EDITORIALPower corridor, free lunch and Indo-Bangla ties
This being the state of affairs of the Indo-Bangla relations—-which should be based on the principle of the sovereign equality—-Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League-led government has adopted a major decision to give power corridor to India. Mysteriously, the committee did not estimate how much power Bangladesh would get from India as transit charge. Our PDB officials said that Bangladesh would be able to import about 1,000MW of electricity from Nepal and Bhutan through the grid. Simply put, Bangladesh’s gains from the grid is uncertain, but India’s gain is obvious which again brings to the fore the deplorable imbalance in Dhaka-Delhi ties. Regarding this and other bilateral issues Hasina government maintains a cloak-and-dagger secretiveness.
Every regime in Bangladesh —- including BNP —- has acknowledged in letter and spirit the gratitude this nation owes to India for her active cooperation during our 1971 Liberation War imposed on us by the Pakistani military junta that had to accept ignominious defeat, which unquestionably benefited India most significantly in that Delhi got, for all times to come, a genuine grateful friend with a ready captive market of now over 16 crore consumers. Besides, most importantly, India’s arch enemy Pakistan was cut down to size forever; thus its enormous military expenditure could be trimmed down to nearly zero.
We may dwell upon Hasina government’s weak-kneed India policy of most unreasonable appeasement to satisfy all capricious demands of Delhi administration which has always been demonstrating its extremely selfish, narrow and exploitative character by not paying standard fees for providing it with transhipment [in all practical purposes it is corridor from West Bengal to Northeast India passing through Bangladesh] proving its unjust moral fibre to rather fleece and exploit this country in any manner whatsoever.
A spokesman of the CHT tribal insurgents, Bimal Chakma had said Indian officials began to provide arms and money in 1976. “For more than a decade, India has secretly provided arms and money to tribal insurgents fighting for an autonomous state in Bangladesh, rebels given sanctuary in this border area say”. [Vide ‘Bangladeshi Insurgents Say India Is Supporting Them’ by Sanjoy Hazarika, The New York Times, June 11, 1989]. It is reported that 500,000 Indians, who are staying in Bangladesh, remit $3.716 billion every year to their home country.
India could not prove to be reasonably responsive to its closest neighbour Bangladesh’s crying needs of the Teesta water, while as the direct impact of withdrawal of the Ganges water upstream (not giving the co-riparian Bangladesh her due share) can be seen in the vast sand dune under the Hardinge Bridge over the Padma river causing devastating effects on the country’s agriculture and economy. The Falani tragedy including killing of over 1,000 Bangladeshis, boundary disputes, whopping bilateral trade imbalance including para-tariff barriers are sad things. Should not Hasina behave like the head of government of an independent country as Bangladesh is not an Indian province? Servitude will only increase Delhi’s eternal hunger for more without giving anything in return. Remember: “There isn’t such a thing as a free lunch”.
With its extensive tentacles, the RAW has a huge network of moles and spies in South Asia and is capable to launch clandestine operations, as Bahukutumbi Raman’s ‘The Kaoboys of RAW’ and ‘Inside RAW’ by Ashok Raina have disclosed. Though Sheikh Hasina and her cohorts have been shouting in full-throated voice as rhetoric just to gain political mileage that BNP supports terrorism, nothing can be farthest from truth. In reality, objective and dispassionate analysis —- not assumption based on hearsay —- will certainly reveal this fact. Hence, this spy agency is yet to attain maturity as it may not have correctly advised Delhi’s South Block mandarins that neither BNP nor any of its partners have the least intent or minimal capacity to do anybody’s harm whatsoever.
Contrarily, a fraction of the front organisations of the ruling Awami League (AL) can wreak incalculable havoc like violence and killings at short notice, as reported in the media during the last five years. The horrendous slaughter in presence of police officers in broad daylight of an apolitical innocent Hindu young man, Biswajit Das, by a group of the Jagannath University students belonging to the Bangladesh Chhatra League were the most discussed incidents at home and abroad. To look back, all hell broke loose on 28 October 2006 when the Awami League (AL) cadres rallied carrying long poles and oars that were used in beating several persons to death in Dhaka. While India needs to do comprehensive homework regarding its Bangledesh policy, it will do a great disservice to itself if Delhi fails to extricate itself from the misguided puerile obsession that Hasina’s AL is Bangladesh where more or less 75 per cent people are opposed to her.
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