Pranab Mukherjee’s visit: the same empty rhetoric

THE two-day visit of the Indian finance minister, Pranab Mukherjee, to Bangladesh went as predictably as it could. His articulation of the Indian government’s willingness to enter into an agreement on Teesta water sharing or his assurance that India’s river-interlinking project ‘would not be harmful for Bangladesh’ had no new twist or turn by and large; his colleagues in New Delhi, including the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, have said similar things over and over in the past three years or so. In fact, it may have been unrealistic to expect anything revealing or reassuring from him in the first place; after all, he was in Dhaka primarily to attend the concluding ceremony of the 150th anniversary of the birth of poet Rabindranath Tagore.

The only novelty, albeit essentially on a cosmetic level insofar as bilateral relations are concerned, may have been his fallacious and feeble attempt at apportioning the blame for New Delhi’s failure to conclude the Teesta water-sharing agreement on the Congress Party’s allies in the United Progressive Alliance government and the opposition parties in India. According to bdnews24.com, Mukherjee told a select group of editors during a meeting on Sunday that the deal had run aground because of such ‘ground realities’ as the Congress’s lack of majority in parliament. He sounded as if his party had always had the best intentions for Bangladesh at heart, a proposition that would be difficult to prove empirically. Moreover, it is inconceivable that all the members of the ruling alliance and the opposition in India are hostile to Bangladesh’s concerns and interests. Overall, his conclusion appeared geared more towards his domestic audience than anything else.

However, the Indian finance minister or, for that matter, his government needs to realise that New Delhi’s assurances and reassurances have increasingly fewer takers in Bangladesh. According to a report front-paged in New Age on Sunday, both the prime minister and the leader of the opposition in Bangladesh, during their meetings with Mukherjee, categorically said that India should sign an agreement on the sharing of Teesta water and hold a credible study soon on its plan to construct the Tipaimukh Dam on the trans-boundary river Barak. In fact, the prime minister appeared uncharacteristically blunt when she said that most people in Bangladesh did not understand the centre-state relations in Indian politics and that ‘it is easy for them to misunderstand the intent of the government of India over the delay in the conclusion of the Teesta agreement.’

The prime minister rightly pointed out that the construction of the Tipaimukh Dam and the river-interlinking project had become issues of grave concern for the public in Bangladesh.

Suffice it to say, the concern is rooted in findings and conclusions of experts, not only in Bangladesh but also in India, about the threat that the mega projects pose to the life and livelihood, the economy and ecology of the people on either side of the border. Worrying still, the Indian government has thus far displayed not only apathy but also antipathy to the concerns and interests of Bangladesh. Continued torture and killing of Bangladeshis by the Border Security Force; India’s persistent refusal to remove tariff and para-tariff barrier to exports from Bangladesh; and address trade imbalance, etc bear testimony to this end.

Overall, the Indian government needs to realise that the people at large in Bangladesh have very few reasons to keep faith in what it says and that it is time that it started delivering on its assurances and reassurances. 

Meanwhile, conscious sections of society in Bangladesh need to reach across the border and forge alliance with like-minded groups in India that are also concerned about the economic and ecological fallout of their government’s river-linking and Tipaimukh plans so as to sustain pressure on New Delhi to shelve the projects.

Source : 

 

Series of snubs: Padma Bridge, Teesta water and cricket

India has enjoyed free ride or transit without any fee for months as a major gain whereas any tangible favourable outcome for Bangladesh is yet to be visible. Several perplexing, bizarre and outlandish utterances by certain advisers to the prime minister led even some ruling alliance members to question whether these advisers work for the prime minister here or of India and serve the interests of this country or that. 

HOW the other half lives was a publication of photojournalism (1890) by Jacob Riis, documenting squalid living conditions in New York City slums. Many of the well-off were either unaware of or indifferent to the grubby and inhuman living conditions of the deprived and the disadvantaged.

Riis blamed the apathy of the dominant class for the miserable condition of the distressed and destitute. That was late 19th century New York City. This is early 21st Century Bangladesh. The prevailing condition here seems strikingly similar to NYC back then.

In order to alleviate widespread poverty and provide respite to the poor and underprivileged, international organisations and donor agencies, the World Bank crucial among them, were created. The role of the World Bank and other polygonal organisations, however, are both controversial and questionable.

