LS Speaker Om Birla to Represent India at Tarique Rahman's Swearing-in as Modi Set to Host AI Summit

New Delhi: India has nominated Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla to attend Tarique Rahman's swearing-in as Bangladesh’s prime minister on Tuesday (February 17). It made this decision in light of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s unavailability as he will be hosting French President Emmanuel Macron for bilateral talks in Mumbai then.

Macron will be visiting India this week to co-host the AI Impact Summit, which is being touted as the biggest such event in the Global South.

Birla's attendance, the external affairs ministry said in a statement on Sunday, highlights the “deep and enduring friendship” between the people of both countries and reaffirms “India's steadfast commitment to the democratic values that bind our two nations”.

It added to welcome Bangladesh's transition to an elected government under Rahman's leadership, whose “vision and values have received an overwhelming mandate of the people”.

India is trying to get on the right foot with what is set to be the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led government, especially given the strained bilateral ties during Muhammad Yunus's interim government and the prevailing bitterness among a large section of Bangladeshi youth against India. Thus, New Delhi seriously considered having a respectable representation of senior-level officials in Dhaka and set off a positive exchange with the new government.

Union commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal and external affairs minister S. Jaishankar were in contention to attend the ceremony. However, Birla became the final choice for New Delhi eventually. He will be accompanied by foreign secretary Vikram Misri. Jaishankar had visited Dhaka for the funeral of former BNP president Khaleda Zia on December 31.

Rahman secured a landslide majority for his BNP in the recently concluded elections, the first after the July 2024 student uprising that ousted the country’s longest-serving prime minister, Sheikh Hasina. Hasina is currently in exile in India. Immediately after the BNP's victory, Modi congratulated Rahman on X and spoke to him on phone. “I look forward to working with you to strengthen our multifaceted relations and advance our common development goals,” Modi said.

The new members of Bangladesh’s parliament will take their oath in Dhaka, with Rahman's cabinet, too, scheduled to assume their ministerial positions later in the evening. The interim government sent out invitations for the swearing-in ceremony to various countries on Saturday night. Apart from India, China, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Malaysia, Brunei, Sri Lanka, Nepal, the Maldives and Bhutan are among the countries that were invited to attend the ceremony.

Ties between India and Bangladesh administration soured after the Yunus-led administration took over the reins in Dhaka, with New Delhi repeatedly alleging mistreatment of Hindus and other minorities under the interim government's watch and the latter calling the accusations exaggerated. The two sides had also summoned each other's envoys in back-to-back moves during a spike in tensions recently.

Meanwhile, anger against India – which many Bangladeshis blame for propping up Hasina's authoritarian regime – spilled over onto Bangladesh's streets after Osman Hadi, a leader of the student-led movement of July 2024, was fatally shot and amid perceptions that his killers had fled across the border to India.

The strapline of this article has been edited to reflect that Modi was scheduled to meet Macron for bilateral talks, not host the AI Impact Summit, in Mumbai on Tuesday.

The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.