The developments in Bangladesh pose the “greatest strategic challenge” to India since the Liberation War of 1971, a Parliamentary panel has said in its report. The report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs, chaired by Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor, has covered the turbulent India-Bangladesh relation of the past two years and said that Bangladesh is witnessing a “shift” and that New Delhi could end up losing the “strategic space” in Dhaka without necessary recalibration.
“India faces its greatest strategic challenge in Bangladesh since the Liberation War of 1971. The challenge in 1971 was existential, a humanitarian crisis, and the birth of a new nation. Today, the threat is subtler but probably graver, more serious; a generational discontinuity, a shift of political order, and a potential strategic realignment away from India,” the report said, quoting an expert who deposed before the committee on June 27, 2025.
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“The collapse of the Awami League dominance, the surge of youth-led nationalism, the re-entry of Islamists, and intensifying Chinese and Pakistani influence collectively marked a turning point,” said the report, adding, “If India fails to recalibrate at this moment, it risks losing strategic space in Dhaka not to war, but to irrelevance.”
