India must recalibrate its Bangladesh options

India must tread carefully. Coercion alone is unlikely to produce enduring influence. Bangladesh is vital to India's own developmental and security goals.

- SHREYA UPADHYAY

Bangladesh has been in the news for being gripped by a political and governance crisis. The interim administration led by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus is facing headwinds on multiple fronts: internal civil unrest, institutional rifts with the military, a spiralling energy crisis, and increasingly hostile rhetoric towards India.

For New Delhi, these developments in the neighborhood spell strategic trouble, especially in the wake of Operation Sindoor.

Yunus had emerged as a consensus figure following the fall of Sheikh Hasina's government and initially inspired cautious optimism. But that optimism has since eroded. His proposal for a "humanitarian corridor" for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh to Myanmar's Rakhine State—a plan derided by critics as the "bloody corridor"—has deepened tensions with the Bangladesh Army. Army Chief General Waker Uz Zaman has publicly raised concerns about national security and sovereignty. The appointment of Khalilur Rahman as National Security Advisor without military consultation has only widened the civil-military gulf.