It was a week for displaying unity, in the face of things getting quite out of hand in our neighbouring country over how to adjust to the new reality in Bangladesh. One in which the government in Dhaka is not as pliant as the one before. Indeed, it seems determined to present itself as quite defiant. As such, it came as no surprise that the Indian high commissioner was summoned to the Foreign Ministry this week, after demonstrators allegedly broke into the Bangladesh assistant high commission in Agartala, the capital of the bordering state of Tripura.

Even India's own Ministry of External Affairs was forced to issue a prompt statement describing the incident as "deeply regrettable", after a group of protesters broke the police barricade and stormed inside, indulged in vandalism and removed the Bangladesh national flag from a pole. This followed an earlier breach in Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal state, where violent protests erupted with demonstrators breaking through police barricades and reaching the assistant high commission's boundaries, creating a sense of insecurity among the staff. The protesters also burned the flag of Bangladesh and effigies of Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus. Despite the Indian high commissioner striking a conciliatory tone following his summons, and the Indian MEA promising to beef up security across all Bangladeshi missions in four different states plus the capital New Delhi, Dhaka decided to recall its mission chiefs in Kolkata and Agartala by the end of the week.

There followed two days of meetings between the interim government with political parties and religious leaders, where the main theme emerged as achieving national unity amid attempts at what Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus termed as efforts to undermine his government's effort to build a new Bangladesh.

The meeting with the religious leaders was significant, because he said that new issues involving minority communities have emerged, compounded by discrepancies in media reporting. "This is not right. This must come to an end," he said, stressing the importance of uncovering the truth amid contradictory information. In this regard, he sought advice from religious leaders on how to gather accurate information about the issues faced by minorities.

Indeed, the condition of minorities in this new Bangladesh has become a sticking point that the Indian media has pounced upon. Like all fake news, or misinformation/disinformation campaigns, they have taken a kernel of truth to spin wild fantasies that have no relation to reality. The arrest of the former ISKCON leader, Chinmoy Das, over which things came to a head this week, was an avoidable provocation, but in no way did it merit the kind of response we have seen from our neighbouring country. On the same day as the attack in Agartala, there were protests outside the assistant high commission in Mumbai, a group led by the BJP's leader in West Bengal marched to the border in Petrapole (adjoining Benapole), and trade got suspended through the land port at Zakiganj. It all spoke to the role of the Indian media in exaggerating the issue and stoking tensions between the two countries.

As of now, the foreign secretary-level meeting between the two countries remains on the schedule for next week. Let us hope they find some common ground to recalibrate the relationship, for we must always remember that we can't change our neighbours. We must learn to live with each other.