Dhaka, Sept 29: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina felt “indebted” to India for supporting her during her imprisonment under the previous military-backed interim regime, and had authorised her adviser to open an exclusive channel of negotiation with New Delhi, unknown even to the Foreign Ministry here.
The premier's foreign affairs adviser Gawher Rizvi told US Ambassador James Moriarty over the course of a meeting on October 24, 2009, how Hasina felt “indebted” to New Delhi, particularly to the Congress party, for supporting her during the difficult time, according to a US diplomatic document revealed by WikiLeaks.
The leaked US embassy cable said the adviser also told the envoy “in the strictest confidence” of how he had spent the previous week in India, having been empowered by the prime minister to open a separate negotiating channel with New Delhi making use of the wide range of contacts he maintained in the Indian capital.
Rizvi, a former Ford Foundation Representative in Delhi, also told Moriarty that he would again be leaving for India the very next day and that his activities took place through a “Prime Ministerial Channel”.
He also said the channel unknown to anyone in Bangladesh outside the prime minister's office, and even the Foreign Ministry and the Indian High Commission in Dhaka were unaware of his activities.
While in India, the adviser had apparently met a dozen ministers and senior officials, including the then National Security Adviser M K Narayanan.
He also held meetings with the then Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, and remained “convinced” that the Indian government was committed to resolving a number of long-standing issues. PTI
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