What is India’s position on Bangladesh, especially after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and sought refuge in India, following weeks of violent protests?
In Parliament, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said India was “maintaining a wait and watch strategy”. He expressed concern for the “minorities” and their property—in this case, Hindus who constitute roughly 8 per cent of the country’s population.
Jaishankar attributed the current situation in Bangladesh to “tensions” brewing since the January 2024 general elections and “(the) growing polarisation in Bangladesh politics…that aggravated a student agitation that started in June this year…” (The Indian Express). At Tuesday’s all-party meeting, Jaishankar sidestepped Rahul Gandhi’s specific query on the involvement of “foreign forces”.
For now, the Indian government has decided to play it safe, naming no names in public reactions on a situation that is volatile, violent and unpredictable—and where lives are at stake. Discretion and quiet diplomacy are the watchwords.
Then what to make of the “coup conspiracies” flooding television news—channels that usually support the central government and reflect its views? On air, there is an aggressive, no-holds-barred blame game, openly accusing Pakistan, China and the US for the street uprisings in Bangladesh and the ousting of Hasina. All caution has been abandoned.
Note also that several news channels identified “intel sources” for information in their stories. While lurid details of plans to oust the Hasina government, supposedly being hatched across Europe and Asia, are eye-catching, is this wise? We tend to dismiss television news for its sensationalism and biases but these attacks on foreign countries’ governments go beyond the usual hyperbole.
Such denouncements of the protests on TV news media could turn public opinion against Bangladesh and whoever governs it. And, should countries, especially the US, be pronounced guilty in throwaway phrases by TV news anchors?
Also read: Indian TV news is showing the brewing political war like it is—giving all parties airtime
Deep state, coup conspiracy
On Monday at prime time, DD News anchor Ashok Shrivastav called Bangladesh “another Islamist” nation and wondered if students or “someone else” was behind the loot and violence. He suggested that Bangladesh’s Jamaat-e-Islam, Pakistan’s ISI, and China might be involved in the protests.
Shrivastav spoke of the attacks on Hindus, and “200-year-old” temples. Who is behind it, he asked, adding obscurely that those who supported “democracy” were very happy with the turn of events—why?
Private news channels had gone down this route much earlier. No sooner did Hasina land in Hindon, near Delhi, early Monday evening than channels like Zee News talked about “Pak wala coup”, the “ISI connection”, and secret meetings in London to draw up plans for the agitation.
Times Now Navbharat headlined the “China factor”. Republic Bharat said the “footprint of extremism” and the Jamaat-e-Islami were written all over the agitation, while Republic TV asked, “Global powers behind unrest?”
Anchor Arnab Goswami went much further: He said China and the US were “happy” to see Hasina go; and that India was their “target”. He said the coup “had American fingerprints all over it…” Goswami warned us about the American ”deep state” and Chinese intelligence “infiltrating” our society, to overturn “the verdict of the people of India”. “If the Americans wanted to enter our backyard,” he said, “we must respond on equal terms.” Heavy stuff.
On Times Now, the prime-time anchor asked if “this was a student protest or an Islamist take over?” in Bangladesh.
By Tuesday, we were given details of the “conspiracy angle”, as NDTV 24×7 called it. India Today said it was “plotted in London/executed in Dhaka”. Its anchor Gaurav Sawant also referred to the “deep state,” the US, China and Pakistan. A reporter elaborated: according to “exclusive intel sources”, the Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) met Pakistani ISI officials in Saudi Arabia. The “mastermind” was the Islamist student group, Bangladesh Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS), which “brainwashed” students into protests. There was “rampant” anti-India material put out on social media after the January elections, he added, as India was seen as an ally of Hasina’s.
India TV told a very similar story of how Islamists exploited the students’ movement. The objective was a change of government, explained TV 9.
Hindus under attack
A fallout of these stratagems was targeting the minority Hindus. News channels were filled with images and videos of fires in homes, shops and temples being vandalised. Priests recounted scary stories of the assaults. The ISKCON temple was ransacked and pretty much gutted, said the priest to numerous channels.
In one video on Times Now Navbharat, a woman (presumably a Hindu) was screaming in fear. The channel said that Hindus were being singled out and attacked. CNN-News 18 saw “Hindus under attack”. India TV and TV 9 presented a grim picture of the continuously decreasing number of Hindus in Bangladesh, down from 13.5 per cent in 1974 to 7 per cent in 2021, according to India TV. “Where have they gone?” demanded the anchor.
Times Now asked, “Why are Hindus under attack?”. The question wasn’t explored although the inference was that they identified with India. The Hindu called out India for being “complicit” in Hasina’s actions against the Opposition in Bangladesh “by failing to advise her of the repercussions”. In “From hope to despair”, the newspaper wrote, “(India) failed to engage (the Opposition) losing goodwill on Dhaka’s streets.”
Also read: Indian TV news declares Trump assassination attempt is a global plot. ‘Endangers Modi’
Songs of Bangladesh
Lastly, the events in Bangladesh poignantly reminded me of two songs by music stars Joan Baez and George Harrison.
Song of Bangladesh by Joan Baez:
“The story of Bangladesh
Is an ancient one again made fresh
By blind men who carry out commands
Which flow out of the laws upon which nation stands
Which say to sacrifice a people for a land”
And Bangla Desh by Harrison of The Beatles fame which could have been written today:
“Bangladesh, Bangladesh
Such a great disaster, I don’t understand
But it sure looks like a mess
I’ve never known such distress”
The visuals we have seen since 5 August bear out these words only too tragically. Between television news and social media, we have been shown a country in chaos, going up in flames— “A country fast gone out of control”, said India Today.
The author tweets @shailajabajpai. Views are personal.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)