Smruti Pattanaik’s Article on Begum Khaleda Zia's visit to India Published in The Daily Star

Research Fellow, IDSA, Dr Smruti S. Pattanaik’s article titled ‘Begum Zia's visit to India: New dawn in BNP's relations with India?’ was published in ‘The Daily Star’ on October 30, 2012. The article discusses the implications of the visit of Begum Khaleda Zia, leader of opposition and the Chairperson of the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) to India.

Excerpt

Visit of Begum Khaleda Zia, leader of opposition and the Chairperson of the Bangladesh National Party (BNP), is one of the first such visits by her. There are anticipations and expectations from this visit given BNP's relations with India in the past. From 2001 to 2006, during the four-party alliance government's rule in Bangladesh, the relationship between India and Bangladesh was uneasy and concrete result of that was official ritualistic relation without any substantial progress to showcase. The only visit that Begum Zia took while in office was in 2006 which was followed by a visit to Pakistan, obviously to keep its core constituency at home happy.

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