NEW DELHI — Narendra Modi’s government has decided to appoint former central minister and current BJP leader Dinesh Trivedi as India’s high commissioner to Bangladesh, the Indian newspaper Hindustan Times reported Sunday.
Trivedi would be India’s first political appointee to neighboring Bangladesh in a long time, replacing career diplomat Pranay Verma, according to the report. Verma is moving to Brussels as India’s ambassador to the European Union.
The decision to send Trivedi, a 75-year-old veteran politician, to Dhaka also sends a message of accountability to career officers in the foreign ministry, the report said. Agreement for Trivedi’s posting was sought from Tarique Rahman’s government in Dhaka.
Hindustan Times said Trivedi served as central railway minister and minister of state for health and family welfare during the UPA government as a Trinamool Congress member. He resigned from Trinamool on Feb. 12, 2021, and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on March 6 of that year.
Trivedi’s appointment is part of an effort to repair India-Bangladesh relations, which became strained after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted from power and during the administration of Dr. Muhammad Yunus. The report alleged that the interim government’s chief adviser failed to control communal violence against minority communities in Bangladesh.
Through Trivedi’s appointment, the Modi government has signaled it is not hesitant to send political leaders as envoys to important countries and that such coveted posts are not reserved only for Indian Foreign Service officers.
Former army chief Gen. Dalbir Singh Suhag served as India’s high commissioner to the Seychelles from 2019 to 2022. By sending Trivedi to Dhaka, India has indicated that influential figures will be appointed as ambassadors to neighboring countries, signaling the end of an era of low-profile envoys in the subcontinent.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report