trade with Bangladesh through the Sutarkandi land port due to the unrest in the country. All trade activities will be halted until the situation normalises. While this decision will result in significant losses, it is necessary under the current circumstances.”
He added that the suspension would impact the daily export of goods such as stone, rice, coal, and fresh fruits to Bangladesh.
West Bengal’s BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari has also said that the state would impose an “indefinite export embargo”. He added that the trade restrictions would only tighten further if action wasn’t taken by Bangladesh’s interim government against the atrocities on Hindus in the country.
Also, Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha, a Congress MLA in Assam, was part of a protest on Monday, which saw the burning of Bangladeshi goods. An India Today report said that Purkayastha personally blocked the trade route at the Bisharjan Ghat on Kali Bari Road and set fire to goods arriving from Bangladesh.
Flights hit, trucks stranded
The unrest owing to the attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh has also taken a toll on flight services and trucks plying between the two nations. The number of flights to Kolkata from Bangladesh has dwindled in the past few months.
According to available data, 205 flights flew from Bangladesh to Kolkata in July. The same number of flights flew from Kolkata to Bangladesh. The number of passengers who came to Kolkata was 21,234 and the number of flyers from Kolkata to Bangladesh was 21,001.
However, in November, only 96 flights ferrying 10,121 passengers arrived in Kolkata from Bangladesh. In turn, only 97 flights reached Dhaka from Kolkata, carrying 12,736 people.
Similarly, trucks plying crossing the border have also reduced; Sanjeev Mondal, a clearing agent told The Telegraph, “Around 150-200 trucks have entered Bangladesh daily through the Ghojadanga land port in Basirhat over the last few days. The normal count is around 350-400 a day.”
And it’s the same situation at Petrapole. Earlier, 400 trucks would cross from here; but this number has come down to around 200 in the past few days.
Bangladeshi tourists not welcomed
On Tuesday (December 2), the unrest between the two nations hit a new low when the travel association in Tripura announced that it wouldn’t accept any bookings from tourists in Bangladesh. The All-Tripura Hotel and Restaurant Owners’ Association said that hotels will not give rooms to Bangladeshi tourists, and restaurants will not serve meals to them.
The action came on the day when over 50 protesters allegedly entered the premises of the Bangladeshi mission in Agartala, leading to panic among the officials and staff at the complex. On Wednesday (December 3), reports came in that three police officers were suspended while seven protesters were detained for the breach.
The government also shared that the number of Bangladesh tourists coming to India has gone down. As of August 2024, those travelling between Bangladesh and India have gone down to 1.29 million from the previous 2.12 million tourists in 2023 due to the political upheaval in the country.
Earlier, reports had emerged of an Indian tourist being attacked in Dhaka. The victim, Sayan Ghosh, said that he was attacked over his religious identity.
Medical services in coma
Amid the deteriorating ties between India and Bangladesh, a hospital in north Kolkata called for a boycott of Bangladeshi patients last Saturday. The administration of the Jitendra Nayaran Ray Hospital in Kolkata’s Manicktala area said that no Bangladeshi national will be treated at the facility unless attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh stop.
ILS Hospitals, a healthcare facility in Tripura’s Agartala, also followed suit with an executive of the institute saying to Indian Express, “As an Indian, we respect and support the emotions of people who came today. With this thought, we want to iterate that Bangladeshi people have insulted us, have mistreated our people and we shall not provide any service to them.”
The decision by the healthcare institutes could impact medical tourism between the two nations. For instance, in 2023, around 635,000 medical tourists visited India; of this, around 300,000-350,000 were from Bangladesh.
But the unrest has already resulted in a dip in these numbers.
Bangladesh Speaks
Amidst this upheaval, Bangladesh’s interim government has also acknowledged that ties between the two countries have changed. However, it expressed optimism about maintaining positive ties with mutual interests safeguarded.
Yunus himself in an interview to the New York Times last week acknowledged that the relationship with the neighbour was strained. He said that India was “trying to project” an image that Bangladesh under him was becoming “like Afghanistan.” That, he said, was making the already difficult task of charting a new course for his country even harder.
“If you destabilise Bangladesh,” he told New York Times, “you destabilise yourself — because these elements of destabilisation will spill over everywhere, all around us.”
Bangladesh’s Foreign Affairs Adviser, Touhid Hossain, also acknowledged a shift in the relationship between the two nations since August 5, referring to it as an undeniable “reality”. “After August 5, relations with India have been changed and this is the reality,” said Hossain. He emphasised that Bangladesh has to build a relationship with India “in view of this reality.”
“I believe India will understand how to take forward relations with Bangladesh under the changed circumstances,” Hossain said.
What comes next is unknown but it’s imperative that the two countries soothe relations for the well-being of the politics in the region.
With inputs from agencies
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