India-Bangladesh relations are in freefall with neither Dhaka nor New Delhi seemingly interested in coming to grips with the deteriorating situation. We are witnessing one escalation after another with no respite in sight. If one day, Dhaka summons India’s High Commissioner in Bangladesh, Pranay Verma, to its Foreign Office, the very next day, New Delhi summons the Bangladeshi Acting High Commissioner to India, Nurul Islam, to South Block.

The tit-for-tat summons hark back to highly surcharged periods of India-Pakistan interface and were unheard of in India-Bangladesh bilateral relations until now. Yet, that’s exactly what’s happening today.

Unless better sense prevails and both sides quickly rectify the situation, it won’t be surprising if the Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus-led interim regime and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government start expelling each other’s diplomats to settle real or imaginary scores – that’s the direction we are unfortunately headed to.

An extremely worrisome and dangerous development took place just three days ago. On January 18, there were unprecedented clashes between Bangladeshi and Indian farmers at the Sukhdebpur border in Malda district, adjoining Chapai-Nawabgunj on the other side. The bone of contention was the standing crops of maize, mustard and wheat in around 10 bighas near the........

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