The tenth round of India-Bangladesh friendship dialogue will be an all-out BJP participation, say sources. Participants are miffed because they won’t have time to meet with ‘like-minded Indian leaders’ in New Delhi.
Shimla will host the two-day ‘10th Round of India – Bangladesh Friendship Dialogue’ beginning February 18 to mark the 50th anniversary of relations between the two countries.
Indian authorities have drawn up a chock-a-block itinerary for the visiting Bangladesh delegation, leaving little time or opportunity for the delegates to meet with ‘like-minded Indian leaders’ and representatives of other political parties while in New Delhi.
Besides the minister of state for external affairs Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, India has lined up senior BJP leaders and BJP Members of Parliament and academics, besides office bearers of the India Foundation, Asian Confluence and the Vivekananda International Foundation. The Indian delegates also include the editor of the RSS weekly mouthpiece, The Organiser.
The dialogue aims to review bilateral relations and further boost ties in various fields of cooperation between the two friendly countries, sources said.
There is no Indian diplomat mentioned on the list of participants. However, the list spells out the Bangladesh’s present high commissioner to India, a former Bangladesh high commissioner to India and a former Bangladeshi foreign secretary as participants.
Interestingly, the Bangladesh delegation too is swamped by members of the ruling Awami League and no representation from the country’s other parties, particularly the BNP.
A source in the Bangladesh foreign ministry in Dhaka said that Bangladesh expects the dialogue to cover trade and investment, connectivity, technology, energy, regional security, extremism and sustainable development by increasing people to people contact.
The 9th round of India Bangladesh Friendship dialogue was held in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh in November 2019.
