The Indian Express, August 08, 2024
This government had articulated a neighbourhood-first policy and the difficulty is that none of India’s neighbours have an India-first policy,” says Tewari, who pushed for a discussion on Bangladesh in Parliament
After Sheikh Hasina resigned as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh and fled to India, the neighbouring country has plunged into political instability. Congress MP Manish Tewari Tuesday called for a discussion in both Houses of Parliament on the ongoing crisis. Tewari, who raised the issue in the Lok Sabha during Zero Hour, had earlier given an adjournment notice to suspend Zero Hour to hold a discussion on Bangladesh. In an interview with The Indian Express, Tewari speaks about the unrest in Bangladesh, India’s role in preventing political instability in the subcontinent, and how the government has responded so far. Excerpts:
Q) You gave a notice seeking a discussion in the Lok Sabha on the emerging situation in Bangladesh. Why?
There has been no discussion on critical matters concerning India’s foreign and strategic policy in Parliament going back almost a decade. There has been a border standoff with China for the last 54-odd months… since April 2020. But Parliament has not discussed the situation with regard to China even once in either House.
There has been instability in India’s neighbourhood… in Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Maldives, the growing grip of the Pakistani ‘deep state’, the (Inter-Services Intelligence)-military combine, the recent and repeated terror attacks in Jammu, and now Bangladesh has gone up in smoke.
Therefore if India is the net security provider in South Asia, these various iterations of insecurity or political instability across the region, going back to the Nepalese blockade of 2015, should concern Parliament as it represents the sovereign will of the people of India.
Q) The government held an all-party meeting and briefed Opposition leaders on the developments in Bangladesh. The government has taken the Opposition into confidence.
There has been a tradition and convention in Parliament going back to its inception in 1952 that critical matters of national security and foreign policy are subject to a full discussion in the House. You saw a very animated debate play itself out on the Indo-US civil nuclear deal between 2005 and 2008 and perhaps that was the last time ever that a significant issue of strategic concern got the attention it rightly deserved of Parliament.
Q) External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar made a statement in both Houses. How do you view his statement?
The statement was basically a reiteration of what has been appearing in the public space over all these days and months with regard to the situation in Bangladesh. There was nothing in the statement that was not already in the public domain.
Q) You expected the government to provide more information in Parliament?
Obviously, the statement perhaps reflects the government’s best understanding of the situation or what they wanted to share with Parliament given that it is an evolving situation. Maybe that is all that they really know at this point in time, for events in Bangladesh suddenly went into an ultra-fast forward mode that led to Sheikh Hasina’s rather hasty departure from Dhaka.
Q) In your view, what should New Delhi be doing now? And how do you see the government’s handling of this crisis in a country that is India’s closest ally in the region?
This government had articulated a neighbourhood-first policy and the difficulty is that none of India’s neighbours have an India-first policy and so there is an inherent contradiction between the approach that we believe that we should have towards our neighbours and the approach that our neighbours seem to have towards us. As India is the most influential player in South Asia and is supposed to be the net security provider in the region, therefore its entire neighbourhood strategy requires a very informed and intense discussion in both Houses of Parliament so that it can be clinically evaluated and the required course corrections put in place.
Q) Sheikh Hasina is still in Delhi. It is not clear whether the UK will grant her political asylum. Although she has not sought asylum in India, how do you see that situation evolving?
The situation in Bangladesh has taken a very unfortunate turn. Sheikh Hasina was elected in January for her fourth term and if she had to leave the country within six months, it just speaks of the very portentous spectre of instability that seems to be gripping various countries in South Asia.
It begs a question as to whether South Asia is once again in the realm of a new Cold War, which is playing itself out across the world… Because if you go country by country, starting from Afghanistan to Pakistan, where imprisoning former PMs seems to have become a national pastime again, to the crisis in Sri Lanka, where you saw a similar storming of the presidential palace and (former President Gotabaya Rajpaksa) having to flee Colombo, and then you have the spectre of the increased Chinese interference in the domestic affairs of the Maldives… The situation with regard to Nepal has also been tenuous but calm. Then you have the Bhutan-Chinese border negotiations going on, and of course this prolonged standoff (with China) on the Line of Actual Control.
Therefore, under those circumstances, I think a very candid re-appreciation of the situation in India’s immediate neighbourhood would perhaps well be in order. This is not a value judgment on the foreign and strategic policy of India but an articulation of the need to re-appreciate the reality with the dispassionate candour it deserves..
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