New Delhi has finally stopped ghosting the BNP.

It took a revolution, a few dozen burned-out buildings, and the sudden, helicopter-assisted departure of their favorite autocrat, but the pivot is here. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is sending an invitation to Tarique Rahman, the acting chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and he’s using Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla as the delivery guy. It’s a classic rebrand. Out with the "all-in" bet on Sheikh Hasina; in with the awkward, hat-in-hand outreach to the man New Delhi spent the last decade portraying as a security nightmare.

Let’s be clear: this isn’t about shared values or the "spirit of democracy." Realpolitik doesn't have a soul; it has an interest rate. For years, India’s neighborhood policy was a single-tab browser. Hasina was the only window open. Now that the tab has crashed and the system has rebooted, South Block is scrambling to install new drivers.

Tarique Rahman has been running the BNP via Zoom from a London suburb for years. He’s been a digital ghost, a legacy character in a political drama that India hoped was cancelled. But the "India Out" sentiment bubbling in Dhaka isn’t just a hashtag anymore. It’s a policy constraint. If Modi wants to keep the lights on—literally—he has to talk to the man he once ignored.

The friction here isn’t just ideological; it’s expensive. Look at the Adani power deal. We’re talking about a 1,600 MW coal-fired plant in Jharkhand that sells electricity to Bangladesh at rates that make eyes water. It’s a $1.7 billion project that has become a lightning rod for "neighborhood bullying" optics. If the new guard in Dhaka decides to audit those contracts, New Delhi’s corporate interests are going to take a massive haircut. Sending Birla with an invitation is less about a diplomatic handshake and more about protecting the balance sheet.

Then there’s the Siliguri Corridor. The "Chicken’s Neck." India’s geographic anxiety. For a decade, Hasina gave India everything it wanted on transit and security. She did the heavy lifting of flushing out insurgents while India looked the other way during her increasingly creative elections. Now, that security guarantee is a 404 error. Rahman knows this. He knows that India needs a stable eastern border more than he needs a photo op in New Delhi, and that gives him a leverage he hasn’t tasted in twenty years.

The optics of using Om Birla are intentional. It’s a legislative-to-legislative bridge. It’s softer than a direct PM-to-Acting-Chairman call, which would look too much like a frantic backflip. It’s a way to test the waters without fully committing to the deep end. But don’t let the protocol fool you. This is a factory reset.

We’re watching a government realize that its "Neighborhood First" policy was actually "One Friend Only." It’s a dangerous way to run a regional hegemony. When your entire strategy relies on one person staying in power forever, you’re not a strategist; you’re a gambler. And the house just lost.

So, Rahman gets his invite. He gets the legitimacy he’s been starved of while living in exile. India gets a chance to beg for a seat at the new table. The BNP might have a long memory, though. They remember the dossiers, the "terrorist" labels, and the way New Delhi stayed silent while their cadres were jailed by the thousands.

Now comes the hard part. Can India convince a new Bangladesh that it isn't just looking for a new puppet to replace the old one? Or is this just another patch for a system that was fundamentally broken from the start?

The invitation is in the mail. We’ll see if the recipient decides to "Return to Sender."