India working to make Bangladesh a desert

[Al-zakir]

the father of the nation

I don't think so. You can call him your father as much as you want. He is the father of awami and the like minded thus don't bring everyone to your thinking circle. Kapish........

Bangladesh Zindabad.........

 

[BanglaBhoot]

BNP seeks int'l censure on Tipaimukh dam


Dhaka, June 13 (bdnews24.com) – BNP is urging the international community to speak out against India's construction of the Tipaimukh dam, saying it is a 'death trap' for Bangladesh.

The opposition party also urged the government once more to protest in strongest possible terms against the dam to the Indian government.

"The Tipaimukh dam is a death trap for the people of Bangladesh. We appeal to the international community to ask India stop construction," BNP secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain told a press conference on Saturday.

"The Awami League government must protest against the move immediately, or BNP along with the people will be forced to take whatever action is necessary to stop it," said Delwar.

Former water resources minister and BNP vice president Hafizuddin Ahmed, in a written statement, said the government must act instead of playing the 'blame game'.

He said all parties except the ruling Awami League had protested against the move.

Party chief Khaleda Zia had been protesting against the issue from the very beginning, said Hafiz, who was at one time ousted by Khaleda from the party as a 'reformist'.

"The BNP government during its first term protested to the Indian government against the dam twice on April 16 and May 18 in 1992," he said.

The former minister ruled out the statement by AL spokesperson Syed Ashraful Islam that discussion with India about the Tipaimukh dam had begun during a previous BNP administration.

"This is not true, it is a politically motivated statement," said Hafiz.

He said India conceived the Tipaimukh dam over the cross-boundary river Barak in the state of Manipur before the 1970's.

"After the formation of the Bangladesh-India Joint River Commission, the two countries discussed the issue in its first (June 25 and 26, 1972), seventh (February 28-March 2, 1974), eighth (June 6-12, 1974), tenth (August 29-september 2, 1974) and thirteenth (June 19-21, 1975) during none of which did the Awami League government oppose the project," the BNP leader said.

Hafiz said the fourteenth meeting of the commission (January 20-24, 1978) decided that an expert committee of Bangladesh and India would present a scrutiny report on the prposed dam.

"But the expert committee did not hold any meeting."

He said after 1975, successive governments of Bangladesh opposed the proposed dam and Fulertal barrage (some 30 kms from Tipaimukh dam), considering probable harm to the country.

"In 1988, the Bangladesh government requested the Indian government to stop withdrawing water from the Barak river and suppressing information on the project."

"But the Indian government did not reply," he said.

The former minister said Bangladesh sent a letter to India opposing the project on August 11, 2003 (during BNP's term) but again no response came from the Indian government.

India in the 35th and 36th meetings of the joint river commission assured that they would discuss with Bangladesh whether to withdraw water by constructing any structure on the river Barak.

"But there was no meeting of the commission in the last four years."

Hafiz said the construction of the dam would pose a serious threat to the environment and public life.

The construction of the dam is an obvious breach of the 9th article of the Farakka accord signed in 1966 and against international law, he said.

He asked the government to solve the problem and stop playing the "blame game".

Delwar said: "Awami League always remained quiet on the question of the dam as they act in the interests of India."

Saturday's press conference at the National Press Club was the first joint public appearance of Delwar and Hafiz since the 1/11 changeover in 2007.

BNP seeks int'l censure on Tipaimukh dam :: Bangladesh :: bdnews24.com ::

 

[Al-zakir]

BNP and other parties need to come out and build a strong resistance against this dam and stooge Awami dalal. People of bd will support them on this issue.

 

[leonblack08]

Political strategising against Tipaimukh Dam




THE Daily Star ran a comprehensive story on Thursday discussing how the Indian plan to build a dam on a river, shared by Bangladesh and India, would create havoc in the environment and agriculture in the Sylhet region of Bangladesh. As a student of international communication, I am wondering how to devise political strategies to face this.

The Farakka barrage, which India built on another common river -- the Ganges -- in the mid-1970s, had both environmental and political consequence on Bangladesh. It contributed to desertification in the northern part of the country and to the rise of right-wing politics that capitalises on people's religious sentiment and India's indifference to our legitimate concerns.

India's current plan to build a dam at Tipaimukh in its Mizoram state to produce electricity will bring environmental havoc to both Mizoram and Bangladesh. It may become another Farakka, both environmentally and politically. If the government fails to stand up to India on this, it may help the rightwing coalition led by the BNP to make a comeback.

The prime minister has suggested sending an all-party team to visit the dam site for an on-site inquiry to know the situation there. It is an important step in the right direction, but it is not enough. The government should also think about creating an expert committee to do a scientific study to understand how the proposed dam would impact the environment and agriculture in the adjacent areas.

Past experience of our dealings with India on various issues, from trading to water-sharing, suggests that we have always been under-prepared. Our political leadership, in both the secularist camp and the rightwing, has been naïve about the seriousness of the issues. And in many cases, our negotiators were not prepared with facts and documents to establish our position.

