Pakistan and India came into existence on August 14 and 15, 1947 respectively when the British colonizers withdrew from the subcontinent. Since gaining Independence, India has approached the policy of hostility and enmity against Pakistan and always strived hard to isolate and destabilize it through nefarious designs. They played an active role in severing Pakistan into two in 1971 and celebrated Bangladesh’s birth more than the people of Bangladesh, but in 2025, the tables have turned; India’s attempts to isolate Pakistan have backfired, and now it finds itself isolated in her neighborhood due to her belligerent policies.
In 1971, Pakistan was broken and consequently Bangladesh became an independent country. India’s role in breaking Pakistan is an open secret. They allegedly dispatched weapons to rebels in the East Pakistan to fight against the Pakistani soldiers, who were on duty there. Indian soldiers also landed in the East Pakistan to join hands with them and defeat the Pakistani military. It was an uphill task for the Pakistani soldiers to combat two fronts at a time, yet they fought gallantly. India celebrated with zeal and zest what they saw as defeat of the Pakistani military and the creation of Bangladesh.
Since then, India established closed ties with Mujeeb-Ur-Rehman, the founding father of Bangladesh, and gained influence over the policies of Bangladesh. After the death of the creator of the country, his daughter, Sheikh Hasina Wajid also aligned her country closely with New Delhi. During her long stint in power, she maintained a warm relationship with India and dodged Pakistan’s efforts to build bilateral relations with Bangladesh. The circumstances changed when a student-led revolution overthrew the Indian-backed authoritarian regime of Sheikh Hasina on August 05, 2024. The revolution occurred on the same day as India’s illegal abrogation of Article 370 in 2019. This occurrence of major shift in power in Dhaka was not a coincidence but a message to New Delhi.
On August 05, 2019, the Modi regime violated their own constitution by stripping the inhabitants of Kashmir of their special rights, that guaranteed the right to self-determination. During his Independence Day speech on August 15, 2019, Modi remarked that his government finally accomplished India’s dream of “One Nation, One Constitution” with his Kashmir move. But, on every 05 August, whenever India commemorates the illegally annexation of Kashmir, the expulsion of Modi’s bosom friend, Sheikh Hasina’s government, will reverberate in the streets of India on the same day. There is also fear among the Indian decision makers that Bangladesh is getting closer to Pakistan and India’s influence is diminishing that could present a formidable challenge to them in the region. By illegally annexing Jammu and Kashmir, Modi and his ilk think that they got victory but the reality is that they have pushed India in the isolation ward.
India further fueled public anger in Bangladesh by providing political asylum to Hasina, who is implicated into mass killing cases in the country. The government of Bangladesh demands India to hand over her to them so she can be held accountable for the alleged killings of students during protests in her regime. New Delhi is unlikely to accept this demand because they may be thinking to relaunch her in the political sphere of Bangladesh, which will not succeed because her party, the Awami League, has been barred to hold political activities in the country. By giving political sanctuary to Hasina, India has further distanced itself from Bangladesh.
The de facto government of Bangladesh is not willing to establish ties with New Delhi until the latter hands over Sheikh Hasina to the government. On the other hand, Dhaka has already established military-to-military contacts with Pakistan and Foreign Secretary of Pakistan also held meetings with the Chief Advisor of Bangladesh, Muhammad Younus. In their meetings, they have pledged to boost trade and defense cooperation with each other. They also decided to restore bilateral relationships and enhance trade partnerships. This presents a significant opportunity for Islamabad to engage with Dhaka to restore a reliable and trustworthy relationship.
Furthermore, India also allegedly used the soil of Afghanistan to carry out attacks on Pakistan through outlawed outfits. In Ashraf Ghani government, India enjoyed reportedly a carte blanche to launch sleeper cells from the land of Afghanistan to Pakistan. They invested billions of dollars to destabilize Pakistan; however, everything changed on August 15, 2021 when Afghan Taliban seized control of Afghanistan. India had been averse to Afghan Taliban and accused them of receiving implicit support from Pakistan to carry out attacks against the U.S.A. troops in Afghanistan. The capture of Kabul by the Taliban was a blow to the Indian, which further isolated them in the region. Taliban came into power on the India’s Independence Day. Whenever India marks their independence, there will be concerns in New Delhi that on this day there came a regime in the region that is very close to Islamabad.
So, what is the way forward for India? There is only one clear choice that is to establish a cordial relationship with Pakistan and other neighbor countries. The fall of Hasina on 05 August, the same date India had illegally revoked special status of Kashmir, and Taliban capture of Afghanistan on August 15, on the day of India’s independence, is not accidental but it carries an implicit message that New Delhi should comprehend who determined those dates.
India’s relations with another key neighbor, China, has not always been amicable. Both countries’ militaries engaged in a major skirmish in 2020 in the Galwan Valley, a disputed territory at the Line of Actual Control (LAC), resulting in a deadly clash for both nations. The position of India is militarily, strategically, and economically weaker than China. Instead of enhancing close ties with Beijing, India has been looking for ways to attack on Chinese projects inside Pakistan through their proxies.
Numerous Chinese nationals, who were working on CPEC projects, have been assassinated inside Pakistan and links of their killings have been reportedly found in New Delhi, which always infuriates Beijing. Conflicts between Pakistan and India may endanger CPEC because India considers Gilgit Baltistan, which is the gateway of CPEC, as their part and BJP leaders rhetorically stated that they will get GB by force. Attacking on GB by India could jeopardize Chinese billions-worth interests and this will not be acceptable to Beijing at any cost. If India commits such blunder, then China can also open a new challenge for them at their border. In the recent skirmish between Pakistan and India, China has categorically vowed that they will stand by Islamabad to defend their “sovereignty” and “territorial integrity”.
India cannot survive opening conflicts with her neighbors. Prime Minister Modi’s ambition for capturing whole of Kashmir through military force will bounce back and could jeopardize the survival of India when the country is already disconnected from enjoying cordial ties with Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, and Afghanistan. Saner voices within the BJP regime need to advise Modi to abandon hostility and adopt amicable approaches with the neighboring countries that are in the interests of all nations of the region. Unfortunately, Modi listens to none and pushes India on the brink of chaos and anarchy which will eventually swallow his country.
