One of Bangladesh’s most highly regarded foreign policy experts, who closely follows India-Bangladesh relations, has said “we will ensure at any cost all minorities are protected” adding that this is a requirement that flows from the identity that Bangladesh has always accepted for itself.
However, at the same time, Shafqat Munir, a Senior Fellow of the Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies, adds, “There’s an urgent need for New Delhi to signal that it stands with the people of Bangladesh”. Munir was clearly saying that New Delhi must realise that a new chapter has opened in Dhaka and there is a need to respond to this reality by reaching out to the new government of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.
In a 30-minute interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, Munir talked about the coalition of forces and revolution that brought down Sheikh Hasina as well as about the nature and character of the new interim government, its composition and Yunus’s attitude to India. He also spoke about what lay in store for Hasina and whether a future Bangladesh government or even the country’s people will demand her extradition.
