India's Bangladesh options

Measured responses will serve New Delhi better

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Escalating violence and a rampup in anti-Indian rhetoric in Bangladesh ahead of elections have raised the stakes for New Delhi in shaping an appropriate response.

After the death of a prominent student leader on December 19, seven days after he had sustained a wound from a shootout in Dhaka allegedly by an Awami League activist, the wave of violence that followed focused on minorities. That included the lynching of a Hindu garment worker on December 18 and the targeting of assets of the Indian government. So far, India's response has been low-key. Visa-related service has been suspended in Khulna, Rajshahi, and, most recently, at its assistant high commission in Chittagong after protestors gathered outside. But the trading of charges over reciprocal threats to each other's consular facilities has undeniably upped the ante in already fragile India-Bangladesh relations. New Delhi's approach, therefore, increasingly demands a focus on its immediate and long-term security perceptions.