The Pulse | Diplomacy | South Asia

A Diplomatic Row Roils India-Bangladesh Relations Yet Again

While Delhi’s ties with Dhaka are hit by one hiccup after another, Bangladesh’s PM Tarique Rahman is set to visit China next week.

India’s foreign minister S Jaishankar (right) and his Bangladeshi counterpart Khalilur Rahman shake hands at their meeting on April 8, 2026, during the latter’s visit to New Delhi, India.

Following a prolonged period of strain in bilateral ties through much of last year, India-Bangladesh relations appeared to be looking up when the two sides vowed in April to reset ties. However, the recent mistreatment of Zahed Ur Rahman, an adviser to Bangladeshi Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, by Indian officials in New Delhi, which led to the Bangladeshi government summoning the Indian Deputy High Commissioner to formally lodge a protest, reveals how lingering mistrust continues to derail bilateral relations between the two neighbors.

This is the second time that the Bangladesh foreign ministry has called in the Indian mission in Dhaka since Tarique Rahman’s government took office in February 2026. Following what Bangladeshi officials termed as “disparaging” remarks by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma regarding India’s policy on infiltrators, the acting Indian high commissioner was summoned by the Bangladeshi government last month.

Zahed Ur Rahman was travelling to Delhi for a meeting of senior officials of the Indian Ocean Rim Association. He was initially denied entry into India by immigration authorities at the airport. According to Rahman’s account, he was kept waiting at the airport for “nearly two and a half hours” after which he was cleared for entry.

Bangladeshi newspapers report that the clearance came only after intervention from higher authorities in Delhi. Despite the clearance, Rahman decided to return to Dhaka, as a mark of “instant protest” against what Bangladeshi officials described as a “humiliating event.” Speaking about the incident at a press conference in Dhaka, Rahman clarified that he was not “mistreated” or “harassed” by Indian authorities, but reiterated that it was an “unwanted situation.”

At the time of writing, there has been no official statement from the Indian government on the incident. Some Indian news sources attribute the incident to an administrative error, due to which Rahman’s name showed up on an immigration watchlist, which was later identified and resolved. Indian sources also claim that Rahman was travelling on his personal passport with a SAARC visa sticker, instead of a diplomatic passport, which added to the confusion, resulting in the long delay.

It may be tempting to dismiss Rahman’s remarks as provocative rhetoric, which has become a routine feature of bilateral ties, at least in recent years. While this incident itself is unlikely to become the primary friction point in the relationship, it could add fire to simmering anti-India sentiments in Bangladesh. This is already evident with editorials in prominent Bangladeshi newspapers calling for India to “provide satisfactory explanation” and “acknowledge its failure to follow protocol” in response to Rahman’s “harassment.”

Such sentiments were already heightened by recent remarks made by India’s high commissioner designate Dinesh Trivedi that “India and Bangladesh share the same sky, the same air, the same pain…” which many in Bangladesh interpreted as a reference to the idea of Akhand Bharat, which roughly translates to a “Greater India,” a reference to an undivided India of pre-colonial times. A rather innocuous remark about a shared sky was quickly pounced upon by the........

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