BBC: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For India, few friendships have been as strategically valuable – and as politically costly – as its long embrace of Bangladesh’s former leader Sheikh Hasina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During 15 years in power she delivered what Delhi prizes most in its periphery: stability, connectivity and a neighbour willing to align its interests with India’s rather than China’s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These days she is across the border in India but has been sentenced to death<\/a> by a special tribunal in Bangladesh for crimes against humanity over her crackdown on student-led protests, which led to her ousting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 2024 demonstrations forced her to flee and paved the way for Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus to lead an interim government. Elections are due early next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The fallout from all this has created a diplomatic bind: Dhaka wants Hasina extradited, but Delhi has shown no inclination to comply – making her death sentence effectively unenforceable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What Delhi intended as humanitarian asylum is turning into a long and uncomfortable test of how far it is willing to go for an old ally, and how much diplomatic capital it is prepared to burn in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Michael Kugelman, a South Asia expert, says India faces four unappealing options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It could hand Hasina over – “which it really doesn’t want to do”. It could maintain the status quo, though that will become “increasingly risky for Delhi once a newly elected government takes office next year”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or, it could press Hasina to stay silent and avoid statements <\/a>or interviews<\/a>, something she is “unlikely to accept” as she continues to lead her Awami League party – and something Delhi is unlikely to enforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The remaining option is to find a third country to take her in, but that too is fraught: few governments are likely to accept a “high-maintenance guest with serious legal problems and security needs”, Mr Kugelman says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Extraditing Hasina is unthinkable – India’s ruling party and opposition alike view her as a close friend. “India prides itself on not turning on its friends,” according to Mr Kugelman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What makes this moment especially awkward for Delhi is the sheer depth – and asymmetry – of the India\u2013Bangladesh relationship, rooted in India’s pivotal role in Bangladesh’s birth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BBC: For India, few friendships have been as strategically valuable – and as politically costly – as its long embrace of Bangladesh’s former leader Sheikh Hasina. During 15 years in power she delivered what Delhi prizes most in its periphery: stability, connectivity and a neighbour willing to align its interests with India’s rather than China’s. These days she is across the border in India but has been sentenced to death by a special tribunal in Bangladesh for crimes against humanity over her crackdown on student-led protests, which led to her ousting. The 2024 demonstrations forced her to flee and paved the way… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52224,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52221"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52223,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52221\/revisions\/52223"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/52224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}