Those following relations between India and Bangladesh are taken aback by the Modi government’s decision to send Dinesh Trivedi, a political appointee, to Bangladesh as India’s next high commissioner. The appointment awaits a formal agreement from the Bangladesh government.

There hasn’t been a political appointee as head of the Indian mission in Dhaka in 50 years. The last such choice was Samar Sen, who was a career diplomat but took up the post after retiring from the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) as India’s permanent representative (PR) to the United Nations in New York. Sen was born and brought up in Dhaka and had first-hand experience of the place.

His predecessor Subimal Dutt, the first Indian high commissioner to Bangladesh after its independence from Pakistan in 1971, was also originally from East Bengal (Chittagong). Dutt went on to become India’s longest serving foreign secretary before being summoned from retirement to undertake the delicate new assignment in Dhaka.

A promotion to the coveted top job of foreign secretary is often guided not by whether a candidate has served as ambassador, high commissioner or permanent representative in the West, but by whether he or she has fulfilled such a role in a neighbouring country.

In this context, Dhaka has........

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