Why former Indian High Commissioners to Bangladesh need to shut up
On democracy in the neighborhood, India has lost its credibility
In an astonishing interview with The Daily Star, India’s former ambassador to Bangladesh Veena Sikri cast doubt on the legitimacy of the interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus. Sikri decided to wade into Bangladesh’s internal affairs by describing the interim government as unconstitutional with no authority to take policy decisions on reforms which are needed for free and fair elections. Who is she kidding? This was a stunning and egregious intrusion into the internal affairs of a sovereign country.
Veena Sikri likes to boast about her time in Bangladesh. We all knew her. We loved her flare and her sarees. But Veena Sikri is the symbol of India’s betrayal of Bangladesh.
Over the past 15 years, an influential group of former Indian ambassadors to Bangladesh, or High Commissioners as they are known in Commonwealth parlance, have been the most shameful defenders of autocracy in South Asia. Despite the plethora of reports on extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, widespread torture, and arbitrary arrests, the world’s largest democracy did not raise a finger.
The former ambassadors are speaking on behalf of India’s intelligence and security establishment. But the sheer irony of the world’s largest democracy promoting human rights abuses in neighboring countries by either actively abetting or turning a blind eye reeks of a disastrous foreign policy which will have ramifications for decades.
These people come on talk shows and interviews with the mirage of being experts on democracy, human rights and the rule of law. In reality, these retired diplomats are shamefully defending autocratic practices on the doorstep of the world’s largest democracy. Little wonder that intellectuals from Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka recently teamed up to condemn Indian interference. According to them, “intervention by New Delhi’s political, bureaucratic and intelligence operatives in Colombo, Dhaka and Kathmandu, has contributed to the unending political instability in our countries and has empowered autocratic regimes”. They point out that “New Delhi can contribute to stable polities and long-lasting peace in South Asia by abandoning its overt and covert interference in the internal affairs of its neighbors”.
In Dhaka, rumors are abound that former Indian ambassadors benefitted financially from the corruption which engulfed the nation in recent years. Hefty payments ensured they would stick to the line of autocracy. The former ambassador Pankaj Saran was known to be a frequent socializer with businessmen of the India-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The Hinduja Group, which is linked to the brother of a former army chief in Bangladesh, was found guilty by a Swiss court of exploiting Indian servants on Swiss soil. Ekattor TV founder Mozammel Huq Babu, Sheikh Hasina’s former press secretary Nayeemul Islam Khan, and the disgraced Supreme Court judge Shamsuddin Manik were key agents of this nexus. Pankaj Saran later became a key aide of India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and served as India’s ambassador to Russia.
Elements of the Indian media have been shamefully distorting news about Bangladesh, including the once respected Shekhar Gupta (who now lectures Bangladesh and Pakistan to learn from Sri Lanka’s newly elected Marxist president).
Indian ambassadors are accused of playing the ‘China card’. They often lambast Bangladeshi politicians who praise China’s economic development. In January 2024, Pankaj Saran claimed “China, in the garb of a benevolent development partner, is making Bangladesh a party to its strategic containment of India. India will not let this happen”. Well guess what Pankaj, China is today more popular than India in Bangladesh. It doesn’t help that former Indian diplomats even lecture Bangladeshi politicians to speak Bangla and not English. All this will backfire spectacularly.
Then you have the ever so bull headed Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty. Although a Bengali himself, Pinaki likes to doll out his bull headed observations on India’s national interest by completely ignoring the democratic aspirations of the people of Bangladesh. In recent interviews since 5 August, he tends to completely ignore the popular movement in Bangladesh and insists on the failed Indian narrative of events.
Why exactly is India setting itself up for failure? This is a puzzle not just for India’s neighbors, but also Indians themselves. Why are Indian elites allowing such shameful complacency and promotion of autocracy on India’s doorstep?
Lastly, The Daily Star is itself accused of becoming a tool for malicious intelligence agents from India and Pakistan, including under the corrupt influence of Aasha Mehreen Amin. The interview of Veena Sikri was a gross interference in the internal affairs of Bangladesh.