Sunanda K. Datta-Ray | Amid Bid for Dhaka Reset, Glitches Along the Padma

As Bangladesh prepares for reconciliation and reconstruction with India, the main fly in the ointment appears to be a rabble-rousing preacher bent on whipping up Islamic fury.

Kasiviswanathan Shanmugam, who has been Singapore’s minister for national security, home and law, says the culprit, Amir Hamzah, slipped into Singapore on a passport issued in a slightly different name but was not caught as his biometric details were missing.

Hamzah was already on bail for jihadi rants: running down secular values, promoting religious intolerance and disparaging non-Muslims. “He was also reportedly involved with a pro-Al-Qaeda Bangladeshi organisation called Ansar al-Islam”, which had planned to attack the Bangladesh Parliament.

Abdus Sattar, managing director of a Singapore dormitory operator, was fined S$7,000 (US$5,400) on October 28 for an event he organised, where Hamzah attacked those who did not share his political and religious ideals to about 600 foreign workers.

Sheldon Lim, Singapore’s deputy public prosecutor, says Sattar also arranged for another Bangladeshi national, Ullah Mohammed Neamat, to sing Islamic songs at the event, which was open to all Singapore residents. “During the sermon, Amir Hamzah expressed ill-will against those who did not share his political and religious ideals,” says Mr Lim. “This posed a risk of extremism and radicalisation among his audience.”

A few days after the event, the police got an anonymous tip saying an Islamic extremist preacher previously imprisoned in Bangladesh was allowed into Singapore and preached "potentially extremist views" to a large group of migrant workers.

By then, Hamzah and Ullah had left the country.

The prosecutor sought a fine of S$5,000 for Sattar for the Public Order Act offence and a fine of S$3,000 to S$4,000 for providing unlicensed public entertainment.

Amir Hamzah himself is now on bail in Bangladesh, awaiting trial. But this is not the only reason for unease in India-Bangladesh relations. Reports from Dhaka claim Bangladesh President Mohammed Shahabuddin complained of the former interim leader, Muhammad Yunus, blocking trips to Kosovo and Qatar, and keeping him in “palace imprisonment”. Radicals in the Jamaat-e-Islami are baying for Mr Shahabuddin’s blood. An ethnic Bangladeshi in the UK says Mr Yunus himself was not allowed to fly to the US and was instead placed under close watch in Dhaka Cantonment. Another British Bangladeshi claims that posters in Dhaka demanded that Bangladesh should be declared the “Republic of East Pakistan”.

Not that many seriously question 60-year-old Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s landslide victory in the February 12 election, after which Bangladesh’s Parliament was convened for the first time since the deadly 2024 uprising plunged the country into turmoil. “After more than a decade and a half of fascist and subservient rule, the activities of Parliament are beginning today with representatives elected by the people,” Mr Rahman told the legislature.

His ministers are drawn overwhelmingly from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party founded by his parents, the assassinated President Zia-ur Rahman, and his wife, Prime Minister Khaleda Zia. Among junior ministers are Haque and Zonayed Saki, first-time parliamentarians, who were prominent during the 2024 protests.

The veteran 78-year-old Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, who has served as the BNP’s secretary-general since 2016, was a member of Parliament from 2001 to 2006 under Khaleda Zia, when he was also minister for agriculture, civil aviation and tourism. When the BNP victory was announced, Alamgir hailed the triumph of “a party of the people”.

Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury is another veteran, who served earlier as commerce minister. Before the vote, Mr Chowdhury had promised that if elected, the BNP would govern by investing in people “in health, in education and upskilling” and by supporting “artisans, the weavers” and small industries.

At 75, Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku, who has been elected to Parliament from Sirajganj-2 constituency in North Bengal, is also a veteran parliamentarian who has held important party roles. In 2007, the military-backed interim government’s special anti-corruption court sentenced Tuku to nine years’ jail for concealing information about assets worth 49.6 million takas (roughly $400,000). The high court upheld the conviction but the Supreme Court acquitted Tuku a year after the Awami League government’s overthrow.

Another minister, Khalilur Rahman, is a technocrat not in Parliament, appointed for his expertise. He served as national security adviser in Muhammad Yunus’ interim administration, and was also the government’s representative for the Rohingya issue.

Rita Afroza, the only woman minister, is a first-time member of Parliament but comes from a political family and is also an industrialist. Dipen Dewan is a Chakma Buddhist from the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Another Chakma, Dipen Dewan, 62, who won from the Chittagong Hill Tracts, is the most prominent Buddhist. Nitai Roy Chowdhury is one of the BNP’s few Hindu leaders.

This mixed bag of politicians must establish cordial ties with India and also live up to their own lofty promises. Having pledged to meet popular demands for an elected government with real legitimacy, the BNP can expect a significant amount of scrutiny, especially from leaders of the 2024 student uprisings.

The number of high-ranking foreign leaders present at the swearing-in. including India’s Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Pakistan’s federal minister for planning Ahsan Iqbal, Maldives’ President Mohamed Muizzu and Bhutan’s Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay, made for additional exposure.

At a recent rally, the BNP Prime Minister impressed the crowd with his declaration, “Not Dilli, not Pindi -- Bangladesh before everything.”

That is a laudable goal, but will the inexperienced Prime Minister be allowed to pursue it?

After Sheikh Hasina's fall, Dhaka appeared anxious to make up for lost time in mending fences with Islamabad. A first visit by a Pakistani foreign minister to Bangladesh in 13 years, direct Dhaka-Karachi flights resuming after 14 years, senior military visits, security cooperation, and last year’s 27 per cent rise in trade sound like portents for the future.

The question now is: Can India reset ties with a BNP-led Bangladesh? Having congratulated Tarique Rahman in Bengali on a “decisive victory”, and pledging India's support for a “democratic, progressive and inclusive” neighbour, adding that he looked forward to working closely to strengthen “our multi-faceted relationship”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will reply with an emphatic “Yes!”

But not everyone can so easily be all things to all men. A Hindu Bharatiya that plays footsie with dyed-in-the-wool Zionists in Jerusalem obviously has no inhibitions about the company he keeps. But will South Asia’s Amir Hamzahs allow a Bangladesh in search of a majoritarian identity to ignore the symbolism of saffron and trident?

The Indus may have been reduced to irrelevance but Hindu and Muslim can still confront each other on the banks of the Padma, the new strategic border in the east.