New Delhi could request that Dhaka take “constructive steps” to stop the spread of violence, Shashi Tharoor has said
India should “persuade” Bangladesh to curb the spread of unrest in the neighboring country, a top lawmaker has said.
New Delhi’s intervention was sought by Indian MP Shashi Tharoor, who heads a parliamentary committee on foreign affairs, after a Hindu garment factory worker in Bangladesh was lynched and set on fire by a mob for alleged blasphemy against Islam.
“India cannot interfere in the domestic affairs of a neighboring country. But as a country which has contributed in many ways to the Bangladeshi nation and people, we can certainly exercise our diplomatic influence in Dhaka to persuade the (Mohammad Yunus) government to take constructive steps,” Tharoor told the Indian Express on Sunday.
Violent protests erupted in Bangladesh last week following the death of a leader of the 2024 uprising who died of his injuries after being shot. Protesters took to the streets demanding the arrest of the assailants and engaged in vandalism.
Tharoor lauded India’s handling of its ties with Bangladesh following former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ouster on August 5 last year, but urged New Delhi “to support forces working to establish an inclusive democracy” in Dhaka.
Hasina has expressed concern over the escalating hostility towards India and the safety of its diplomats in Bangladesh.
“The hostility is being manufactured by extremists who have been emboldened by the Yunus regime,” she said in an email interview with ANI on Monday.
New Delhi and Dhaka have been engaged in an escalating diplomatic spat, with both summoning each other’s envoys.
Bangladesh has alleged that Hasina has been allowed to make “incendiary” statements from Indian soil, a charge New Delhi has denied.
Bangladesh’s interim government has also sought the extradition of Hasina, who has been sentenced to death by a court for crimes against humanity linked to the violent crackdown on protesters in the 2024 uprising.
She has alleged that the sentence was politically motivated.
Hasina’s Awami League, which had been in power for 15 years before the uprising, has been barred from participating in Bangladesh’s general election, which will be held on February 12.
