Extra strong expressions are being deliberately used here, reflecting the fact that the bamboo stick is bent on the one side far too much to be straightened to its original shape and length.

It is as though she had gone on a "political pilgrimage" to India prior to the general election in Bangladesh before throwing her hat in the electoral ring, as if India has been a consistent determinant of poll results in Bangladesh since 1991 through 1996 to 2001, so worthy of seeking blessings from. One would have thought, in the right frame of mind, that she went to Ajmer instead for the blessings. The fair guess is her sense of piety must have over-ridden any mundane calculations.

Why Sheikh Hasina who went on a private visit to India to receive a Mother Teresa Award and offer her pilgrimage to Ajmer Sharif should be meeting with the doyens of Indian politics -- that seems to be the grudging question. The whole array of political heavyweights Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Congress President Sonia Gandhi, former prime ministers Vajpayee and Gujral, BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani and CPM leader Sitaram Kasari squeezed time out of their pressing preoccupations to talk to her. She also met with veteran West Bengal leader Jyoti Basu. Why not Buddhadev Bhattacharya, one wonders. Anyway, such courtesy calls are only reserved for a head of state or government, we are reminded.

Her detractors have made a special mention of her flying to Ajmer by Indian Air Force plane and being treated to a lunch by the Indian defence minister, something that only a foreign state leader, chief of army and defence minister can expect. What an amusing analogy, that! On the one hand, her critics grant that as a former prime minister and opposition leader it was but expected she would be meeting such Indian dignitaries, but on the other, they have read much into weeks of preparations making the meetings possible.

All this is a measure of importance shown to Bangladesh by contemporary India. India's galloping economic growth and high profile scientific and technological rankings find resonance in her political thinking which is now breaking loose from its exclusionary mental framework of yesteryear. Morarji Desai's beneficial bilateralism is being surpassed now by a new theme of mutually inclusive benign multilateralism in the neighbourhood, the expression is coined drawing upon the attempted piping of gas and oil through countries of west Asia and south and southeast Asia without an iota of past animosity.

India's relationship with neighbouring countries such as Pakistan, both at the government-to-government and people-to-people level, has been in the melting pot for the better, there is no question about it, although sea change would be an overstatement. India's policy towards Nepal is a hands-off one insofar as allowing Nepalese politics to take its own course goes.

For obvious historical reasons, Awami League is a party having closer rapport with India than BNP. Let's not forget also that it was during the Awami League rule in 1996-2001 that the Ganges Water Treaty was consummated with India and the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) accord was signed with the PCJSS. The Ganges water agreement remains a potential basis for sharing the waters of other common rivers between India and Bangladesh. What basically clinched the CHT accord was India's emphatic advisory note to the refugee leaders in India that they must seek peace with Bangladesh government.

It may not be out of place to recall that India's complaints about insurgents in its northeastern region being given sanctuary in Bangladesh became less strident during Awami League rule but didn't altogether disappear. Should Awami League win the next general election, one could expect dividends in the form of ice-breaking on some intractable bilateral problems.

With her democratic maturity and regional insights, India is favourably disposed towards dealing with political vicissitudes in the neighbourhood with an even temper and reasonable amount of sagacity and farsightedness. I can remember the gist of editorials on the electoral victory of Begum Khaleda Zia in 1991 that I read in my line of duty as minister (press) in the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi, which read something like this: The merit of dealing with Khaleda Zia and reaching an accord with Bangladesh on any bilateral problem is wider acceptability of what is signed up to.

The writer is Associate Editor of The Daily Star.