Critics claim that the overbearing, pompous, pretentious and pushy organisations are significantly responsible for the persistent dismal state of affairs in the poorer countries. Their actions are blamed for creating a privileged affluent class, inured to western way and standard of opulent living. The charge is that the World Bank’s policies aid and abet a small population fraction rather than the inveterate needy half.

To paraphrase Mark Anthony in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, I am not here to bury the World Bank but to update on the latest government attempt to convince the organisation to release the $1.2 billion loan for the construction of the much-awaited and much-wanted Padma Bridge, suspended on charges of alleged corruption by official bigwigs.

According to an April 29 New Age back page report, a two-member delegation, led by Gowher Rizvi, adviser to the prime minister on foreign affairs, visited Washington, DC to attend a joint World Bank-International Monetary Fund meeting and convince the World Bank to overturn the suspension of the Padma Bridge loan. The plea, however, proved futile.

World Bank officials declined to act on the plea and the Rizvi mission returned pretty near empty-handed. The bank reiterated the serious corruption allegations and insisted on punishing the offenders. The original corruption claim was stated in a September 21, 2011 letter from the World Bank linking the then communication minister Syed Abul Hossain and his firm SACHO with the alleged scam.

The current communication minister has pledged the start of bridge construction within the next 11 months. The government has signed a memorandum of understanding with a Malaysia-based consortium for alternative fund arrangement. The failure of the Rizvi mission might have prompted the finance minister to announce that the government would replace the World Bank as the Padma Bridge project coordinator.

Come what may, the outright rejection yet again by the World Bank is a slap in the face and may mean a death knell to the mega project in the foreseeable future. The interest rate charged by the Malaysian consortium may be sky high and its ability to gather such a huge fund in a short period may be dubious and uncertain.

Moreover, the conditions laid down may be prohibitive. Such conditions may be so tough, harsh, stern and stringent that there may be a bridge over the river Padma in Bangladesh but the ownership and payback may belong to outsiders for ages.

The abject failure of the mission led by Pollyannaish and soft speaking, with lilting tone and accented Bangla, Gowher Rizvi who habitually seems to see boundless Bangladesh benefit on each foreign accord, is a major snub. We have to live with it and ensure that the government, out of sheer haste or obduracy and false pretence, does not sign on to a deal that is contrary to national interest.

Before, during and after the ill-fated Indian premier Manmohan Singh’s Dhaka visit in late 2011, Gowher Rizvi made a round of TV talk-show circuit, usually conducted by naïve, favourable and government-friendly hosts. He claimed that the agreement would profit Bangladesh more than India.

India has enjoyed free ride or transit without any fee for months as a major gain whereas any tangible favourable outcome for Bangladesh is yet to be visible. Several perplexing, bizarre and outlandish utterances by certain advisers to the prime minister led even some ruling alliance members to question whether these advisers work for the prime minister here or of India and serve the interests of this country or that.

The main benefit slated for Bangladesh during the Manmohan visit was the signing of the Teesta water-sharing treaty. The two sides, despite the last minute rosy and mission about to be accomplished outlook of our foreign minister, failed to sign the all important deal due to eleventh-hour intense objection by the West Bengal chief minister, the adamant and assertive Mamata Banerjee.

The official indication here was that it was just a temporary setback. The matter would be settled in no time at all. The finance minister expressed his expectation last September that Teesta water-sharing agreement would be signed within three months.

As for the delay in the Padma Bridge project, the finance minister said in the April 29 New Age report ‘it can happen for any large project like this.’ He had nonchalantly said in early September 2011 about the Teesta water sharing deal, ‘There is nothing to be disappointed as the deal has only been delayed.’

The three months has now turned into a world record in time keeping, time limit, time commitment and time management, similar to the home minister’s 48-hour deadline for apprehending the killers of Sagar and Runi. The 48 hours officially never elapsed and the three months formally never ended. Both seem like eternity.

There is ample possibility that neither the Padma Bridge nor the Teesta treaty may see the light of day during the reign of the current regime, sort of like Dhaka city corporation elections. If either does by some fluke, it would be hastily concluded but total victory will be claimed.

