Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Dinesh Trivedi on Tuesday said India would not comment on Bangladesh’s internal politics when asked whether prime minister Tarique Rahman would visit India amid tensions between the two countries over former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

‘We do not want to say anything about internal politics. Nor should we. What the people of the country think is best and what the elected government of the country thinks is best, that is what matters,’ Trivedi said.

He made the remarks while responding to questions from journalists after meeting local government minister Abdul Moyeen Khan and state minister Mir Shahe Alam at the Secretariat.

Former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who has been sentenced to death for crimes against humanity, fled to India after she was ousted by a student-led mass uprising in August 2024.

The Bangladesh government had expressed strong outrage over Hasina’s live media interaction in New Delhi on August 5, describing the event as an affront to Bangladesh’s sovereignty and detrimental to the development of harmonious bilateral relations with India.

At a press briefing in Dhaka in August, foreign ministry spokesperson AKM Shahidul Karim said the two countries had remained in contact for several weeks over the possibility of Tarique’s visit to India.

He, however, said the process had been vitiated by an open press interaction held in New Delhi on August 5 by ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who has been convicted by the International Crimes Tribunal in a crimes against humanity case.

Trivedi said the two neighbouring countries should focus on people-to-people relations and work for the benefit of ordinary people.

‘We want people-to-people relations. We have a responsibility to do whatever is good for ordinary people,’ he said.

‘When we talk about a dream, our responsibility to realise it also increases. We are neighbouring countries, so our responsibility is greater. We always say that we are equal. Nobody is big, nobody is small,’ he said.

Trivedi said Bangladesh and India needed to consider each other’s challenges and move forward accordingly.

‘We have to think about Bangladesh’s democratic challenges, just as Bangladesh has to think about India’s challenges. We have to move forward keeping these in mind. We cannot forget the past, but we have no room to remain stuck in it. Because if we remain stuck, development work will not move forward,’ he said.

The Indian high commissioner also said discussions were held on how the two countries could establish free trade between them.