On Nisha Desai Biswal\\\'s visit to Dhaka

There was a great deal of media hype leading to the visit of Nisha Desai Biswal, US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, to Dhaka but not much following the visit. The US government had questioned the credibility of the January 05 elections almost immediately after they were held and consistently encouraged the Awami league-led government to enter into dialogue with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) to hold fresh elections ever since. The media therefore speculated that during her visit, she would hold discussions with the ruling party and the BNP and the other stakeholders to push politics towards the democratic path and out of its current political impasse with the Awami League (AL) insisting on no elections until 2019 and the BNP demanding immediate mid-term elections and getting ready for taking politics to the streets.
The AL-led government conveyed its message to the US government in no uncertain terms but in quite unusual ways. The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) did not give Nisha Desai an appointment to meet the Prime Minister on the ground that she was extremely busy having travelled from SAARC Summit in Kathmandu and then had to leave Dhaka for Sylhet on the final day of the Nisha Desai's three-day-long visit. Instead the PMO invited her to accompany the PM to Sylhet where she inaugurated the Bibiyana power plant that the visitor declined on the plea that later that day she had to fly to Uzbekistan. Quite clearly, both sides played a diplomatic game over the meeting.
But Local Government Minister Syed Ashraful Islam, the AL Secretary General, let the cat out of the bag in a public meeting in Khulna. He called her a "two-anna minister" and ridiculed the outgoing US Ambassador Dan Mozena for continuously harping upon the need for fresh elections. He derided the BNP for "begging" with the US Assistant Secretary for mid-term elections. He contemptuously dismissed such a possibility and stated that the next general elections would not be held even a day earlier than the five-year term given to the AL-led government constitutionally by the January 05 elections. Other Awami League leaders in other forums drummed up the secretary-general's diatribe against the US Assistant Secretary. Thus the ridicule of the AL leaders, led by the party's general secretary, about the BNP and the US Assistant Secretary also over mid-term elections.
All the above indicates that Nisha Desai visited Dhaka to encourage mid-term elections in Bangladesh. During her meeting with Begum Raushan Ershad, the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, she asked the latter when she expected the next elections in Bangladesh. Raushan Ershad mentioned that the next elections would be held as required under the law. She possibly said this to please the ruling AL.
Nisha Desai's meeting with the BNP was mostly about mid-term elections. It lasted twice the time she spent with Raushan Ershad. Nisha Desai wanted to know from Begum Khaleda Zia whether the BNP is prepared for the mid-term elections. The two also held a one-to-one parley.
The main interest of the media at the press conference of the Nisha Desai was also mid-term elections. She stated that it is up to the people of Bangladesh to decide when the next elections would be held. She left no one in doubt that the US considers Bangladesh as an important country with which it is seriously interested to deepen bilateral relations. She made extra efforts to congratulate Bangladesh for its outstanding contributions to the UN peacekeeping operations. In fact, one of her major engagements in Dhaka was a visit to the Bangladesh Institute of Peace Support Operation Training (BIPSOT) where she profusely lauded the country's noble contributions to UN-sponsored international peace keeping.
Nisha Desai's visit was, however, politically uncomfortable for the government.
The writer is a former Ambassador.
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