With the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) winning a decisive two-thirds majority and Tarique Rahman sworn in as prime minister, the country has, for the first time in almost 35 years, a male head of government. The electoral outcome marks a rupture with a political order dominated for more than 15 years by Sheikh Hasina and the Awami League.

Expectations are high and the pressures on the new prime minister are immense. Internally, Rahman faces the urgent task of restoring law and order after years of politicised policing, rebuilding public trust in state institutions and stabilising a battered economy.

He must also reform the Constitution, but his party MPs declined to take a second pledge to serve as members of the proposed Constitution Reform Council, leading to protests by the Opposition Jamaat-e-Islami and the National Citizen Party (NCP). The newly elected BNP legislators argued that the Council has not been incorporated into the existing Constitution and that any such body or reforms must first be legally adopted through parliamentary processes.

Externally, however, the most daunting challenges lie in managing relations with India, Bangladesh’s most important and powerful neighbour, where unresolved political and structural issues threaten to define the early years of his premiership.

The most immediate bilateral complication concerns Sheikh Hasina’s presence in India. Following her political downfall and subsequent convictions in Bangladesh, including death sentences, her asylum in India is both a symbolic and practical sticking point.

Demanding Hasina’s extradition will be popular at home but diplomatically futile. India is unlikely to hand her over, not least because of historical constraints. A more realistic scenario, one that both sides may quietly accept, is that Hasina continues to reside in India with restrictions on her political activities. But even if this sensitive issue is managed through tacit understandings rather than formal........

© National Herald