India is losing Bangladesh. The warmth that once marked relations between the two South Asian neighbors has chilled since the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government. Accusations of “fake news” by Dhaka’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus and Bangladesh’s growing outreach to Pakistan are symptoms of a deeper failure in New Delhi’s foreign policy.
For years, India placed all its bets on one person, Hasina, mistaking her authoritarian grip for stability. That strategy may have delivered short-term gains, but it alienated millions of Bangladeshis who watched their democratic space shrink while India looked the other way. The lesson should be clear: friendship between nations cannot rest on the fortunes of a single ruler.
India must now reengage Bangladesh not through coercion, but through compassion and cooperation. The focus should shift to people-to-people ties — scholarships for students, medical exchanges, cultural partnerships, cross-border entrepreneurship, and easier travel for families divided by history but bound by kinship.
Ordinary Bangladeshis have never viewed Indians as adversaries. They remember India’s role in 1971 and the blood shared in their liberation. What they reject is being treated as pawns in regional power games.
If India truly wants a stable and democratic neighborhood, it must abandon the habit of backing strongmen and start investing in societies. Rebuilding trust with the friendly people of Bangladesh, not its transient rulers, is the only way to rekindle the spirit of partnership that once defined the relationship.