Election is Bangladesh's internal issue

India once again said the upcoming election was an internal issue of Bangladesh and Bangladesh's people were capable of determining their democratic future.

India considers Bangladesh a priority among its neighbours as part of its “neighbourhood first” policy and thus it wanted to see a “stable and peaceful" Bangladesh.

India wants to see the required climate and situation, with the political will in place to carry forward the momentum the two countries saw in the last few years, an Indian diplomat said.

He said bilateral relations between the two countries had already reached "beyond strategic partnership" and their ties had deepened on numerous fronts, including economic, political, trade, investment and cooperation.

Talking to The Daily Star yesterday, a top Indian diplomat in New Delhi said as a democracy, India maintained relations and met and interacted with leaders of all the political parties in Bangladesh, except Jamaat-e-Islami.

The diplomat said that the High Commissioner of India to Bangladesh Harsh Vardhan Shringla met all the top leaders of Awami League, BNP, Jatiya Party, Workers party, JSD, Communist Party and others but not Jamaat.

The influential Indian diplomat categorically said there would be no compromise with such a communal and anti-liberation force for the sake of securities on both ends of the border.

India wants to see Jamaat change its party constitution to become a democratic party and apologise for its role in the War of Liberation in 1971, he added.

The Indian diplomat laid emphasis on strengthening people-to-people contact between the two countries and mentioned that 92 deals had been signed mainly in the areas of technology, cyber security and nuclear energy between the two countries in the last three years.