India and Bangladesh: Fractured bonds along the border Premium

As attacks on minorities continue in Bangladesh, the movement of people and goods into West Bengal has been impacted. Strained bilateral ties and protests by religious organisations, monks, and Hindutva groups are affecting the tourism and medical tourism industries and cultural sector in the State

A peek into Bangladesh through the integrated check post in West Bengal at the Petrapole-Benapole border shows that a mural of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, which was visible from the Indian side before August 5, has been whitewashed. The flag of Bangladesh unfurls where the mural of Rahman, the founding leader of Bangladesh who has now fallen out of favour, used to be.

Change is visible not only in Bangladesh, but also in India. It is early December. Trucks pass by as usual and people can be heard bargaining with transporters, but the buzz is drowned by slogans of ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ and ‘Jai Shri Ram’.

Anjuna Begum, a Bangladeshi national, is trying to cross the border. Many of her relatives married Indians and stay in West Bengal, so she often visits India. “I heard rumours that the border may be sealed. But our lives cut across the border,” Begum says, as she checks her belongings.

As hundreds of people cross over, thousands of saffron-clad men gather at the spot in Petrapole to protest against the attack on Hindus in Bangladesh and demand the release of Chinmoy Krishna Das, a monk from ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), who was arrested in Bangladesh in November.

By afternoon, the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, arrives and releases saffron balloons in the air. In his speech, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader threatens to stop all trade between India and Bangladesh through Petrapole if the ISKCON monk is not released.

Just five weeks earlier, Adhikari had visited Petrapole with Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who inaugurated a new passenger terminal and Maitri Dwar (friendship gate). Shah had said that trade between India and Bangladesh had increased by 64% between 2016-17 and 2023-24. He had also pointed out that 70% of India’s total trade (₹30,000 crore) with Bangladesh through land is via Petrapole and stressed that the new infrastructure will increase the passenger capacity to 25,000 daily.

When Adhikari threatened an economic blockade of Bangladesh at Petrapole, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee urged the Union government to take up the matter of attacks on minorities in Bangladesh with the United Nations, so that peacekeeping missions may be deployed. Ever since the West Bengal unit of the BJP and Hindutva groups began protesting against the treatment of Hindus in Bangladesh, Banerjee has been claiming that this is a bilateral issue that should be dealt with by the Union government.