Saleem Samad :
As Indian Prime Minister “Chowkidar’ Narendra Modi is poised to take oath next week after his landslide victory last week, he is unlikely to hold a get-together of South Asian leaders, like in 2014.
All South Asian leaders, including Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh have sent heart-to-heart congratulatory messages to Narendra Modi, the incumbent prime minister of India for the second time.
PM Hasina made a phone call to Modi and conveyed her heartfelt wishes to her re-elected counterpart. While Imran Khan, PM of Pakistan sent a Tweet message to Modi, was however acknowledged from E-Block, PM office in Delhi.
Russian President Vladimir Putin was the first P-5 country to congratulate Modi, but there was long line of World leaders that included French President Emmanuel Macron, Saudi King Salman and Israeli PM Netanyahu.
Bangladesh is preparing to send a high level official delegation to New Delhi to attend the coveted ceremony on behalf of PM Sheikh Hasina. Unfortunately she has official travel plans to Japan and Saudi Arabia and would not be able to attend the ceremony.
On the second grand oath ceremony of the re-elected Chowkidar, South Block in New Delhi is not in favour of holding a South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) reunion type oath-taking ceremony.
In 2014, when Modi first took over as the Indian Prime Minister, then Pakistan’s PM Nawaz Sharif and other SAARC leaders attended the open air oath ceremony.
The historic election victory is no doubt has been attributed to the political yardstick it gained from Pulwama terror attack and the military skirmishes with Pakistan in disputed Kashmir LOC.
It is not likely that E-Block will invite Imran Khan to participate in at the ceremony planned on Tuesday. If Imran Khan is not attending the coronation ceremony, the future of SAARC will continue to remain in cold. A stalemate status! SAARC is dormant, because of intermittent border skirmishes between Pakistan and India over disputed Kashmir.
Also the Islamic State of Pakistan joined by Turkey has been bitter critic of the trial of the henchmen of Pakistan Army for committing war crimes in Bangladesh. The key henchmen of rogue Pakistan Army belonged to Jamaat-e-Islami, Muslim League and over-enthusiast Muslim leaders who favoured the absurd proposition of forcibly retaining the two wings of Pakistan.
The Pakistan’s parliament erratically condemned Bangladesh for executions of top leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, who were primarily secret members of a ‘death squad’, the dreaded Al Badr, responsible for hundreds of enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings of intellectuals, teachers, journalists, poets, film-makers and even sportsman during the bloody War of independence of Bangladesh in 1971.
Bangladesh, estranged diplomatic relations between two countries, has dipped at the lowest ebb this month, when both countries have slapped “no-visa” for each other nationals.
Since Sheikh Hasina’s government swept into power in 2008 election, Bangladesh and Pakistan maintained normal relation, while trade and commerce graphs made a significant progress.
It was evident from the 18th SAARC Summit of Heads of Government of South Asian nations was held in 2014 in Kathmandu, when Sheikh Hasina refused to meet and greet Pakistan’s PM Nawaz Sharif.
Soon after the 19th summit scheduled to be held in Pakistan in 2016 was boycotted by India followed by Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Maldives. The Summit is yet to be held because of bitter relationship with Pakistan with India and Bangladesh.
Some South Asian watch analysts and journalists predict that the Indian PM does not plan on making any effort to normalize relations with Pakistan anytime soon.
(Saleem Samad, an Ashoka Fellow (USA), recipient of Hellman-Hammett Award, Bangladesh correspondent of Paris based international media rights organization, Reporters Without Borders (RSF); Twitter @saleemsamad)