It will be merrily publicised, accompanied by pomp and grandeur, music and festivities, rallies and receptions, similar to the recent frivolous celebration of the Bay of Bengal demarcation verdict.

As for the simmering and exasperating Teesta imbroglio, West Bengali Mamata is steadfast and yet to budge from her adamant stance to refuse Bangladesh the fair share of water. According to a press report, she declined to grant an appointment to our foreign minister during the latter’s recent Kolkata visit.

The April 30 issue of the Bangla daily Manabzamin reported that Mamta refused to meet and discuss the thorny Teesta issue with Dipu Moni. The foreign minister sent the request for a meeting through the deputy high commissioner of Bangladesh but to no avail.

Mamata supposedly responded that she is in no mood to delve into international affairs and was not interested in any such discussion with the Bangladesh foreign minister. Whatever she has to say, she would do so directly to the Bangladesh prime minister, Mamata stated.

Dipu Moni had met Mamata last year and informed her of the big neighbour’s international obligations regarding water sharing. Mamata evidently was not pleased and perhaps mighty peeved with the lecture on global water-sharing covenant and hence the cold shoulder. She may well be hell-bent on making this country suffer by denying meaningful share of Teesta water.

This may be shocking but neither surprising nor something new. Many Indian actions, from trade and tariff to travel, are discriminatory at best and outright cruel, crude and perilous at worst, such as Indian Border Security Force’s treatment of Bangladeshis in the border area. Killing, maiming, beating and torture, what a prominent minister here once callously called natural and expected, are regular and routine occurrences.

The refusal of the West Bengal chief minister to meet and discuss matters of mutual interests with the Bangladesh foreign minister is another monumental rebuff. This is a clear indication of how the chief minister of a neighbouring Indian state, and perhaps other prominent Indian leaders, holds this country in utter disdain and neglect.

A major factor may be that the current regime here treats Indian wish as its command and grants India all without significant return or reciprocation. That might have diminished the importance and implication of this country in the eyes of Indian leaders.

After such depressing and frustrating discussion of colossal twin rebuffs, sports may lighten things up. There is a popular US saying, ‘When things get tough, the tough go shopping.’ One may paraphrase that by the adage, ‘When things get depressing, the depressed watch cricket,’ only if there is no load- shedding. So on to cricket.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board president made an imprudent, unilateral and abortive attempt to organise a controversial tour of our team to Pakistan. No foreign cricket team has toured Pakistan since the visiting Sri Lanka cricket team was subject to a fiendish terrorist attack during the 2009 tour.

The High Court knew better. Considering the security threat, it gave a stay order on the slipshod and arbitrary decision of the BCB president, who, in the opinion of some critics, often acts like Somerset Maugham’s Mr Know-it-all. He had shown a callous disregard for the safety of the players in his risky decision.

What is sorely and urgently needed is a worthy opponent to show the newfound confidence, skills and fighting temperament of our team. Unfortunately, according to the schedule, the team is idle for the next six months.
Having failed in the rash and foolhardy Pakistan jaunt, the cricket board tried to arrange matches against another Test-playing opponent. That is vital because after the inspiring performance in the recently held Asia Cup where Bangladesh narrowly lost to Pakistan in the final, a long hiatus would sap the collective energy and deplete the enthusiasm and momentum of the team.

The cricket board was reportedly keen to play three one-day internationals and five Twenty-20 matches against South Africa. The proposal was made less than a week after Bangladesh’s scheduled tour to Pakistan was postponed by the High Court.

The South African board decided against the Bangladesh series. The board spokesman said: ‘With the volume of cricket to be played this year, sometimes rest is more important.’ So rest and recreation takes precedence over a series against rejuvenated and ready to go Bangladesh cricket team. The team is ready to go but unfortunately can find no place to go. It is just a waiting game for now.

The mild snub from the South African cricket board thus gives no respite from the duel major rebuffs. It is a waiting game for the nation as well. It is waiting for Padma Bridge funding. It is an interminable wait for Mamata to be kind and gracious so that the Teesta water-sharing treaty can be signed.
Don’t hold your breath.

BY :  Omar Khasru.

The Bengal Tigers in the R&AW cage

R&AW trained Crusader 100 in action in Bangladesh.

