Bangladesh envoy’s special ‘hilsa’ gesture to Indian controversial commentator draws scrutiny

Bangladesh High Commissioner to India Riaz Hamidullah’s decision to extend special hospitality to controversial Indian commentator Abhijit Iyer-Mitra at a hilsa festival in New Delhi has drawn questions over the mission’s choice of guests and the message conveyed by the gesture.

The Bangladesh High Commission hosted an “Ilish Fest” at its Maitri Auditorium on September 26, bringing together Indian politicians, diplomats, academics and journalists.

Among the guests were Iyer-Mitra and NDTV journalist Aditya Raj Kaul.

But it was a photograph and Iyer-Mitra’s own account of the evening that attracted attention.

Iyer-Mitra said Hamidullah had “reserved a whole pot of Ilish fry” for him. A photograph from the event shows the outgoing high commissioner at a tawa, alongside Iyer-Mitra and Kaul.

The personal gesture assumes significance because of Iyer-Mitra’s extensive record of inflammatory commentary about Muslims and his previous remarks concerning Bangladeshis.

In November 2024, Iyer-Mitra publicly called for Bangladeshis and Rohingyas to be expelled from India.

“Start deporting the Bangladeshis & Rohingyas from India. Start deporting them NOW! You already know who they are. Now kick them out,” he wrote on X. The post remains available in web archives.

Al Jazeera described Iyer-Mitra as a “far-right Hindutva ideologue” in a 2023 report on criticism faced by US Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna for meeting him during a visit to India.

The report noted accusations that Iyer-Mitra had promoted an Islamophobic narrative on social media, including calling Muslim US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar a “jihadi.” Khanna subsequently said that meeting someone did not mean sharing their views and reaffirmed his support for pluralism and minority rights.

Sweden-based Bangladeshi academic Professor Ashok Swain reacted to the New Delhi event on X, questioning the decision to host Iyer-Mitra and Kaul.

“I am surprised and sad — how could they do this?” Swain wrote, describing the two men as “openly Islamophobic trolls.”

A long record of controversy

Iyer-Mitra’s remarks about Muslims and journalists have previously generated controversy in India.

In 2020, he called Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair “Jihadi Jabbar” and posted offensive remarks concerning Zubair’s mother in a tweet he subsequently deleted.

Alt News later documented the post and other remarks made by Iyer-Mitra, while journalists and other public figures criticised the language.

His comments about women journalists at Indian news platform Newslaundry have also reached the courts.

In May 2025, the Delhi High Court criticised language Iyer-Mitra used against Newslaundry’s women journalists, saying such words were “not permissible in any civilised society,” and directed him to remove the posts. Nine women journalists and Newslaundry subsequently pursued a defamation suit against him.

In April this year, a Delhi magistrate ordered police to register an FIR over another set of posts targeting Newslaundry journalists. The court said the posts prima facie contained “sexually coloured remarks” and disclosed cognisable offences under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

That FIR order, however, was later stayed by a Delhi sessions court pending consideration of Iyer-Mitra’s revision petition.

His legal controversies go further back.

In 2018, Odisha police arrested Iyer-Mitra following cases arising from remarks about the Konark Sun Temple, Odisha and state legislators.

He subsequently appeared before a committee of the Odisha Legislative Assembly and offered an unconditional apology, saying his remarks resulted from his “stupidity.” The Assembly later accepted the apology and dropped the breach-of-privilege matter. The Odisha government subsequently decided to withdraw the criminal cases against him.

Iyer-Mitra has also made disparaging remarks about Bangladesh’s political leadership. In March 2025, responding to a social-media post about remarks made in Beijing by then-Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus, he wrote “Baiji’r Bachaa” in Bengali — an obscenity directed at Bangladesh’s then head of government.

Hilsa diplomacy at an unusual moment

The special hospitality has also attracted attention because the festival came at an unusual moment for the hilsa trade between Bangladesh and India.

Bangladesh has not opened its customary limited export window for hilsa to India ahead of this year’s Durga Puja.

Instead, the trade moved in the opposite direction this year.

India said on September 15 that about 500 tonnes of hilsa had been exported to Bangladesh over the preceding two months, describing it as a “notable reverse trade flow” for a fish traditionally associated with exports from Bangladesh to India.

Bangladesh then stopped importing hilsa from India and Myanmar after cancelling no-objection certificates issued to 103 importers on September 23, according to Indian media reports.

Indian traders said Bangladesh had also not announced an export quota for Durga Puja, unlike in recent years.

The combination of reduced domestic availability and unusually high hilsa prices has made the fish a sensitive consumer issue in Bangladesh this year.

The September 26 festival therefore came only three days after Dhaka cancelled hilsa import permits and while no festive export quota for India had been announced.

Hamidullah is nearing the end of a New Delhi posting that began during the interim government.

A career diplomat, he was appointed high commissioner in February 2025 and arrived in New Delhi in April that year. He presented his credentials to Indian President Droupadi Murmu on May 29.

His posting coincided with one of the most difficult periods in Bangladesh-India relations in years following the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government in August 2024.

Hamidullah did not secure a formal courtesy meeting with Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar during the interim government's remaining tenure, according to people familiar with the diplomatic engagement.

His first such meeting with Jaishankar came on March 20 this year, about a month after the BNP government took office, as Dhaka and New Delhi began efforts to improve relations. Contemporary reporting described it as their first formal courtesy meeting since Hamidullah arrived in India.

Days later, India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh attended Bangladesh’s Independence Day reception in New Delhi, with Hamidullah saying the relationship should be based on “dignity, equality, mutual trust and respect, and shared benefits.”

The relationship has nevertheless continued to face disputes over a range of bilateral issues.

Hamidullah’s tenure has also mostly featured around “soft diplomacy” like cultural outreach by the mission, including events built around shared Bengali cultural traditions and food while the bilateral relationship was hitting the rock bottom.

He is now preparing to leave New Delhi.

India last week formally approved Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Asad Alam Siam as Dhaka’s next high commissioner. Hamidullah is expected to leave the Indian capital shortly to take up his new assignment as Bangladesh’s permanent representative to the UN Missoin in Geneva.

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