India, Dec. 21 -- Eighteen months after Sheikh Hasina's ouster from Bangladesh as the country's Prime Minister, hopes for normalcy between India and Bangladesh remain elusive as the bilateral relationship plunges from one crisis to another. The ongoing protests in Dhaka and growing anti-India sentiments are only indications of that. While there is a hope in New Delhi that things could get better after the February elections in Bangladesh, there is little certainty of that. New Delhi must change its approach to Dhaka, shedding a politico-emotional framing to adopt a clinical and problem-solving national security framework.

For India, the rapidly deteriorating relationship with Bangladesh poses a threefold challenge: growing insecurity and...