Bangladesh's interim government has called for a "reset" of relations with India, describing the bilateral relationship under former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as "uncomfortable" and signaling a desire to chart a new course with its powerful neighbor. The overture comes months after Hasina fled to India following a mass uprising that ended her fifteen-year rule, a move that has since become the central irritant in ties between Dhaka and New Delhi.

The characterization marks a notable departure from decades of official rhetoric that had cast India and Bangladesh as close, even indispensable, partners. Under Hasina, whose Awami League government leaned heavily on New Delhi for political and economic backing, the two capitals presented a united front on security cooperation, trade and regional connectivity. The interim administration now in charge of Dhaka, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, is recalibrating that narrative, suggesting the closeness of the Hasina years came at the cost of Bangladesh's own interests and public sentiment.

A Fugitive at the Center of the Dispute

At the heart of the current friction is India's decision to grant refuge to Hasina after she was toppled in August 2024 amid mass protests over corruption, authoritarian rule and economic mismanagement. She has remained in India since, out of reach of Bangladeshi courts that have sought her return to face charges related to the crackdown on demonstrators, in which hundreds were killed.

New Delhi's continued shelter of Hasina has become a sore point for the interim government, which has publicly pressed India to hand her over. India has not formally responded to extradition requests, and its silence has fed a perception in Dhaka that New Delhi is prioritizing its old political alliance with the Awami League over its relationship with Bangladesh's new leadership.

For India, the calculus is complicated. Hasina was for years New Delhi's most reliable partner in Dhaka, a leader who cracked down on anti-India insurgent groups operating from Bangladeshi soil and who aligned closely with Indian strategic interests in a region where China has been steadily expanding its footprint. Abandoning her entirely, analysts say, would carry its own diplomatic costs and could be read across the region as a signal that India will not stand by its allies when they fall from power.

A Relationship Built, and Strained, by History

India and Bangladesh share a complicated history that stretches back to the 1971 war of independence, when Indian military support helped Bangladesh break away from Pakistan. That history has long underpinned a sense of special kinship between the two nations, one that Hasina, whose father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman led the independence movement, frequently invoked to justify her government's tilt toward New Delhi.

But that same closeness became a liability as resentment built among Bangladeshis who viewed Hasina's government as increasingly authoritarian and unaccountable. Critics accused India of turning a blind eye to democratic backsliding in Dhaka in exchange for a compliant partner, a dynamic that has left the interim government eager to distance itself from what it now frames as an unhealthy dependency.

The broader pattern echoes tensions that have periodically flared elsewhere in South Asia, where India's relationships with neighboring governments have often been shaped as much by personal alliances with individual leaders as by durable institutional ties. When those leaders fall, as Hasina did, the relationships built around them can unravel quickly, leaving both sides to renegotiate terms from a position of mutual suspicion.

What a Reset Might Look Like

Dhaka's interim government has not detailed precisely what a "reset" would entail, but officials have suggested it would involve a more balanced relationship, one less dependent on personal rapport between leaders and more grounded in mutual economic and security interests. That could include renewed talks on water-sharing agreements over shared rivers, trade arrangements, and border security, all long-standing sources of friction that persisted even during the supposedly close Hasina years.

The path forward, however, is likely to remain constrained by the unresolved question of Hasina's status. Until India clarifies its position, either by extraditing her, allowing her prosecution in absentia to proceed unimpeded, or formally granting her asylum, the relationship is likely to remain shadowed by mistrust. Dhaka's interim leaders, who face their own pressure from a public still angry over the deadly crackdown last year, have limited room to simply move past the issue.

Analysts note that India, for its part, will be watching closely how the interim government's transition unfolds, including whether it leads to credible elections and a stable successor government. New Delhi's foreign policy establishment has historically preferred predictability in Dhaka, and the uncertainty of the current transition, combined with the unresolved Hasina question, leaves both governments navigating a relationship that neither side seems fully willing to abandon nor able to easily repair.