After the Maldives, an “India Out” campaign is steadily picking up momentum in Bangladesh where New Delhi’s stakes are many times bigger and higher than in the tiny Indian Ocean state. The hard-hitting campaign in Maldives cost our close and dependable ally Ibrahim Mohammed Solih the presidency and installed the China-leaning Mohamed Muizzu, who is cold-bloodedly taking the island nation into Beijing’s orbit and proving to be more than a handful for our overworked diplomatic and security establishments.

Considering the regime change in the archipelago, it would be unwise on the part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to be casual about what’s going on in Bangladesh.

The “India Out” campaign exhorts Bangladeshis to meticulously boycott all Indian products imported and sold in the country in order to teach New Delhi a “lesson”. The movement kicked off barely 10 days after Awami League’s Sheikh Hasina was sworn in as Prime Minister for a fourth straight term in a blatantly one-sided election, with its sponsors accusing India of keeping her in power to serve its own political, strategic and economic interests at the cost of Bangladeshis, imperilling democracy and Bangladesh’s sovereignty.

The campaign is mainly being driven on social media, and hashtags #IndiaOut, #BoycottIndia and #BoycottIndianProducts are trending on Facebook, mirroring deep-rooted resentment against us in our backyard, which is undoubtedly an ominous development given the priority we accord our immediate neighbourhood.

Start of the ‘India Out’ Movement

The movement is the brainchild of a Bangladeshi doctor, Pinaki Bhattacharya, an unrelenting Hasina critic living in exile in Paris since 2018, who has over two million followers on social media platforms. The activist openly says that Hasina has been conducting farcical elections since 2014 with “India’s covert and overt backing”, and until India’s economic interests are badly hurt it will keep meddling in Bangladesh’s internal affairs and supporting her. His very first video on his YouTube channel advocating boycott of Indian products garnered a million views. Subsequently, the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, human rights groups and civil society organisations threw their considerable weight behind the social media influencer’s drive.

Our media is somehow shy of reporting the impact of the “India Out” movement, but soon after it was launched Voice of America quoted employees of shops in Dhaka and Chittagong saying that they had a seen a drop in the sale of Indian products like cooking oil, processed foods, toiletry, cosmetics and clothing. Similarly, Al Jazeera reported how suppliers for the Indian consumer goods giant, Marico, were facing a chilly reception in Dhaka, with grocery shops, usually eager to stock their shelves with its hair oil, cooking oil, body lotion and other products, refusing to take new deliveries – and a shopkeeper complaining that “Indian products just aren’t moving; we’re stuck with unsold stock and won’t be restocking.”

Even more worrying is Nikkei Asia’s coverage of the campaign hitting Ramadan sales in the predominantly Muslim country prior to Eid which was celebrated just last week. Ramadan is usually a time of increased consumer spending leading up to Eid but Nikkei Asia reported a slump in sales of Indian products ranging from biryani masala to saris and salwar kameez because of a “serious boycott” with customers specifically inquiring whether the products are Indian before purchasing – something which had never happened before – and shops cutting the prices of Indian imports to boost dwindling sales.

Sheikh Hasina’s Dominance

Hasina, whose monopoly of power and close ties with India triggered the campaign, suddenly broke her silence after a BNP leader flung his Kashmiri shawl into a bonfire of Indian products in Dhaka. She declared that if BNP leaders are serious, they should also burn their wives’ saris bought in India! Making light of the movement, she challenged BNP leaders to cook food without Indian onions, garlic, ginger and spices.

But this is no laughing matter. If the campaign intensifies and there is indeed a sharp drop in the import of food, fuel, fertilisers and raw materials for industry from India, China stands to gain as Bangladesh will invariably turn to it as a substitute for Indian exports. And we all know of Chinese expertise in converting the gains from trade into military muscle.

We can defuse the “India Out” movement by engaging with the whole spectrum of political parties and civil society in the neighbouring country instead of cultivating only Hasina who anyway wears her allegiance to India on the pallu of her exquisite saris. Keeping all our eggs in one basket is hardly in our national interest. Let’s be flexible, pragmatic and not wear blinkers blindsiding us.