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Hasina isn’t the real reason behind Rahman’s cancelled India tour. It’s about local issues

To deflect public attention from crippling domestic concerns, Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman seems to have fanned anti-India sentiment within his country.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman seems to be following the advice of the legendary fictional character Don Draper. The hard-drinking, chain-smoking, smooth-talking advertising guru from the hit TV series Mad Men famously said: “If you don’t like what’s being said, change the conversation.” 

And what is it that’s being said today on the streets of Dhaka? Not just being said, but literally being shouted from rooftops? 

Severe power crisis resulting in power outages lasting several hours every day, high inflation that continues to impact prices of daily essentials and a deteriorating law and order problem, not to talk about global concerns regarding Bangladesh’s radicalisation. 

To deflect public attention from crippling domestic concerns, Rahman seems to have done one thing that brings immediate political dividends in Bangladesh ever since the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government on 5 August 2024: fan anti-India sentiment within his country. 

In effect, the Bangladesh government’s cancellation of Rahman’s proposed India tour from 23 August to 25 August and non-confirmation of his New Delhi visit to attend the upcoming BRICS summit is being sold to the domestic audience as a power move against a bigger, more powerful neighbour that has given shelter to ‘dictator Hasina’. The development aims to deflect attention from a looming power crisis and other pressing domestic issues.

The cancelled tour has nothing to do with Hasina’s extradition or her first public presser on 5 August this year in New Delhi—her first since the ouster. Furthermore, deep-rooted historical anxieties have triggered caution within the Bangladesh Nationalist Party........

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