NEW DELHI: India’s deportation of a British MP on Wednesday, who wanted to brief the Delhi press about the “wrong” cases against Bangladesh opposition leader Khaleda Zia, could strengthen her party’s campaign in the national elections due in six months, the Indian Express said on Friday.

Alexander Carlile, a member of the House of Lords, who was deported upon arrival at the Delhi airport, slammed the Indian government, saying it “should be ashamed to have revoked the visa to a member of the House of Lords; they gave in supinely and slavishly to pressure from the Bangladesh government”.

In a statement on Thursday, Lord Carlile accused Dhaka of having “behaved dishonestly, with a clear ulterior motive — to keep my client, her son Tarique Rahman and their party, the BNP, out of effective Bangladesh politics and thereby out of the forthcoming election”.

Lord Carlile wanted to inform Indian media of ‘excesses’ being committed against former Bangladesh PM

He expressed “outrage” at the “political interference” in Ms Zia’s case “by two governments” and said he expected “a full explanation from the Indian government”.

India’s foreign ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar was quoted as saying that the MP had arrived without the appropriate visa. “His intended activity in India was incompatible with the purpose of his visit as mentioned in his visa application. It was, therefore, deci­ded to deny him entry into India upon arrival,” he said.

Lord Carlile has repeatedly questioned the evidence against Ms Zia, a former prime minister and leader of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), who was sentenced to five years’ rigorous imprisonment in February for allegedly embezzling funds meant for a Bangladeshi charity.

Carlile had got a business visa to travel to India for a meeting of the Common­wealth Human Rights Initiative, and had planned to address the media, the Indian Express said. The presser was to be held at the Foreign Corres­pondents’ Club of South Asia, but the club made itself unavailable three days ago, it said.

“India has been extre­mely happy with the Hasina government, which has cracked down on anti-India activities,” the Express said.

“However, given the uncertainties around the coming election, New Delhi would not like to be identified too closely with either of the two main parties. However, the BNP is likely to project the Carlile episode in a way that could stoke anti-India sentiments in Bangladesh, dragging New Delhi into the charged political discourse.”

Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2018