In Narendra Modi’s new government, Amit Shah is the home minister while Subrahmanyam Jaishankar is the new foreign minister.
Political analysts feel that Bangladesh has some reservations about Amit Shah; on the other hand, Jaishankar, was foreign secretary of India during Modi’s first term and played a pivotal role in taking Indo-Bangladesh relations to a new height.
In three years as foreign secretary, Jaishankar set the record of an Indian foreign secretary with the highest number of visits to Dhaka.
While there is optimism over Jaishankar, the same cannot be said over Amit Shah.
Prior to election, he launched a virulent campaign to drive out what he termed illegal Bangladeshis from India.
Discarding all niceties, he bluntly said that by ‘illegal’ he meant Bangladeshis.
Shah also said that he will launch the much controversial citizen’s charter in West Bengal and other provinces. The charter had earlier threatened millions of Muslims with loss of a homeland when it was launched in Assam.
Under Amit Shah, policies on Rohingyas will also be revised to adopt a strict format while the Indian Border Security Force, BSF, may take a non-compromising stance on cattle smuggling.
It’s also feared that there may be a ‘pushback’ of people into Bangladesh on the grounds that they are not Indian.
Now, these issues may boil into tensions on the diplomatic front which will fall on Jaishankar to settle. Relevant to note, when Bangladesh’s foreign minister A K Abdul Momen was Bangladesh’s permanent representative at the UN headquarters in New York, Jaishankar was the Indian ambassador to USA, based in Washington. They have a very close relation.
Jaishankar also praised the Bangladesh high commissioner to India, S Moazzem Ali.
Jaishankar was present at a programme arranged by Moazzem Ali in honour of Riva Ganguly Das, the newly elected Indian high commissioner to Dhaka.
As per Indranath Mukherjee, international relations expert, and professor of international relations of Jawaharlal Nehru University: “Amit Shah is a shrewd politician while Jaishankar is a seasoned diplomat. Shah may want to play the Bangladesh card on his whims while the damage control duty will fall on Jaishankar.”