Bangladesh is burning. The democratically elected Awami League and its leader Sheikh Hasina have been ousted from power because of a students movement that sprang from nowhere and which was taken over by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the army in its arms. The stated cause of the student unrest was reservation for the freedom fighters of Bangladesh. But the movement had ulterior motives from the very beginning and it came out in the open when the movement continued even after the disputed reservation was struck down by the apex court of Bangladesh.

Sheikh Hasina is a victim of geopolitical factors and the western hegemony led by the US. The entire Indian subcontinent now dubbed as South Asia is the hotbed of American and Chinese politics. The bone of contention is a rising and assertive India. Both America  and China are hellbent upon checking the rise of India as a regional political power because it doesn't suit their interests. If India stands for justice, stability and democratic values; America and China stand for their vested political, economic and geostrategic interests. It is an irony that the oldest and most powerful democracy of the world,  America, has butchered democracy in different parts of the world as and when it suits its interests . It has a shady and bloody past. Bangladesh is a victim of the latest nefarious design of America in the region. China, on the other hand, wants a monopolistic hegemony in the region and India puts up a serious challenge. It makes America and China fellow travellers of the same boat.

The present development in Bangladesh has put India in a very difficult situation. We have a more than four thousand kilometres boundary line with Bangladesh which is not an easy task to manage, given hundreds of rivulets and many big rivers and dense forest. We have constantly faced the intrusion of Bangladeshi nationals into our border states Which has been aided and abetted by the vote bank politics of the country and the lack of political will and decisiveness of our political masters in Delhi. The influx of Bangladeshi nationals coming to India will increase manifold in the coming days as the goons of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party has started looting and vandalising the property of the Hindus and supporters of the BNP. The Hindu temples have been vandalised. The modesty of the Hindu women is being outraged in the most cruel manner and the Hindus are threatened with slogans like " Go to India" . This is nothing but a well planned ethnic cleansing of Hindus and other minorities living in Bangladesh. The police and army are mute spectators to all these developments. The champions of democracy and human rights the world over are silent and tight lipped over these heinous crimes in Bangladesh. The only country which has stood against such crimes is Israel. But it is a lonely voice.

India can not remain a silent spectator to all these developments as it has a huge Hindu population. It is a highly emotive issue having larger electoral ramifications.  Strategically also, a burning backyard is very dangerous and India will have to interfere in Bangladesh, whether it likes it or not. This interference might be direct or covert. A hostile government in our neighborhood is the last thing the county can afford. Either control the present regime there or change it. We are capable of doing it and we have shown in the past as to what we can do. The cost of doing so is less than the cost of taking crores of refugees and having a volatile condition in our backyard. This is not a choice but a bitter medicine that has to be administered to the seriously ailing patient. We have no option but to counter balance the machinations of America and China in the region. We are on the cusp of becoming a regional power having the capacity to act as a bulwark against China and we will have to pay the price for our safety as well as ambition.

The writer is a noted academician and political commentator. Views expressed in the article are personal.