New Delhi, Feb 10 (PTI) Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Monday said New Delhi will have to watch “closely and carefully” what is happening in Bangladesh, as he cautioned that the neighbouring country could be “our soft underbelly” and India might be very vulnerable if a hostile government were to come to power there.
During an interaction hosted at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club (FCC) here on the occasion of a book launch, he also said, “We, as a friendly neighbour, should signal at all levels that our commitment is to the well-being of the people of Bangladesh” rather than conveying “the impression that we are more concerned about either a particular political party or a particular community”.
Currently, an interim government led by Chief Advisor Mohammad Yunus is in place in Bangladesh, which witnessed massive student-led protests last year leading to the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government.
Hasina fled to India on August 5 as protesters overrun the streets and government offices, and she has been living in India since then.
Tharoor backed the hospitality and shelter accorded to Hasina, saying there should not be any doubt about it.
The occasion was the launch of the book ‘Indian Parliament: Shaping Foreign Policy’ by veteran journalist and scholar K V Prasad.
After his remarks as the chair of the session, Tharoor, a Congress MP who also heads the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs, fielded a range of questions from the audience on subjects ranging from the Bangladesh situation to ties with Pakistan, and from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US to nuances of parliamentary democracy.
To a question on the situation in Bangladesh, the senior Congress leader replied, “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.
However, he added that he didn’t think the “present interim government can be described as hostile. But, at the same time, there is certain wariness”.
He was also asked about reports suggesting an ostensibly growing proximity between Dhaka and Islamabad.
“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, that is true of any bilateral relationship, he asserted.
“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,” said Tharoor, who also served as a Minister of State for External Affairs in the UPA government.
However, he acknowledged that the recent comments made by Hasina have made matters “complicated”.
“We are somewhat in a cleft stick when it comes to statements being issued by former prime minister Sheikh Hasina,” Tharoor said.
During the interaction, he offered what he called his two “cardinal yardsticks”, guiding polices, when it came 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.
Earlier in his opening remarks, he spoke of the dynamics of shaping of foreign policy and the role of the Parliament and the government in that process.
“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. PTI KND RT RT
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