Strictly scrutinized 100 armed cadres of the ruling Awami League in Bangladesh, who received 6-month long extensive commando training at Dehradun in India under the direct supervision of Indian espionage agency the Research and Analysis Wing are continuing various types of activities, including secret killing, abduction etcetera since June of 2010 with the mission of “clearing” a large number of politicians, media personnel and members of the civil society in Bangladesh. The team codenamed “Crusader-100” went to India during end September 2009 and stayed there till mid June 2010, where brilliant commando trainers of Indian Army gave extensive training to these people under the disguise of “training few young commandos of Bangladesh Army”.

The entire project of “Crusader-100” was originally conceived by Indian Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and the project was coordinated directly by the Bangladeshi Prime Minister and her defense advisor Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Tarique Ahmed Siddiqui.

Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Tarique Ahmed Siddiqui maintains special connection with Indian RAW and British MI6 for decades, since he was in army service. Such relations of RAW and MI6 with him was because of his family relations with Sheikh Hasina. When Bangladesh Awami League formed government in January 2009, Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Tarique Ahmed Siddiqui became extremely important in the government due to his official position as the defense advisor to the Bangladeshi Prime Minister as well as his personal identity of being the brother-in-law of Prime Minister’s younger sister Sheikh Rehana. The selection of the entire batch of ruling party cadres, who were sent to India for commando training were directly done by Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Tarique Ahmed Siddiqui and a few of his loyal colleagues and retired army officers, while on return of the members of the “Crusader-100” team from India, they were provided a hit list comprising names of opposition politicians, members of Bangladeshi media and some members of the civil society. According to information, the list contains names of more than 83 people, who are planned to be “cleared” by the members of the “Crusader-100” gang. The members of these specially trained hitters are housed inside several buildings at Dhaka’s Gulshan and Baridhara areas. The Baridhara “bases” of the hitters is maintained directly by Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Tarique Ahmed Siddiqui and each of such places are equipped with sophisticated surveillance equipments as well as entry of civilians are restricted within these premises. Leader of Bangladesh Nationalist Party, M Ilias Ali, who became victim of enforced disappearance recently, was also named in the list of Crusader-100 force. My New Delhi contacts disclosed few of the names of the hit list, which include, political leaders Amanullah Aman, Mirza Abbas, Sadeque Hossain Khoka, Goyeshwar Chandra Roy, M Ilias Ali, Habibun Nabi Sohel, Abdullah Al Noman, Barrister Abdur Razzaque, Shafiul Alam Pradhan, ASM Abdur Rob, Mufti Fazlul Haque Amini and Moulana Fazlul Karim. Awami League and RAW have decided “clearing” the listed names latest by December 2013, which they consider to be “vital” for the ruling party in Bangladesh in returning into power.

The gang of Crusader-100 is equipped with sophisticated small and medium range weapons, mostly with silencers as well as bullet-proof jackets, gas bombs and vehicles for their operations. Some of the members of this gang use satellite phones to skip interception of any of the Bangladeshi intelligence agencies. Each of the members of this gang received healthy financial package alongside various types of extra benefits, including apartments in Dhaka city for the members of their families and small businesses. They are not allowed to show faces during the day-time and mostly required to stay inside their bases in Dhaka city. In case of emergency, when the members of the team are required to go on street during the day time, they are compulsorily required to wear black-tinted helmets, to hide their faces from the public. By rotation, members of the team are secretly taken to India for a break of 7-10 days for “amusement” purposes. In such cases, they are allowed to cross Bangladesh-India borders without any travel documents.

Source :

RAW trained Crusader 100 in action in Bangladesh

The gang of Crusader-100 is equipped with sophisticated small and medium range weapons, mostly with silencers as well as bullet-proof jackets, gas bombs and vehicles for their operations.

 

Strictly scrutinized 100 armed cadres of the ruling Awami League in Bangladesh, who received 6-month long extensive commando training at Dehradun in India under the direct supervision of Indian espionage agency RAW are continuing various types of activities, including secret killing, abduction etcetera since June of 2010 with the mission of “clearing” a large number of politicians, media personnel and members of the civil society in Bangladesh. The team codenamed “Crusader-100” went to India during end September 2009 and stayed there till mid June 2010, where brilliant commando trainers of Indian Army gave extensive training to these people under the disguise of “training few young commandos of Bangladesh Army”. The entire project of “Crusader-100” was originally conceived by Indian Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and the project was coordinated directly by the Bangladeshi Prime Minister and her defense advisor Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Tarique Ahmed Siddiqui.

Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Tarique Ahmed Siddiqui maintains special connection with Indian RAW and British MI6 for decades, since he was in army service. Such relations of RAW and MI6 with him was because of his family relations with Sheikh Hasina. When Bangladesh Awami League formed government in January 2009, Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Tarique Ahmed Siddiqui became extremely important in the government due to his official position as the defense advisor to the Bangladeshi Prime Minister as well as his personal identity of being the brother-in-law of Prime Minister’s younger sister Sheikh Rehana. The selection of the entire batch of ruling party cadres, who were sent to India for commando training were directly done by Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Tarique Ahmed Siddiqui and a few of his loyal colleagues and retired army officers, while on return of the members of the “Crusader-100” team from India, they were provided a hit list comprising names of opposition politicians, members of Bangladeshi media and some members of the civil society. According to information, the list contains names of more than 83 people, who are planned to be “cleared” by the members of the “Crusader-100” gang. The members of these specially trained hitters are housed inside several buildings at Dhaka’s Gulshan and Baridhara areas. The Baridhara “bases” of the hitters is maintained directly by Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Tarique Ahmed Siddiqui and each of such places are equipped with sophisticated surveillance equipments as well as entry of civilians are restricted within these premises. Leader of Bangladesh Nationalist Party, M Ilias Ali, who became victim of enforced disappearance recently, was also named in the list of Crusader-100 force. My New Delhi contacts disclosed few of the names of the hit list, which include, political leaders Amanullah Aman, Mirza Abbas, Sadeque Hossain Khoka, Goyeshwar Chandra Roy, M Ilias Ali, Habibun Nabi Sohel, Abdullah Al Noman, Barrister Abdur Razzaque, Shafiul Alam Pradhan, ASM Abdur Rob, Mufti Fazlul Haque Amini and Moulana Fazlul Karim. Awami League and RAW have decided “clearing” the listed names latest by December 2013, which they consider to be “vital” for the ruling party in Bangladesh in returning into power.

The gang of Crusader-100 is equipped with sophisticated small and medium range weapons, mostly with silencers as well as bullet-proof jackets, gas bombs and vehicles for their operations. Some of the members of this gang use satellite phones to skip interception of any of the Bangladeshi intelligence agencies. Each of the members of this gang received healthy financial package along side various types of extra benefits, including apartments in Dhaka city for the members of their families and small businesses. They are not allowed to show faces during the day-time and mostly required to stay inside their bases in Dhaka city. In case of emergency, when the members of the team are required to go on street during the day time, they are compulsorily required to wear black-tinted helmets, to hide their faces from the public. By rotation, members of the team are secretly taken to India for a break of 7-10 days for “amusement” purposes. In such cases, they are allowed to cross Bangladesh-India borders without any travel documents. 

Source : 

SOUTH ASIAN SCENE : India’s deeply disturbing flip-flop neighbourhood policy

An independent group of Indian strategic analysts in their latest report entitled ‘A Foreign and Strategic Policy for India in the Twenty-first Century’ observed:

“Interstate politics in South Asia has direct spill-over effects into domestic and regional politics in India. India’s ability to command respect is considerably diminished by the resistance it meets in the region. South Asia also places fetters on India’s global ambitions.”

The report did not deal with the other side of the coin. India’s flip-flop neighbourhood policy, not to speak of suspected covert interventions in the domestic affair of other South Asian nations, is having a destabilizing effect particularly on its smaller neighbours, and in turn is beginning to boomerang on its own blueprint of “stability, development, security and also its regional and global aspirations.” This was noted by Professor S D Muni, who runs a Delhi think tank, in candid terms in a working paper published on March 16 by the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore, where he is a Visiting Research Fellow. He cited the case of Maldives as an example. In a summarised form, I briefly reproduce his dissertation.

