The Changing Bilateral Contours of Indo-Bangladesh Relations

The Sheikh Hasina led Awami League government came to power in Bangladesh in January 2009. This paper attempts to capture two contrasting phases in the bilateral context in the last decade despite the issues remaining more or less the same. In view of the several outstanding issues that exist between India and Bangladesh the positions adopted by Bangladesh's two main political parties — Awami League and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) — have changed the contours of the bilateral relations between the two South Asian neighbours. Over the years, bilateral issues have remained unchanged although a new dimension was added in the last decade. Irrespective of the political party in power in Bangladesh, India's policies vis-a-vis its neighbouring country have not altered significantly. Bangladesh, however, has approached India rather differently wherein its two main political parties adopted significantly different policies. The differences these parties had in their domestic agenda also spilled over to the b...