To make your case in any negotiation, especially in international ones, you have to be well prepared. You can take it for granted that the negotiators from other countries will be thoroughly prepared. If you are not prepared with convincing evidence in support of your claims, nobody in the international arena will listen to you. Small states like Bangladesh need to be more prepared than anyone else to offset the influence of big states in international politics.

The all-party political team, which the prime minister intends to create, could come up with political strategies to deal with this issue, while the expert body could conduct rigorous studies to assess the outcome of the proposed dam to help our negotiators with evidence. One political strategy may be to build solidarity with the people of Mizoram and civil society groups who are on the front-line against the dam.

The Tipaimukh dam is neither an AL issue nor a BNP issue; it is a national problem. The actions of the BNP-led coalition on Indo-Bangla relationship issues have always been targeted to weaken the AL, labeling the latter as pro-India, instead of standing up to India. This strategy of the BNP-led coalition may have helped them gain political capital, but certainly did not help protect national interest. This time, people deserve to see a change for the sake of the nation.

If you are a realist, you can ask that if an emerging power like India moves along with building the dam, can we really stop them? I say we may fail or succeed. But we cannot know the outcome until we give it a try.

There is no doubt that India is a regional superpower, but we also have an ace up our sleeve. India may be a rising power, but it hardly has any friends in the region. We have been the best friend to them. The present government has taken many significant initiatives to stop anti-Indian elements from using our territories to conduct destructive activities. We need to think about what we are getting in return.

Any study of Indo-Bangla relationship will reveal India's condescending attitude towards us. One big contribution India made was that it helped us get independence from Pakistan, although critics argue that if India did not have a geopolitical interest in severing Pakistan it would be of no help. After that, how did India treat us? India gave us a Farakka and has been preparing to offer another one.

We have a huge trade deficit with India. Indian border guards regularly kill our border forces. The mainstream Indian press hardly pays any attention to these Bangladesh related issues. Nevertheless, I think we want to be thankful for India's help in our liberation war. We are ready to stay as a friendly neighbour, but we also deserve to expect that our friendship does not bring disaster for us.

If India keeps giving us Farakkas, we must rethink our friendship with India. We must rethink our foreign policy. Our policy toward India has been either cold or warm, depending on the parties in power in both Bangladesh and India. But this type of one-dimensional foreign policy is obsolete, given the current political and economic dynamics in the world.

Omni-balancing could be the best strategy for our foreign policy. Small countries in many parts of the world pursue this strategy for protecting their national interests. Omni-balancing suggests that a small country should have equally friendly relationships with all the regional powers so that it could play one power against the other whenever necessary.

We already have the foundation for omni-balancing. It is now up to the AL government to decide whether it will pursue that path or not. The Tipaimukh dam presents a historic opportunity to the AL to further strengthen its image as a people's party by standing up to India. The foreign minister as the top diplomat of the country can take the lead. If the AL fails to seize this opportunity, the BNP-led coalition will reemerge as the protector of the national interest through anti-government demonstrations.

A.J.M. Shafiul Alam Bhuiyan is a faculty member in the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism at the University of Dhaka. E-mail: abhuiyan@sfu.ca.

The Daily Star - Details News

 

[TopCat]

PM urged to side with people on Tipaimukh issue

Dhaka, June 15 (bdnews24.com) – Former Transparency International, Bangladesh chairman professor Muzaffer Ahmed on Monday asked prime minister Sheikh Hasina to side with the people on the issue of Tipaimukh dam project.

"People elected you to protect the interest of the country. Don't forget their interest. You have to take position against the construction of Tipaimukh dam alongside the people."

"The dam project has turned into a life-threatening problem for us. It is not a political issue," he told a seminar on 'Tipaimukh dam: responsibilities of Bangladesh'.

"All of us will have to protest against the project and launch a movement. Those who are on behalf of the project are not the friends of the country," Muzaffer said.

The project will destroy the water sources and resources. The land, biodiversity and human resources will also be endangered.

Not only Bangladesh many Indian states including Mizoram will be affected. People in Mizoram form human chains and rallies every day but neither the Bangladeshi nor the Indian media report them.

"One can see the news on the websites of Mizoram," Muzafer said.

He asked all to raise public awareness and hold protest rallies against the move.

The ex-TIB chairman asked the MPs and cabinet members to work in the interests of the people.

"I request you who do not want to protect the interest of the country to quit the position."

Surma Kushiara Meghna Banchao Andolan organised the seminar at National Press Club.

 

[Communist]

@iajdani,

Now you believe that India's sinister plan to turn parts of Bangladesh into desert? Well when a country does not care for its own tribal people of Mizoram, how can we expect it to be friendly with its neighboring nations?

 

[TopCat]

It will be a big loss for India if they go ahead with this project, transit or port, nothing will be materialized for them.

 

[Communist]

It will be a big loss for India if they go ahead with this project, transit or port, nothing will be materialized for them.

