Dhaka, Jan. 9 -- It's difficult to know whether even the architects of the July Uprising in 2024 could have imagined that the strong current of "anti-Indianism" that it fed off would've quite gotten us to the point we are at today. The ousted Awami League regime's excessive, in many ways unsolicited and overall detrimental courtship of New Delhi could never have survived the movement that culminated on August 5, 2024. Changes would be rung, that much was clear. What they have descended to, as we head into the closing days now, of the interim government that was installed by general consent of the forces that supported the student-led movement, would not have been foreseen by anyone.

The bilateral relationship with India, not just our big...