Since its inception in 1978, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has been maintaining a distance with India expect the year of 2008, in which the 11th national parliamentary election was held.
Often dubbed an "anti-Indian" party, BNP took a high profile trip to India in June of 2008 in an apparent bid to build ties with the neighbouring country.
During the trip, the BNP delegation had met with Indian ruling party leaders, and civil society members to let them know that party has shifted to a "new policy and changing the attitude towards India".
But, the shift in policy started to crack after the party suffered a huge defeat in the Dec 30 election. In January this year, BNP first hinted at reviving its old 'anti-Indian' policy.
Things became more clear after that party announced a nationwide movement protesting the government's deals with India signed during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's recent visit to the country.
At a press conference on Thursday (Oct 10), BNP termed several agreements between Bangladesh and India as "anti-state deals" before announcing the nationwide demonstration.
According to highly placed sources, the killing of BUET student, Abrar Fahad has also become a "momentum" for BNP to pursue its old policy towards India.
A second-year student of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Abrar was brutally beaten to death by the leaders and activists of the ruling Awami League's student front Bangladesh Chhatra League for his alleged involvement with Islami Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami, in addition to posting a Facebook status criticising Bangladesh-India water-sharing deal on Feni river.
Top BNP leaders think, the issue which Abrar raised is a part of Bangladesh's sovereignty and BNP should mobilise the movement. But, the leaders made a "policy mistake" and are now trying to mend it, according to the sources.
Apart from Feni river deal, duty-free LPG export, and setting up radar system in the coastal area, BNP also sees that economy, transport and infrastructure of Bangladesh will face a "certain loss" due to the government's deal on allowing India to use Chattogram and Mongla seaports.
As the PM's recent visit to India drew reaction among the party leaders, the BNP high command, for now on, has decided to follow an "attitude based on equality" towards India when it comes to the country's interest and show apparently "no weakness" in this regard, people familiar with the matter said.
"It's our moral duty [as the politicians] to speak against the policy that destroys the country," BNP's Foreign Affairs Committee chief Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury told Bangla Tribune.
The BNP leader, however, disagrees that BNP does maintain an "open anti-Indian" posture.
"We, too, don't maintain a policy of hostility to India. However, if they [India] do anything harmful to our country we [BNP] as a political party must clarify our position," said Chowdhury, who is a member of the party's policy making forum National Standing Committee.
A former commerce minister, Chowadury claimed that BNP is accountable to the people and it is doing accordingly.
"We have been vocal over Teesta and Farakara issues and protested border killings [by India] repeatedly," he said.
BNP, however, was almost numb over border killings in 2018 till its Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir Education protested two killings along Thakurgaon border in January this year.
Another policy-making forum member, Gayeshwar Chandra Roy believes BNP is a "party of the people" and does "politics for the people".
"We have to be vocal when something goes against the country's interest. Do we offend anyone speaking against India?" Roy asked.
Pro-BNP intellectual Zafrullah Chowdhury, however, criticises BNP for seeking India's favour.
He said, "Asking India's favour is a big failure for BNP. The party thinks it can't take the office without India, US' help. It's not correct.
"BNP should be more straight forward... clarify its position on India [to people]," Zafrullah said.
Analyst Prof Shamsul Alam said the friendship between Bangladesh and India is merely built on the name nothing else.
He said, "No deal [signed during Hasina's recent visit to India] ensures fairness.
"So, BNP should speak for the interest of the people," said Alam, who teaches political science at Jahangirnagar University.
WHY DID BNP SHIFT ITS POLICY ON INDIA?
According to several members of BNP's foreign affairs body, BNP took the shift six months prior to the Dec 30 election when several influential quarters of the country and a faction of BNP convinced the party's high command to consider its policy towards India.
More development came with a high-level BNP delegation including Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, Vice-Chairman Abdul Awal Mintoo and Tarique Rahman's Advisor and BNP’s International Affairs Secretary, Humayun Kabir visited India in June last year.
The delegation then held talks with the country's leading think-tanks including Observer Research Foundation (ORF), Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) and Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF).
During the tour, BNP international affairs secretary Humayun Kabir told Indian daily The Hindu that they "need to look forward rather than backward. The politics of the 80s and the 90s is out the window now.”
Acting party Chairman Tarique Rahman, who lives in exile in the UK, "wants us to engage India, and today the young populations of both our countries are our priority,” The Hindu quoted Kabir as saying.
After the tour, Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, too, told Bangla Tribune that objective and pragmatical talks had been opened. "It needs to continue," he said.
BNP now thinks it can't maintain a good relationship with the neighbouring country.
"Some of us are vocal for building a good relationship with that created an embarrassing situation. At last, we saw that there is no result in having a good relationship with them [India]," said a foreign committee member, who wished not to be named.
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