Agreed. But iajdani no matter how we understand the negative impact of such water manipulating projects, India's policy makers and political leaders and also a big chunk of brainwashed nationalists do not realize that and they are deliberate in their attempt to enjoy their selfish sadistic measures. It is not that they do not know what suffering will be inflicted on others by their actions, as I said already, they are so notorious that they enjoy the helplessness of others and try to amuse themselves at the cost of delivering pain to others. All these they do because they know Bangladesh cannot afford hostility to India.

 

[brahmastra]

Agreed. But iajdani no matter how we understand the negative impact of such water manipulating projects, India's policy makers and political leaders and also a big chunk of brainwashed nationalists do not realize that and they are deliberate in their attempt to enjoy their selfish sadistic measures. It is not that they do not know what suffering will be inflicted on others by their actions, as I said already, they are so notorious that they enjoy the helplessness of others and try to amuse themselves at the cost of delivering pain to others. All these they do because they know Bangladesh cannot afford hostility to India.

India must build it to give water to its poor people for drinking and irrigation.

 

[Jako]

India must build it to give water to its poor people for drinking and irrigation.

yes true,but as humans we must also think of the interest of the poor people of bd in mind.....,..i know you'll come up next with theories like,survival of the fittest..........but this is nothing but brutality,i'm sure the goi led my mr Singh,wd take proper steps which will ensure the goods of both the poor people of india and bd.......afterall they are our good'ol neighbours....

 

[nick]

It will be a big loss for India if they go ahead with this project, transit or port, nothing will be materialized for them.

India won't get nothing of it. If they really choose the hard way,Bangladesh will change too for the next 50 years. At least India should keep that in mind that Bangladesh doesn't choose the "North Korea" type policy aligned with China and also have not started of using its geographic advantages.

Is India really that hungry to produce only 1500 megawatt of electricity when the Nuclear Suppliers Group is providing them uranium according to the US-India nuclear deal? Hahaha. No brother, If so then they are using those uraniums to increase its nuclear weapons stockpile for future strike against Pakistan and China- that's why Pakistan may be so concerned that they are building new nuclear facilities according to news and intelligence agencies.

South asia can't and shouldn't afford that much blood anymore. We all gave lot of blood in the past 200 years.

 

[TopCat]

India won't get nothing of it. If they really choose the hard way,Bangladesh will change too for the next 50 years. At least India should keep that in mind that Bangladesh doesn't choose the "North Korea" type policy aligned with China and also have not started of using its geographic advantages.

Is India really that hungry to produce only 1500 megawatt of electricity when the Nuclear Suppliers Group is providing them uranium according to the US-India nuclear deal? Hahaha. No brother, If so then they are using those uraniums to increase its nuclear weapons stockpile for future strike against Pakistan and China- that's why Pakistan may be so concerned that they are building new nuclear facilities according to news and intelligence agencies.

South asia can't and shouldn't afford that much blood anymore. We all gave lot of blood in the past 200 years.

It is very difficult for anybody in the world to do day to day business with India. No country except Israel, that selfish in nature as India. Really pathetic.

 

[Stumper]

It is very difficult for anybody in the world to do day to day business with India. No country except Israel, that selfish in nature as India. Really pathetic.

I think we did have a brief discussion on this post. Off-topic - Point is, this dam has more national political agenda attached to it.

Coming to your post, can you eloborate on your point about world finding it diffiult to do day to day business with India. As of now i will ignore the point about being "Selfish in nature" as it will digress the topic in hand.

 

[Al-zakir]

Khaleda writes to Manmohan on Tipai fears


Mon, Jun 22nd, 2009 10:08 pm BdST

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Dhaka, Jun 22 (bdnews24.com)—Opposition chief Khaleda Zia on Monday wrote a letter to the Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh informing him of Bangladeshi people's concern over the proposed Tipaimukh dam on cross-border river Borak.

A team of the main opposition BNP dispatched the letter to the Indian high commissioner in the capital, party's officer secretary Rizvi Ahmed told bdnews24.com.

"[Khaleda] has informed the Indian prime minister about the possible environmental degradation if the dam is built and the Bangladeshi people's concern over the issue," Rizvi said.

Decision on writing to the Indian prime minister was taken recently in a meeting of the party's highest policymaking forum.

Common river Barak, which enters Bangladesh as Kushaira and Surma, carries seven to eight percent of Bangladesh's water supply. Hundreds of small rivers and water bodies are dependent on the river for water supply.

Environmentalists in Bangladesh fear that the drying up of the water bodies will lead to the unemployment of millions of people dependent on the water bodies.

Khaleda writes to Manmohan on Tipai fears :: Politics :: bdnews24.com ::

I doubt Mr. Singh will give any thought of stooping this killer project however at least she is trying unlike la hasina. If India does implement this project which defiantly will cause damage to Bangladeshi river system similar to Farakka than anything goes to dis stable India. India shouldn't than cry about insurgent as it will be hard to stop hardcore nationalist. Good Luck

 

[Communist]

India has just become intolerable in its unilateral bulldozing imperialistic ambitions. There must be an anti-Indian fraternity among all Asian countries to resist such moves together.