His carefully phrased “Very Troubling” is the closest to the position of PMO on this delicate issue

By T N Ashok

When Bangladesh’s ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina was sentenced to death in absentia on November 17 by a special tribunal in Dhaka, the shock rippled across the region. Yet the most curious reactions came not from Bangladesh—but from India.

India’s government, normally swift to comment on developments in a neighbouring country, has maintained steadfast silence. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has said nothing. The Congress, the principal opposition, has issued no formal statement. And yet, amid this unusual quiet, one voice surfaced -of Shashi Tharoor.

The senior Congress MP, former diplomat, UN under-secretary-general, and widely perceived “blue-eyed boy” of Pri

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