What lies beyond Modi’s phone call, letter diplomacy with Tarique

In less than two months, two "personal" letters from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Tarique Rahman, who took oath as PM, may well have done the spadework for New Delhi's policy direction in dealing with the new government in Dhaka.

The first letter was handed over by Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to Tarique on the day of the funeral of Khaleda Zia, Tarique's mother, on 31 December 2025. At that time, Tarique was not even anointed as BNP Chairman.

The second was carried by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to Tarique shortly after the latter was sworn in as Prime Minister on 17 February.

You may call it letter diplomacy by Modi, if you like. The two letters give a glimpse into Modi's personalised way of outreach to a strategic South Asian neighbour on India's eastern front.

India has in the past let it be known that Bangladesh has an important role to play in helping to maintain peace in the north eastern states by extending cooperation to rein in insurgents. This is an area of foremost importance to the Modi government, given the unprecedented focus it has given on the development priorities and peace in the strategically significant north eastern states.

Security cooperation has been a key pillar of India's relations with Bangladesh under Sheikh Hasina, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi appears intent on safeguarding India's interests by extending friendly gestures to the new BNP-led government, despite its rivalry with Hasina.

While Modi's first letter condoled the death of Khaleda and paid tribute to her leadership legacy, the second stood out for three reasons.

First, it is an invitation to Tarique to visit India with a personal touch as Modi named in his letter the former's wife Zubaida and daughter Zaima and tagged with the promise of a "warm welcome" in India." It remains to be seen if and how soon such a visit takes place.

Secondly, Modi set out New Delhi's template for a substantive relation with Bangladesh under Tarique's leadership. Thirdly, the Indian leader heaped praise on Tarique's leadership reflecting the trust the people of Bangladesh
expressed through the landslide electoral mandate.

Since Tarique has just begun the journey as PM, the jury is still out as to how his leadership turns out to be. So, it is more worthwhile to focus on the first two.

Modi's letter seeks to set out an expansive canvas for New Delhi and Dhaka to reset the ties to "advance" what he calls "our common goals" in wide-ranging areas of connectivity, trade, technology, education, skill development, energy, health and cultural and people-to-people exchanges.

He also said India and Bangladesh "can truly become catalysts for each other's sustainable growth." This would require a substantial degree of the two countries plugging into each other's economic growth path.

Most importantly from India's point of view is Modi's remark that the two countries can work for each other's security and enable mutual prosperity. It remains to be seen how the new BNP government in Bangladesh responds to it.

There is little dispute that the logic of shared history and culture and economic cooperation can provide a robust basis for meaningful ties but the challenge lies in insulating it from areas of divergence. For this to happen, both the countries may need to gather enough political will to revisit their stated position on certain issues.

It has been noted in New Delhi that Tarique Rahman's election campaign has avoided anti-India rhetoric as was so often evident in BNP's past. What Dhaka should note is that a Modi-led India has reached out to a change of guard other than Awami League in an unprecedented way including Modi's phone call to Tarique Rahaman even before he became the Prime Minister.

But will this be enough to dispel or dilute the perception in a section of Bangladesh that India is not willing to do business with any party other than Awami League? Substantive action is needed to follow initial outreach.