New Delhi: The acrimony between India and Bangladesh seems to be slowly easing. The Bangladesh High Commission in Delhi on Friday fully resumed visa services for Indian nationals. The landmark decision comes just three days after Tariq Rahman took office as the new Prime Minister of Bangladesh. The move is being seen as a positive initiative by Rahman and his party, the BNP, to mend the acrimony in relations with New Delhi and restore normalcy.
It is worth noting that consular and visa services were suspended last December after relations between the two countries deteriorated sharply. The tension was triggered by the assassination of anti-India student leader Sharif Usman Hadi, which led to widespread violent protests and targeted killings of minority Hindus in Bangladesh.
However, with the ouster of Muhammad Yunus from power in Dhaka and the assumption of power by Tariq Rahman, hopes of improving diplomatic relations between the two neighbours have once again risen. All visa categories, including medical and tourism, have resumed from Friday morning, while business and work visas were not completely suspended earlier.

**India will also resume services soon, PM Modi invites**
This initiative by Bangladesh has also received a positive response from India. Anirudh Das, Senior Consular Officer of India in Sylhet, clarified that New Delhi is also in the process of fully restoring all types of visa services for Bangladeshi nationals soon. Currently, medical and double-entry visas are being issued, and travel visas will also resume soon.
To accelerate these diplomatic reforms, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla attended Tariq Rehman's swearing-in ceremony this week as a representative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Birla presented a letter from Prime Minister Modi and invited the new Prime Minister to visit India.
It will now be very interesting to see whether Tariq Rehman goes to Delhi for his first foreign visit, as earlier Muhammad Yunus had broken this old tradition and visited China, which caused resentment in New Delhi.