Dhaka: The understanding BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia reached with New Delhi will not affect her party’s vote bank at home, feels political thinker Professor Imtiaz Ahmed.

Because, he argues, ‘anti-Indianism’ is not a yardstick for molding the public opinion and election results.

“Khaleda Zia rather showed responsibility and maturity in the pursuit of foreign relations of her party and eventually the country’s foreign policy, should BNP return to power,” Imtiaz Ahmed, a Professor of International Relations at Dhaka University, told Prime News in an exclusive interview.

He also expressed his conviction that the voting results in Bangladesh are determined more by issues such as price-hike of essentials, corruption, excesses by the police and arrogance of power by ruling party men.

However, “Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s renewal of friendship with India through her [Khaleda Zia’s] tour of New Delhi cannot be seen as any shift in politics rather than a positive and healthy development,” he said.

The analyst explained that Khaleda Zia would be able to pull in her favour the ‘non-committed’ voters who are more willing to see development and policy consistency that would ensure their own and national interest while pursuing policy towards neighbouring India.

“Even those who are anti-Indian in BNP will not leave the party. The BNP’s stand as anti-Awami League force still remains and the party will definitely cash in on such opportunity,” Imtiaz said ruling out any possibility of loss of vote bank BNP secures against the AL.

When asked what Khaleda attained clearly from the tour, he pointed out that she managed to overcome her party’s ‘image crisis’ and India’s suspicions about sympathy for north-eastern insurgents.

“In fact, Dhaka has one thing to learn from India – Delhi had severed any kind of relations with insurgent LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) in Sri Lanka despite initial support to the group which later killed former Indian premier Rajiv Gandhi,” Imtiaz cited an example.

He added that any kind of support to insurgent ULFA (United Liberation Front of Asom) from any portion of state machinery, if any, should be considered as ‘wrong-headed policy’ as ‘ULFA is an anti-Bangalee group.’

“Khaleda made her party’s position clear during the visit and also through an article she wrote on India policy... Now it remains to be seen how such declared policy is translated into reality… So far, she and her foreign policy team played well,” said the foreign policy analyst.

Imtiaz recalled that the founder of BNP, late president Ziaur Rahman, who was a key architect of SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation), had not pursued anti-Indian policy.

When asked about the ruling Awami League’s reaction to Khaleda Zia’s New Delhi visit, he mentioned that the AL’s criticism was not uniform. “Leaders like Tofail Ahmed came up with very mature and sophisticated statements unlike hostile reactions from Dipu Moni (foreign minister) or Hasan Mahmud (state minister for environment),” he said.

He expressed his views that the tour marked a bipartisan consensus in Bangladesh’s foreign policy.

When asked how Delhi read the situation, the analyst said Indian authorities had shown the realisation that they needed to maintain relations not merely with a particular party but with all parties, including contender for power and effectively the people of the country.

Replying to a question on what implications Khaleda Zia’s closer relations with the establishment in Delhi would have on the contentious issue of caretaker government for holding the next general elections, Imtiaz said the message to the ruling party from Delhi is clear: “Make a compromise.”

The analyst is still in doubt if the top leadership of the ruling party would take the most rational path for holding polls as “there is no democracy within the party and only one or maximum two leaders decide everything.”

End/KM/ AMA/04/11/12