The BNP leaders are somewhat happy with the Indian election results since the “pro-Awami League” Congress lost office, but they are still sceptical about the benefits they might get from the Narendra Modi-led new government.
For this, when contacted by the Dhaka Tribune, many of the top BNP leaders did not want to open up on record.
However, even before announcement of the full results, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia greeted Modi, the would-be prime minister of India, on Friday morning for his party’s landslide victory in the Lok Sabha elections.
The party leaders believe that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has a good personal relation with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and outgoing President Pranab Mukherjee, and that the Hasina-led government held the January 5 election with the blanket support of the Congress.
Hasina does not have similar kind of warm relation with the BJP leaders, the BNP leaders observe.
They think with Modi’s triumph, now the relation with India would be state-to-state and people-to-people, not with the Awami League only.
BNP’s acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said: “We hope that the longstanding disputes like border killing, Teesta water treaty and other issues will be settled [with the new government].”
Shamser Mobin Chowdhury, vice-chairman of the party, echoed Fakhrul saying that the Indo-Bangla tie would reach a new height in the coming days.
Osman Farruk, an adviser to the BNP Chairperson, said: “The way the Congress government took position over the January 5 election, it seemed that the people of Bangladesh are the counterpart of Indian government. Apart from bilateral issues, we believe that the new government will re-evaluate the Congress government’s blind support to the Awami League government over the controversial election.”
In response to a question whether the new Indian government would want to see early election in Bangladesh as demanded by many Western countries, Shamser said it was difficult to predict at this moment.
“But India has a history of democracy, and BJP has come to power through a democratic election. Naturally Indian government would want to see a democratic process in Bangladesh,” Shamser told a programme in the city organised by BBC Bangla Service.
