Editorial: Bangladesh, public fatwa against extremist parties
The Indian government is sure to feel some relief from the landslide victory of the BNP in the parliamentary elections in Bangladesh.
The Indian government is sure to feel some relief from the landslide victory of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in Bangladesh's parliamentary elections. The BNP has claimed a two-thirds majority (at least 213 seats). Although it is not clear how many seats the various parties within the main opposition BNP won, as party-wise details were not released till Friday evening, it is clear that Bangladeshi voters have given a clear mandate against the alliance of hardline parties and anarchist parties.
The leader of this front is Jamaat-e-Islami and it also includes the National Citizen Party (NCP), the political party of the student organizations that laid the foundation for the 'July 2024 Revolution'. The NCP. It came to know only in November 2025 that despite its key role in the overthrow of the Awami League government of Sheikh Hasina Wajed through the July Revolution, the common people were not happy with its approach of mob violence. That is why it decided to contest the elections in alliance with the Islamic parties, but this decision proved to be suicidal for it. The Bangladeshi Parliament (National Parliament) has 350 seats.
Of these, elections are held for 300. The remaining 50 are reserved for women, which are allocated to these parties in proportion to the votes they received. Voting took place on Thursday for 299 out of 300 seats. Despite the ban on Sheikh Hasina's party 'Awami League', these elections cannot be called a drama because with a voter turnout of around 60 percent and minimal incidents of violence, there is not much scope left to question the fairness and moral validity of these elections. Sheikh Hasina has called these elections undemocratic, but the reality is that whatever methods she adopted to deal with political opposition during her nearly 15-year rule were directly undemocratic.
BNP leader Tariq Rahman is set to take over as the country's prime minister on Saturday. The ceremony will mark the end of Dr. Muhammad Yunus' interim government, which came into being after Sheikh Hasina was ousted from Bangladesh and went into exile in India. Despite being an interim government, Dr. Yunus and his fellow 'advisors' (ministers) took several key decisions that soured relations with India and changed the national foreign policy, traditionally taken by elected governments.
Decisions like increasing rapprochement with China and opening the way for trade and military cooperation with Pakistan were evidence of a sense of appeasement towards India. Incidents like ignoring Indian sensitivities towards the killings of Hindu civilians and describing Indian responses as ‘anti-Bangladesh propaganda’ also played a significant role in increasing bilateral bitterness. It is true that the Indian government also did not advise Sheikh Hasina to exercise restraint in her anti-Bangladesh rhetoric from Indian soil. This approach not only deepened the effects of Indian interference in Bangladesh’s internal affairs within that country, but also raised suspicions about Indian intentions abroad.
Now, after the victory of BNP, even though the prospects of improvement in Indo-Bangla relations have been strengthened, the shelter given to Sheikh Hasina in our country can become the basis of many complications. Having been in power, BNP is well aware of such complications. However, it is also true that whenever BNP was in power, instead of improving, Indo-Bangla relations deteriorated. Nevertheless, during 2003-04, the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Begum Khaleda Zia (mother of the current BNP leader Tariq Rahman) were successful in reducing the bitterness and strengthening mutual relations.
The Modi government has also changed its approach in the last two months and has increased its contact with the BNP and some other political parties. This has also received a positive response. On the other hand, despite the anti-India sentiment still prevailing among the Bangladeshi student community and Islamic fundamentalists, a change has been seen in the rhetoric of the political parties. Tariq Rahman gave direct priority to meeting Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, who attended the last rites of Begum Zia. His party has also been talking about bringing relations with India on track according to the principle of equality.
Moreover, Jamaat-e-Islami chief (Ameer) Shafiqur Rahman has also been talking about giving due recognition and respect to India during the last days of the election campaign. It is a fact that the Bangladeshi economy cannot get rid of the declining trend without improving relations with India. In such a situation, it is also the duty of the Modi government to forget the bitter past and make a friendly contribution to ease the difficulties of the new rulers of Bangladesh.