Amid Rohingya crisis, Sushma, Hasina friendship comes to the rescue of Indo-Bangla ties

India has employed Sushma Swaraj to keep Indo-Bangla ties intact at a time when the Rohingya crisis has hit the subcontinent badly.

Of late, India's closest ally in the subcontinent, Bangladesh, is miffed over New Delhi's reaction towards the Rohingya crisis. Reports indicate that Bangladesh is unhappy over India reluctance to criticise Myanmar as lakhs of minority Rohingya Muslims have fled the country due to violence and persecution on them by the military.

A few days ago, Bangladesh's high commissioner in India, Syed Muazzem Ali, met foreign secretary S Jaishankar and conveyed Dhaka's concerns regarding the Rohingya crisis, reported The Telegraph.

Dhaka wanted New Delhi to put press on Myanmar to do more to stop the violence against the Rohingyas and reduce the refugee outflow that is affecting Bangladesh the most.

India, in order to avoid alienating Myanmar, which is clearly inching closer to China, is staying away from interfering in the Rohingya crisis directly. In the last one month, more than 4 lakh Rohingyas have left Myanmar and have taken shelter in Bangladesh.

Recently, the Indian government too has indicated its desire to deport around 40,000 Rohingya refugees settled in various parts of the country as they pose serious "security threat".

Amid all these tricky diplomatic developments, New Delhi for sure wants to continue its bonhomie with Dhaka. In order to keep Bangladesh in good humour, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj to use her "long friendship" with Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Hasina and Swaraj have been good friends for long and base of their relationship lies in their mutual love for saris. Both Hasina and Swaraj always wear saris and they have an enviable collection of saris with them.

As Swaraj and Hasina met in New York, US, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Monday, officially they did not discuss the vexed issue of Rohingyas, but Swaraj has showed all support to Bangladesh in its time of crisis. The Indian foreign minister is likely to visit Dhaka next month for bilateral talks too.

On September 15, Sushma had a telephonic conversation with the Bangladeshi PM after the MEA announced Operation Insaniyat--a relief programme meant to supply 7 million kilos of food and thousands of mosquito nets to Bangladesh for the refugees.

Moreover, Sushma and Hasina took the same flight from Abu Dhabi to New York for the UN General Assembly, and the two leaders had a brief conversation on the plane, Indian officials told The Telegraph.

After Swaraj and Hasina's meeting in New York, the Indian government maintained that it was a courtesy call and the Rohingya crisis was not at all discussed.

"The meeting with the Prime Minister of Bangladesh was more in the nature of a courtesy meeting," foreign ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar had said after the Sushma-Hasina interaction in New York.

"It was a very short meeting. The Rohingya issue did not come up during the meeting."

But those who are close to the Prime Minister's Office are indicating that there have been a lot of informal meetings and telephonic calls between Swaraj and Hasina to keep the bond between India and Bangladesh intact as the Rohingya crisis continues to haunt the neighbouring nations.

OneIndia News