Finally, it was the weather that acted as spoilt sport to force Sheikh Hasina in calling off her state visit to India, scheduled for next week.
The Bangladesh Prime Minister was to begin her four-day visit from December 17. But the thick Delhi fog that had been threatening to come between Hasina and the visit, ultimately led officials of the two countries to put off her travel to the country for another “mutually convenient date.”
This would have been her first state visit to India since the Narendra Modi government came to power in Delhi in May 2014. Sources say her postponed visit might now take place in February next year.
The Bangladeshi Prime Minister’s visit would have given the two sides an opportunity to further deepen and strengthen their ties and expand cooperation in a wide range of issues from infrastructure development and investment to trade, defense and security. Though much of the ground work for all that had already been done in the past weeks, the formal signing of agreements in these fields could now take place only when Hasina comes to India.
Hasina has been to India twice in recent years—once for the funeral of President Pranab Mukherjee’s wife and another time for the BRICS-BIMSTEC outreach Summit in Goa. But she has not come here yet on a bilateral visit. Predictably, both sides were looking forward to her visit to India next week in the hope that it would have given the two countries the opportunity to enhance their ongoing cooperation further.
But the thick fog that engulfs the city, particularly its airports and disrupt normal air traffic at this time of the year came in the way of this much-awaited visit.
For the past few weeks both sides played around with several dates to ensure Hasina could go ahead with her state visit to India. Initially, India wanted her to be in Delhi on December 16, to jointly celebrate the Victory Day when Pakistani army surrendered to the combined Indian forces and the ‘Mukti Bahini’ during Bangladesh’s Liberation Struggle in 1971.
Traditionally, Hasina celebrates the Victory Day, known in Bengali as ‘Bijoy Dibos’ in Dhaka, addressing Awami League supporters and her countrymen to remind them of her government’s achievements and the challenges it faces in the days ahead.
This year too, a big public rally is planned at Ramna Maidan where the Pakistani army had surrendered more than four decades ago. Obviously, the Bangladeshi PM involved in a fight against terror groups in Bangladesh and in weeding out anti-liberation forces like the Jamaat-e-Islami, does not want to miss the chance of driving the core point of her fight against “domestic enemies” further before the home crowd.
The Indian suggestion, therefore, was politely turned down by the Bangladeshi government and it was decided that she will start her bilateral visit in Delhi from December 17.
But this year Bangladesh has decided to extend the celebrations beyond December 16 to the next day as well. So Dhaka suggested to Delhi that she could only come to India on December 17 evening and the official part of her visit could begin the next day in Delhi.
However, officials of the two countries were worried that the Delhi fog which had been playing havoc with flight schedules for the past weeks could also interfere with the Bangladeshi PM’s scheduled programme in India.
What was of serious concern to them was that even if Hasina arrived at the capital by noon, the ceremonies associated with her visit can still delay and jeopardize her scheduled talks with her Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi. The delegation level talks headed by the two prime ministers could have been pushed back for later in the day. But Modi has prior commitments on December 18 and 19 and would not have been available for the delegation level talks.
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Therefore, it is now decided that Hasina’s visit to India would take place in February next year after both sides agreed on the dates.
