Sheikh Hasina the right choice as chief guest to the Republic Day but trust the PMO to miss the obvious  

From a record 10 Chief Guests for the Republic Day Parade in 2018 to none in 2021 is as much a reflection on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s out of the box approach to foreign policy as his blind spots while zeroing in on an extraordinary foreign dignitary.

Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh, would have been the perfect Republic Day Chief Guest this year for umpteen reasons but it obviously didn’t occur to Modi to single her out for the honour. I shudder to even speculate whether a visionary and statesman like Modi is blinded by her religion or gender or both to pass her up?

Instead of inviting British PM Boris Johnson, who ultimately chickened out, Hasina should have been Modi’s automatic choice this year as it is the 50th anniversary of the birth of Bangladesh in 1971 and the 50th year of the establishment of diplomatic relations between New Delhi and Dhaka. India’s role in the creation of Bangladesh by crushing the Pakistani army is too well known. I have brought it up only to underline our stakes in Bangladesh. Moreover, Hasina has been India’s steadfast and unwavering ally in South Asia who has even crossed swords with Pakistan on India’s behalf. Her genuine commitment to New Delhi is a proven and acknowledged fact. My friends in the External Affairs Ministry and the security establishment tell me that that one of the biggest priorities of our foreign policy is to ensure that Hasina somehow remains the PM of Bangladesh, which proves how invested we are in her.

Modi seems to have a strange fixation for First World leaders. Last year, he pulled out all stops to grab Donald Trump as the Chief Guest to show his domestic constituency that whether it is Barrack Obama or Trump, no US President can say ‘no’ to Modi. But Trump was too frightened by pollution levels in Delhi or simply too bored with Modi to accept the invitation, which resulted in an eleventh hour invite to the obnoxious and repulsive Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil. In a sense, Modi had the last laugh, though. He lured Trump to Ahmedabad and Delhi in February 2020 with the promise of Gujarati votes in the US elections! This time, Modi eyed the dishevelled Johnson who is, incidentally, also hard of hearing. It was a done deal, until it suddenly fell through so close to January 26 that finding another Chief Guest on the rebound was well and truly impossible, leaving Modi stranded.

Hasina has done so much for India that Modi keeps paying Bangladesh compliment after compliment. He recently described the current phase of bilateral relations as the “golden era” of India-Bangladesh ties. Modi surely doesn’t talk out of his hat. He means what he says. During a 90-minute long Virtual Summit with Hasina on December 17, 2020, he said: “Bangladesh is a major pillar of India’s Neighbourhood First policy. From the very first day as PM, strengthening and development of relations with Bangladesh has been a special priority for me.” Hasina immediately reciprocated by calling India Bangladesh’s “true friend”.

There are far too many instances of such cordial exchanges. But I was most touched by what Hasina said during a World Economic Forum meeting in 2018 in Dalian. “Our relations with India are organic. It cannot be measured by a few billion dollars of trade. India and Bangladesh shed blood together for the creation of my nation.”

In October 2020, India posted a new High Commissioner, Bikram Doraiswami, who drove to Dhaka instead of flying there. While visiting the Awami League headquarters on December 23, 2020, Doraiswami, according to a report in Ittefaq, a leading Bangladeshi newspaper, remarked that “if the Awami League isn’t there, India will be friendless in Bangladesh”. If that’s indeed true, doesn’t Awami League supremo Hasina – who has invited Modi to Dhaka as the Chief Guest on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Bangladesh’s independence in March 2021 – deserve to be the Chief Guest at our Republic Day?

(The author is a prize-winning investigative journalist. Views expressed are personal)