By Zoglul Husain, Uk
London 6 January 2010. Hasina is due to visit India on 10 January, her 12th foreign visit in as many months since she assumed office on 6 January 2009, in her second term as Prime Minister. But this is her first visit to India in her second term and it is meant to be a significant one, as splashed in the Indian media.
Whenever there is a high-level meeting between Bangladesh and India, many people delve into history and remember India's 'help' in our independence war. Indeed, according to the hopes of many, after our independence, the two countries should have become very friendly in a win-win relationship. But, as a matter of frustration for them, it was not to be! The stumbling block in this regard has been India's intransigence, chauvinism and obduracy in their uneven and unjust dealings with Bangladesh for their mad pursuit of establishing hegemonism over Bangladesh and exploiting it ruthlessly, which is typical of all imperialist and hegemonist powers.
Unlike the gullible and the direct- and indirect beneficiaries of hegemonic influence and favour of largesse, the others ponder about the nature of Indian 'help' in 1971 and many have good realisation of it. India helped Bangladesh by way of achieving their own targets. India actually helped themselves! The stark reality is, India did not join the 1971 war from any humanitarian considerations. And the fact is: We wanted independence for one reason, but India wanted to divide Pakistan for another reason, not only to divide Pakistan, they wanted to reduce Bangladesh to the status of occupied Kashmir, as they still do, given an opportunity. -
We must remember that within its own territory, India slaughters literally hundreds of thousands of Muslims, other non-Hindu religious groups, Dalits, minority nationalities, etc. as a method of mindless, brutal and callous suppression, in order to sustain the vicious rule of the coterie, which is in power. This kind of government cannot have any conscience or humanitarian feelings or mutually beneficial considerations. With a friend like the present hegemonic India, who needs enemies?
As to the relationship between Bangladesh and India, we are all for good relations as much as we are for good relations with other countries. But it is impossible to normalise our relations with India unless and until it gives up its hegemonic ways. In order to do that, India must compensate us for the desertification and other damages caused to Bangladesh by Farakka barrage and their other structures on 53 of the 54 common rivers. They must get out of South Talpatti. They must stop arming and training the Shanti Bahini in CHT, the 'Bangabhumi' claimants in the south-west and they must dismantle the terrorist training camps along the borders. It is also thought that the JMB was created by RAW, and HuJI-B by Mossad for their ulterior motives. It is also thought by many that it was an Indian commando, which perpetrated the BDR massacre at Peelkhana with the complicity of a small section of the BAL, a small section of the government and the traitor Moeen U and a few of his military associates, in order to destabilise and control our defence. If these allegations are true, India must stop these evil practices and compensate for the damages caused.
To establish good relations, India must stop twisting Bangladesh Government's arms for corridor to Seven Sisters States by distorting the Asian Highway and making us travel through Seven Sisters States to reach Myanmar, instead of through Teknaf. They must stop pressurising the government for use of Chittagong port, Ashugang river facility and railway lines from Chittagong to eastern India, etc. They must refrain from conspiracies to occupy our offshore areas and from plundering our national resources, etc. They must remove the hindrance to bilateral trades so that Bangladesh can reduce the huge gap and deficit in its trade with India. They must solve the enclave problems and the border problems, which should not take such a long time. As a matter of fact, India deliberately did not ratify the very first treaty signed between Bangladesh and India, which was the Mujib-Indira Treaty signed in 1974. While Bangladesh ratified the Mujib-Indira treaty shortly after it was signed in 1974 and promptly handed over Berubari, but India, even after 25 years, has neither ratified the treaty nor honoured its obligations, including transfer of Tin Bigha. We are thus dealing with a party, which never keeps its promises.
They must stop the killings of unarmed villagers along the border perpetrated by wilful contravention of the Geneva convention, the figures of killing produced by the HR organisation 'Odhikar' are about 100 a year since 2000. These brutal killings need to be raised very strongly in international forums by our governments i.e. to take strong action against Indian hegemonism. Indeed all the governments of Bangladesh, so far, soft-pedalled on bilateral issues between Bangladesh and India, because of, possibly, surreptitious Indian bankrolling to relevant quarters and may be also because of international influence favouring India, while India has stubbornly remained hell-bent on their hegemonic ambitions and their acts over Bangladesh.
Under these circumstances, the five or so agreements, which Hasina is likely to sign with India in her upcoming visit, would give total advantage to India at the cost of our national Interest. Clearly, India wants to establish control over our power sector and energy sector, our telecoms sector and our transport sector for their advantage in trade and military considerations. They also want to bind us on financial loan in order for their benefits on their pet projects. Hasina's intended talks on Teesta barrage seems to have failed to make a headway at secretary level. On the other hand, no amount of India's assurance will persuade Bangladeshis that the Tipaimukh hydel project and the Fulertal barrage will not do any harm to Bangladesh. They will have devastating effects, exactly as there were by Farakka and Teesta barrages.
Before her visit, Hasina seems to have been instrumental in handing over ULFA leader Arabinda Rajkhowa and a few of his colleagues, with herself by being under the uncanny spell of Indian government's black arts and with an overt intention to please India and earn their trust. The people of Seven Sisters helped us in our independence struggle, but Hasina betrayed them in their independence struggle against Delhi. She could have simply asked the ULFA leaders to quietly leave Bangladesh, or do something else, if she felt she was under pressure.
It is India, who with the backing of the US and their allies, engineered the vile conspiracy of the so-called one-eleven 2007 and it is these powers again who also engineered the sham stage-managed election of 29 December 2008 to bring to power a puppet regime in order to serve their evil interests in Bangladesh, and as a matter of fact, it is a blatant attempt to subjugate Bangladesh, etc., etc.
Unless these problems are sorted out, there cannot be any good relations between India and Bangladesh. We will not surrender our independence and sovereignty to India, or to any other power. We want concrete solutions to the concrete problems.
We should actually build peaceful resistance at grass roots levels against Indian hegemonism. There is absolutely no space for glossing over the problems and over the persistent hegemonic conspiracies by India. How many lackeys of India within Bangladesh are bankrolled by India? How many of the media? How many government officials, NGOs, business people, professionals, etc?? And for what reasons???
Many call Hasina's present (not her previous government where she was duly elected in the acceptable election of 1996) government a puppet regime, run by powers from outside the border. If on her forthcoming visit to india she sells out national interest to satisfy these foreign powers, then the people will have no other alternative except for taking to the streets and developing peaceful resistance. The people of Bangladesh will never surrender to the hegemonists, whatever backing they might have from their international allies and their lackeys within Bangladesh.
Written by: Zoglul Husain
E-mail:
zoglul@hotmail.co.uk
