UNHAPPY NEIGHBOURS, AND POOR DIPLOMACY

EXACTLY two years ago, in August 2022, Sri Lanka's President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa and 2 security guards fled the country hours before he was slated to resign.

- GURBIR SINGH

His first stop was the Maldives. The Rajapaksa family left behind waves of street protests and a gutted President's residence.

The same parallels have played out in Bangladesh. Sheikh Hasina, who ran what we all thought was a stable regime, has fallen to weeks of intense student protests, and has fled to India. What's shocked political observers is the suddenness and the intensity of the uprising. What started as an anti-reservation agitation against quotas in government jobs for so-called freedom fighters, snowballed into an 'Oust Hasina' campaign.

For India, there is genuine concern as the country's large 8% Hindu minority faces a backlash. The contours of the new interim government - with Begum Khalida of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), and Jamaat-e-Islami elements has a decidedly anti-India ring. 'India Out', a popular slogan of the agitators, has a Maldives echo, where the pro-China President Mohamed Muizzu has asked India's small army contingent to leave. What does longtime ally Sheikh Hasina's ouster spell for India? In recent months, there have been a series of regime changes among our neighbours not favourable to India. Our credibility as a reliable ally is being questioned. What has gone wrong?

ANTI-INDIA RING

Sheikh Hasina started her third term in office in January this year after an election that was seen to be neither free nor fair.

While many Western countries questioned her re-election and called for restoration of democracy, India chose to remain silent. This created considerable resentment against India.