The Maldives’ first major political transition took place in 1968 from a Sultanate to a republic. Maumoon Abdul Gayoom became the third president of the republic in 1978 and survived three coup attempts against him in 1980, 1983 and 1988 respectively. During the last one, he was rescued by an active Indian military intervention (under an India Navy’s operation called ‘Sandhya’) undertaken on his specific request. He eventually had to give up power in the face of a struggle for democracy during 2007-08 against his authoritarian ways to govern, after losing in a popular election in 2008. Nasheed of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), declared a ‘prisoner of conscience’ by the Amnesty International for his ordeal of detention by the Gayoom regime for nine years on 27 different occasions, led the struggle and became the first popular president of the Maldives.

But after 3 years and 4 months of his rule marked by both sensationalism and authoritarianism, President Nasheed was forced to resign and hand over power to his Vice-President Mohammad Waheed Hassan Manik on 7 February 2012, in the face of a revolt from the security forces comprising of the country’s Police Force and the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF). While the succeeding President Waheed has projected it as a constitutional and peaceful transition of power, Nasheed and his supporters have termed it as a coup claiming that President Nasheed was forced to resign at the ‘point of gun’.

(India has) deep strategic and economic stakes in the Maldives. Strategically, the Maldives occupies a critical position in the Indian Ocean Sea Lanes of Communication (SLOC) through which thousands of merchant and naval ships transit. During the Second World War, British had established an operational base in the southern Gan Island of the Maldives. This base was handed over to the Maldives only in 1976 when the US had established a senior Naval Command in Diego Garcia, some 600 miles further south of Gan. In 1977, the then Soviet Union approached the Maldives for setting up naval facilities to counter the US Diego Garcia base but without any success. In 1988, when India rescued the Gayoom regime, the attempted coup was suspected to have been led by a Sri Lankan Tamil militant group, Peoples’ Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE). In 2001, during Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji’s visit to the Maldives, a proposal was made for establishing a Chinese submarine base in Marao coral island of the Maldives, located about 40 km south of the capital Male. Though such a submarine base has not been established, China entered into a defence cooperation agreement with the Maldives, signed during the Gayoom regime that lasted until 2009. India was then able to persuade the-then President Nasheed to let the Indian Navy to step in and fill up the gap.

Although India had rescued the constituted ruler of Maldives in 1988, Indian policy-makers remained practically oblivious of possible adversarial use of the Maldives’ strategic location until the November 2008 cross-border terrorist attack in Mumbai from across the sea. India became particularly concerned about Lashkar-e-Toiba seeking a foothold in the Maldives by exploiting the Islamic connection.

This led India to conclude a close defence cooperation agreement with the Maldives. In August 2009, during the visit by Indian Defence Minister A.K. Antony, India agreed to set up 26 radar stations across 26 Atolls of the Maldives. These stations will be linked to Indian Coastal Command. India will also establish an air force station for surveillance flights to monitor the ‘movement of pirates, terrorists, smugglers’ and such peace-threatening forces.

Security cooperation between the two countries was reinforced and extended along with a Framework Agreement for Development Cooperation Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to the Maldives in November, 2011.

But Indian policy-makers stumbled again when Nasheed was ousted. The sudden ouster of the popularly elected President Nasheed was initially described by India as an ‘internal development’. It viewed the change in guard as a peaceful and constitutional transition of power.

In a letter sent to the new President, Prime Minister underlined the “common destiny and common security interests” shared by the two countries, adding that “India is committed to working with you and the Government of Maldives, to further enhance our close, bilateral cooperation to mutual benefit and for the continued security, progress and prosperity of our two countries”.

Legitimising Nasheed’s exit

As it turned out, the latest change in the Maldives was neither peaceful nor orderly. There were violent clashes between Nasheed’s supporters and police, which threw the law and order situation into utter disarray in the capital, Male, and other atolls like Nasheed’s stronghold of Addu. India changed tune and joined the chorus of international support coming to Nasheed, particularly from the United Kingdom, which set up a Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) to investigate the circumstances of this political change.

Thereafter India began trying to make a course correction of its initial hasty move of going all out to legitimise the exit of Nasheed. India has, in the process, trapped itself deep in the Maldives’ domestic power struggle. In fact, New Delhi was not quite comfortable with Nasheed’s abrasive style of politics and governance which alienated his former allies and strengthened his opponents.

