India’s newly appointed High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Dinesh Trivedi, crossed the Benapole-Petrapole land border on Friday afternoon, walking into Bangladesh by road in a gesture his office likely intended as symbolic of accessibility and warmth.

Within hours, that gesture had become the backdrop for a diplomatic controversy that is still reverberating in Dhaka.

Trivedi, a 75-year-old veteran Bharatiya Janata Party politician and former Union Railway Minister, is himself a significant appointment. He is the first politician to serve as India’s High Commissioner to Bangladesh in the 55-year history of bilateral diplomatic relations – a deliberate departure from the longstanding convention of sending career Indian Foreign Service officers to Dhaka.

He was appointed in April, succeeding Pranay Verma, who has since been named India’s Ambassador to Belgium and the European Union.

Speaking to Bangladeshi journalists at the border, Trivedi was warm and expansive. He spoke of cooperation in sports, health, education, and technology.

But it was a specific formulation that set off the uproar. Asked about border tensions and the possibility of easing restrictions on trade and travel, he said: “India and Bangladesh share the same sky, the same air, the same pain. I do not feel as though I have come to Bangladesh. Whatever is good for the 1.4 billion people of India and the 200...

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