The heads and tails of the Modi govt’s attitude to Bangladesh

These words above are those of India’s foreign ministry, published in its Brief on India–Bangladesh Bilateral Relations of 2024.

Currently, there are three railway trains operating between the two countries — (i) the Maitri Express (since 2008, connecting Kolkata and Dhaka); (ii) the Bandhan Express (since 2017, connecting Kolkata and Khulna); and (iii) the Mitali Express (since June 2022, between New Jalpaiguri and Dhaka).

Additionally, five bus routes are operational between India and Bangladesh, connecting Kolkata, Agartala and Guwahati to Dhaka and further up to Khulna.

I took the train to Khulna just a few weeks before the Covid pandemic broke out and it will surprise Indians to know how many from across the border use it. This train link was resumed in 2017 after having been closed during the 1965 war.

Bangladesh is India’s biggest trading partner in South Asia and India is Bangladesh’s second-biggest trade partner in Asia. Bangladesh exported USD 2 billion of goods to India in FY 2023–24. The year’s total bilateral trade has been reported as being worth USD 14 billion — meaning that it is heavily skewed in favour of India.

The foreign ministry’s note says that India issues medical attendant visas to three Bangladeshis to accompany one medical patient into India — a highly liberalised process uniquely extended to Bangladesh.

Our visa operations in Bangladesh constitute the largest visa operations India conducts worldwide, in terms of application centres present across the host country, the volume of applications received per day as well as number of visas processed and issued.

However, this has taken a hit after Sheikh Hasina’s government was overthrown and India reduced its diplomatic presence in Bangladesh.

The damage from our reduced presence has accrued to India because the liberal visa process has been highly favourable to Indian business, especially medical tourism. Indeed, half of all medical tourists arriving in India, some 325,000 out of a total of 635,000 annually, are Bangladeshis.

On the other hand, what Pakistanis must go through to visit India can be illustrated using a visit made by friends of mine travelling from Lahore to Bangalore in October 2024.

One of them walked across through the Attari–Wagah border and flew to Bangalore from Amritsar on a Thursday night. The next day, he was at the police station to register his entry into Bangalore. Pakistanis are given city-specific visas that require them to register at each city’s police stations on entry and exit.

The day after that, Saturday, he was again at the police station to record his exit, because the station would be closed on Sunday. He left on Sunday for Delhi and on Monday had to report to the police station there. And so on.

I can empathise with my friend because on some of my visits to Pakistan, I have also been given identical ‘reporting’ visas. They are meant to discourage people from coming — and this is the lot of those who actually secure a visa; most people are denied.

This harshness is reciprocal and both sides mirror what the other does.

Some 25 lakh Bangladeshi tourists come to India annually, compared to about 40,000 Pakistanis. In the first half of 2024, according to the ministry of tourism’s data, Bangladeshis were No. 1 for tourist arrivals into India, well above the US, UK and Canada — which is remarkable given the number of Indian-origin people in the latter three countries.

The number of Bangladeshi tourists was about 5 lakh a year till 2010, and in each of the three years before that, it was around that number. Then it doubled to around 10 lakh in 2014 and it has since doubled again in the Modi decade.

The number of Bangladeshis coming over is remarkable also for the fact that in the same period, the rhetoric in India from the political party in office has been one of contempt towards Bangladeshis. Even in the election campaign that just ended, the message to voters from the BJP leadership was peppered with the threat of ‘outsiders’.

Given this constant scaremongering, most Indians will likely think that the visa regime with Bangladesh is the same as we have with Pakistan.

It is not — and a look at the actual numbers shows that the BJP has continued with the wise actions of previous governments in building relations with Bangladesh, through allowing more free movement of their people.

This is, to repeat, beneficial to India — as the numbers show.

Of course, movement between the two countries is not as free as it is with another neighbour, about whom our foreign ministry’s note reads: 'India and Nepal share close and friendly relations characterised by age-old historical and cultural linkages, open border and deep-rooted people-to-people contacts.’

The language there is similar to that describing our relations with Bangladesh, but there is one difference. That is, of course, the fact that we have an open border with Nepal — no visa, not even a passport is required for nationals on either side to visit or find employment in the other country.

Views are personal. More of Aakar Patel’s column may be read here.