The situation of India’s two major neighbours seems to be the same. Pakistan is already expecting help from the World Bank that somehow the IMF or the World Bank will give it some loan. Now Bangladesh, which has seen a change of power in recent times, also seems to be standing in the same line. The economic condition of Bangladesh has deteriorated due to the coup after violent protests. According to many news agencies in the past years, Bangladesh was the fastest growing economy of South Asia and now the situation is such that the interim government of Bangladesh has requested the World Bank for a help of 1 billion dollars. Bangladesh government advisor Faujul Kabir Khan has requested for a help of 1 billion dollars in a meeting with Abdulai Sek, the World Bank’s director for Bangladesh and Bhutan, on Wednesday.
According to news agency Xinhua, in a meeting with SEC, Fauzul said that more than $2 billion is outstanding for electricity and energy imports made during the tenure of the previous government. The interim government is under pressure to repay that debt first. Fauzul said that we have suspended the policies made under the wrong activities of the previous government. But the debt does not belong to any government, it belongs to the country. We need about $1 billion to run the energy sector smoothly. However, no statement has come from the World Bank on this yet.
Earlier, after the student protests that lasted for about two months turned violent, Bangladesh’s former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had to leave her country and power and flee to India and take refuge. After Hasina left Bangladesh, an interim government was formed in Bangladesh under the supervision of the army. Hasina’s staunch opponent, Nobel Prize winner Mohammad Yunus, was made the head of this government. After the change of power in Bangladesh, attacks on Hindus increased there. The Indian government also expressed its concern over this. Thousands of Hindus came and stood at the Indian border. The BSF pacified them and sent them back to Bangladesh.
After Hasina was ousted from Bangladesh, her main political rival Khaleda Zia was released from jail and new cases kept being filed against Hasina. According to a recent report, a total of 31 cases have been filed against Hasina so far. Khaleda Zia’s party BNP has appealed to the Indian government to extradite Sheikh Hasina to Bangladesh as a good neighbor, so that trials can be conducted against her in Bangladesh and she can be punished.