India, Dec. 22 -- The most obvious takeaway from the current spate of violence in Bangladesh, following the killing of student leader Sharif Osman Hadi, is that the caretaker administration of Muhammad Yunus has little control over law and order. Yunus was foisted on Bangladesh after violent mass mobilisations forced the ouster of the Awami League government with the unwritten mandate to preside over the transition phase, during which electoral infirmities were to be removed, and hold elections. Instead, Yunus allowed the situation to drift, held off on the elections, and allowed virulent, anti-India sections within the polity to grow stronger. There is now a question mark over the polls, slated for February, with mobs targeting not just Awami League supporters, but also members of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and independent media organisations. A narrative that Sheikha Hasina, the leader of Awami League, held office only because of backing from India has been allowed to gain ground in Dhaka, with student leaders such as Hadi holding New Delhi responsible for the political crisis in that country. This anti-India narrative, fanned by Islamists such as the Jamaat-e-Islami, threatens to undermine the secular origins of Bangladesh and deny India's historic enabling role in its birth in the face of massive violence unleashed by the Pakistani army and its collaborators in East Pakistan in 1971. So far, New Delhi has preferred to privilege the emotional spirit of 1971 and the long historic and cultural ties with the people over a purely transactional approach to bilateral ties with Dhaka. This approach may have to make way for pragmatism in the wake of the rising tide of anti-Indian sentiment in that country and a convergence of Pakistani and Chinese interests in Bangladesh - a trilateral meeting took place in Kunming, Yunnan, in June, amidst growing closeness between Islamabad and Dhaka. The rhetoric emanating from Dhaka signals a security challenge, with political leaders - from Yunus to heads of student groups - hinting at India's geographical vulnerabilities in the Northeast: India shares a long and porous 4,000-km-plus border with Bangladesh, which is a site of smuggling, including of people, cattle and drugs. The present regime in Dhaka seems to harbour the belief that it could leverage these and exploit the current geo-political context to get aggressive with India. But it merits repetition that hostile bilateral ties will not be beneficial to Bangladesh. New Delhi has rightly been cautious in its response to the provocative signals from Dhaka. It should be prepared to play the long game - wait out the current phase of political churn and engage with all the actors in Bangladesh politics. Elections - if held as scheduled - may clear the fog and rescue bilateral ties from the exigencies of local politics....