The Indian strategic establishment also suspected that the Nasheed administration was hobnobbing with China behind India’s back on the possibility of granting projects of naval significance, including a Chinese ‘submarine base’. The question of ‘Nasheed’s proximity to China’, particularly of his defence minister’s, was reportedly brought up by India’s intelligence agencies, in a high-level meeting of the Defence Crisis Management Group in New Delhi when it discussed the question of India’s intervention in the Maldives to rescue Nasheed from the violence and chaos that marked the aftermath of political transition. The Indian security establishment was also uneasy with the Nasheed administration’s proximity to the UK and the presence of British advisers around him. There were suspicions that the UK, either for its own sake or on behalf of the US, for the latter was expanding and consolidating its presence in the Asia-Pacific region, could persuade the Maldives to grant naval presence to it. If that were to happen, it would blunt, if not neutralise, Maldives’ emerging defence cooperation with India.

Indian approach remained flip-flop. Result is, three visits by powerful Indian diplomats, first by a special envoy of Indian Prime Minister who is Secretary (West) of India’s External Affairs Ministry, and then two consecutive visits by Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai failed to fix a “roadmap” for Maldives and only compounded confusion.

The All Party Consultative Committee (APCC) established for dialogue between the rival political forces was not able to deliberate meaningfully on the questions of early elections and any constitutional amendments to facilitate elections.

Questions developed within the ruling coalition on India’s role. India’s advocacy for early elections and concern for the protection and security of Nasheed and his close associates were seen as being a partisan intervention. The hard-liners in the ruling coalition were getting resentful of India’s ‘interference’ in the Maldives’ internal affairs. They objected to Indian Foreign Secretary Mathai’s participation in APCC.

After Mathai’s departure, Maldives Home Minister Mohammad Jameel stressed that “as long as India does not interfere in the internal affairs of Maldives, all other efforts put by India will be seen as constructive. 

However, India must not be seen as a friend only of one party or political individual”.

Complaints

Similar complaints about Delhi preferring Indian “overt” government relations with a particular political party in Bangladesh, rather than government-to-government relations, also persists in this country. Of late, certain developments in the domestic situation of Bangladesh, apart from the continuing menace of death-traps in Indo-Bangladesh borders set by trigger-happy Indian BSF, is deeply disturbing public psyche over what is perceived as “covert” operations being pursued by trained Indian RAW agents or their criminal accomplices.

A number of unsolved cases of mysterious murders and disappearances have reinforced suspicion of interventionist and bloody Indian hands behind these mishaps. Two of such mishaps without a clue confronting our law-enforcement agencies are the cruel double-murder by knifing of a journalist couple in their own secure apartment, and the gun-shot murder of a Saudi diplomat in the secure diplomatic zone.

Referring to the last case a weekly tabloid, also on-line, reproduced a “scoop” which I quote hereunder: 

“According to the scoop, the intelligence agency of a neighboring country trained at least 75 nefarious armed cadres of the ruling party during October 2009 to June 2010. Since their return to Bangladesh, these cadres are provided “safe shelter” inside a couple of houses in Dhaka, which are located within the diplomatic enclaves. They go out with “operation mission” during dark hours and return to the safe shelters on completions of such mission, which includes abduction as well as secret killing.

“On the night of the murder of Khalaf bin Mohammed Salem al-Ali, the Saudi diplomat was stopped on road when he came out from the residence of a Jamaat-e-Islami leader by few members of the killing squad. He was pulled inside a car and taken inside one of the safe shelters, where he was murdered. Later the killers re-loaded Khalaf bin Mohammed Salem al-Ali’s dead body and dumped it near his residence and fled the spot. Bangladeshi investigators expressed surprise seeing no blood stain at the spot where the Saudi diplomat’s dead body was recovered.”

The vernacular media and also government authorities have ignored that speculative report as sensationalism, but younger readers and senior citizens who have time to leisurely browse online news cannot but have been gripped by a panic syndrome. That syndrome is contaminating our people throughout the country after the strange happenings of the disappearance of the just-resigned Railway minister’s car-driver who exposed the rent-collection scandal in personnel recruitment by Railway officials allegedly in collusion with the Railway minister (now removed but retained as minister without portfolio) and the abduction of a high profile former lawmaker and Opposition BNP’s Organising Secretary (Sylhet Division) M. Ilias Ali with his nephew car-driver from Dhaka streets around midnight on 17th April. 

BY : Sadeq Khan.