India raised radicalisation concerns at Modi-Yunus meet, says Jaishankar

India has conveyed its concerns about the rhetoric emanating from Dhaka, radicalisation and attacks on minorities during last week’s meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bangladesh interim government head Muhammad Yunus, external affairs minister S Jaishankar said on Wednesday.

The two leaders met for the first time on the margins of the Bimstec Summit in Bangkok on April 4, and Jaishankar told a media conclave that the Indian side had emphasised the importance of holding elections in Bangladesh.

New Delhi-Dhaka ties have been testy since Yunus stepped in to lead the caretaker government after the ouster of former premier Sheikh Hasina during student-led protests last August. The Indian side has repeatedly criticised the interim government’s handling of attacks on Bangladesh’s minorities. Hasina’s presence in India, where she has lived in self-exile after fleeing Bangladesh, has emerged as a contentious issue in ties.

During the meeting between Modi and Yunus last Friday, the Indian side conveyed its concerns about the “rhetoric which is coming out of people in Bangladesh”, “radicalising tendencies”, and “the attacks on minorities”, Jaishankar said at the News18 Rising Bharat Summit.

“I think we were very open about sharing those concerns,” he said, responding to a question on what Modi told Yunus at their first face-to-face meeting since the change of government in Dhaka.

“As a country which has a democratic tradition, democracies require elections. That’s how mandates are given and mandates are renewed. So, we hope that they go down that path,” Jaishankar said, emphasising New Delhi’s call for holding fresh elections in Bangladesh.

In recent weeks, Yunus has offered different timelines for holding elections between December this year and June 2026.

Jaishankar also said the Indian side made it clear the relationship with Bangladesh is very unique and based on a people-to-people connect, and “not necessarily one of the government of the day”. He added, “No country wishes Bangladesh well more than us, that’s almost in our DNA. As a well-wisher, as a friend, I think we hope they go the right way and do the right things.”

Ahead of the meeting in Bangkok, Yunus created a stir in New Delhi with an effort to leverage the geographical isolation of India’s seven northeastern states while seeking Chinese investments for Bangladesh. Addressing a business meeting during a recent visit to China, Yunus said India’s northeastern states, which share a nearly 1,600-km border with Bangladesh, are landlocked and have no way to reach the ocean except through Bangladesh.

“This opens up a huge possibility, this could be an extension of the Chinese economy,” Yunus said.

As Modi departed for the summit in Bangkok on April 3, he made it clear that India’s northeastern region, with its geographical location, “lies at the heart of Bimstec”. Jaishankar also told a meeting of Bimstec foreign ministers that India’s northeast can become a regional connectivity hub with the completion of a highway that will link the region to Myanmar and Thailand and on to Pacific Ocean.

These remarks were widely seen as a riposte to Yunus’ comments.

The Indian side was also irked by the Bangladesh interim government’s account of aspects of the meeting between Yunus and Modi in Bangkok, especially attacks on minorities and the extradition request for Hasina. People familiar with the matter described a Bangladeshi readout and remarks by Yunus’ spokesperson Shafiqul Alam as “mischievous and politically motivated”.