'Likely govt change in India unlikely to hit ties with B'desh'

Indian envoy said as long as the fundamental principles of relations stayed, India's Bangladesh policy would continue to remain unchanged as it would be led by same interests

Any possible change in government in India is unlikely to affect its policy towards Bangladesh as it was based on common interests, Indian envoy here said today.

"Every country has interests and those interests really don't change with the government," Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka Pankaj Saran told a discourse on Bangladesh-India relations at the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS), a Dhaka-based think-tank.

He said the relationships between the two neighbours depend on "a great deal on mutual interests".

The envoy said as long as the fundamental principles of relations stayed, India's Bangladesh policy would continue to remain unchanged as it would be led by same interests.

Supplementing his own comments, Saran said even if the elections brought a new government in India, it was unlikely that the direct railway service of Maitree Express would stop operating or electricity supply lines would be snapped.

"These are initiatives that have been put on the ground and they are the new reality," Saran said.

Replying to another question on ups and downs on Dhaka-Delhi ties in past decades and particularly during the 2001-2006 period when the relation was said to be at its lowest ebb, Saran said India always dealt with the government of the day.

"We try and build relationship with the government of the day," he said.

There was a perception here that India strongly backed Sheikh Hasina's Awami League government when it held elections on January 5 despite a boycott by the opposition led by former premier Khaleda Zia.

Saran, however, said India does what it thinks is "good for relations and what may help people of Bangladesh".

"If those do not meet expectation of people of Bangladesh, we will certainly go back to the drawing board and ask ourselves are we doing something which is wrong," he said.

"Relations (however) depend on political willingness of both sides," the envoy said but insisted that it would be unfair to judge ties on the basis of the tenure of the government.