RAW re-predicts doom of ruling party during next election in Bangladesh

Indian intelligence agency – RAW, in its recent report has once again forecasted massive defeat of the ruling Bangladesh Awami League, during the 2014 general election in the country. It said, although Bangladesh Awami League, under the leadership of Sheikh Hasina has been exhibiting sincerity in strengthening relations with India, its popularity at home has been miserably dropping down due to series of high-profile corruptions, financial scams, campus violence, deteriorating law and order situation, suffocation of media and freedom of expression. It said, the ruling party, which even in the recent past enjoyed reasonably good relations with the Islamic political parties and fronts despite its secularist policy, some of the recent actions of Bangladesh Awami League has not only created huge gap between them and the Islamic leaders, but also giving wrong impression amongst the people, interpreting the ruling party as "anti-Islam". On the other hand, continuous repression on religious minorities, including Hindus and very recent incident at the Buddhist temples at Chittagong Hill Tract areas, the religious minorities are no more feeling comfortable under the rule of Bangladesh Awami League. The vandalism on the Buddhist temples and population in the eastern part of Bangladesh has already tarnished the image of the ruling party at home and abroad.

The report said, the decline in popularity of the ruling Bangladesh Awami League is even beyond speculations, while Bangladeshi masses are openly expressing anger at the poor governance of the ruling party. Taking advantage of such situation, main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party has suddenly boosted its diplomatic efforts within and outside the country, which is clearly aimed at winning a diplomatic battle with the ruling party. While Bangladesh Nationalist Party is intensifying its diplomatic efforts, including visit of former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia to China and her upcoming visit to India, the ruling party as well as its foreign minister is rather sitting reluctantly, as if they are prepared to accept the diplomatic defeat. Dhaka's relations with Washington is already freezing down, which became clear when the Prime Minister's office ignored repeated requests from the US ambassador in Bangladesh, Dan W Mozena, who had been seeking appointment to meet the Bangladeshi Prime Minister. Top brasses in the foreign ministry had reportedly suggested its staffs to refrain from showing "extra importance" to any of the members of the Western missions in Dhaka.

Indian intelligentsia and political pundits had been expressing concern over potential security threats to Indian soil, if Bangladesh Awami League gets defeated in the next general election, as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been taking numerous measures in uprooting anti-Indian activities within Bangladesh as well as activities of the separatist groups in India, who had been earlier using Bangladeshi soil as safe haven. During Sheikh Hasina's current tenure, a large number of members of the United Liberation Front of Assam [ULFA], including its bigwig Aravind Rajkhowa, had been handed over to the Indian authorities, while the Bangladeshi government is set in handing over ULFA leader Anup Chetia and two of his accomplices to India in next few weeks. It may be mentioned here that, Anup Chetia along with his accomplice Babul Sharma and Laxmi Prasad had been serving in Bangladeshi prison since 1993. Anup Chetia and two others were arrested from Dhaka by the local intelligence agency in 1993, when Bangladesh Nationalist Party [BNP] was in power. Although Anup Chetia was arrested during BNP's rule, it is rumored that the party had been extending support towards ULFA and other Indian separatist groups while there is also allegation of providing logistic supports by the BNP led government to these anti-Indian elements. Currently, trial into the case of recovery of a huge arms haul is continuing in Bangladeshi court, where leaders of Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami are accused of having hands behind this arms trafficking, which reached Bangladeshi soil en-route to separatist groups in the North-Eastern provinces in India. Few of the top figures of country's intelligence and law enforcement agencies are also accused in this huge arms haul.

Earlier on December 17, 1995, western nationals were arrested when arms were being dropped from Latvian Antonov AN-26 aircraft at Indian district of Purulia in the state of West Bengal. The chief accused "Kim Davy" [real name Niels Holck, alias Niels Christian Nielsen] claims that it was a conspiracy of the Indian government together with RAW and MI5 to overthrow the communist government in West Bengal and he was given assurances from the central government about his safety and return to Denmark. He further alleges that MP Pappu Yadav, who is in touch with the Prime Minister of India, facilitated his safe exit from India. The crew of the aircraft consisted of five Latvian citizens and Peter Bleach, a British citizen and an ex Special Air Service operative turned mercenary who was based in Yorkshire and involved in arms dealing. 

However, Annie Machon, the former MI5 officer, accuses Bleach of being an MI6 agent in her book "Spies, Lies and Whistleblowers". In numerous interviews, Bleach has always evaded questions on this subject and has declined to answer questions on his military background. They were arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment while alleged kingpin Niels Christian Nielsen [aka Kim Peter Davy], a Danish citizen and member of the Ananda Marga group, escaped. Later, an Interpol red notice was issued against him. Following the intervention of Russian authorities, the Latvian crew [who gained Russian citizenship while in Indian custody] were later pardoned and released in 2000. An appeal has been submitted by the pilot lawyer before the Calcutta High Court in March 2000 challenging the trial results and the judgment but it is still pending. Peter Bleach, too, was released on 4 February 2004, via a presidential pardon, allegedly due to persistent British Government pressure. In 2007 Kim Davy was traced by Denmark authorities and on April 9, 2010 Danish government decided to extradite Kim Davy to India but Danish authorities failed to successfully defend their decision in the Danish high court. The court, therefore, refused extradition of Kim Davy to India. Further, Danish authorities decided not to appeal the high court judgment to the Supreme Court.

The government in Bangladesh led by Sheikh Hasina also nabbed a number of anti-India terror outfit, including Lashkar-e-Toiba, Sipah Sahaba, Joish-e-Mohammed etc, which had been reportedly operating from within Bangladesh. Some of these terror outfits reportedly had direct links with Al Qaeda. When Bangladesh Nationalist Party led government was in power, a team of Al Qaeda clandestinely visited Bangladesh and held secret meeting with the local counterparts inside a warehouse in Ashuganj area, which is 25-30 kilometers from Indian district of Agartala. The international terror outfit Al Qaeda reportedly established connections with a number of Bangladeshi Islamist and jihadist groups. But, since Sheikh Hasina's government came in power, jihadist operatives within Bangladesh have been significantly eliminated with the help of Indian intelligence. The Indian intelligence strongly believes that, during the rule of Bangladesh Awami League, threats to India's domestic security from the cross-border terrorists is greatly checked. For this particular reason, Indian intelligentsia is recommending New Delhi's direct hands in ensuring Bangladesh Awami League in continuing in the office, at least for another term, while it categorically predicts a huge political doom to the ruling party, if the election is participated by Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which may bag brute majority in the election, mostly because of anger of the voters over gross misrule of the grand alliance government led by Bangladesh Awami League.

While the possible outcome of the electoral result of 2014 polls in Bangladesh is clearly going to be unfavorable to the ruling grand alliance government, Pakistani Inter Service Intelligence [ISI] has recently intensified its activities inside Bangladesh with the ulterior motive of putting the ruling grand alliance government into further political complicities. According to sources, ISI operatives have suddenly become over-active in Bangladesh, while some of its jihadist contacts are regularly holding secret meetings possibly to finalize blueprint of anti-government sabotages in the country. Some of the ISI operatives are regularly holding meetings at Dhaka's Banani and Dhanmondi areas, while an ISI agent with extensive connection with local Jihadist groups and fanatic clergies, is giving anti-government provocations with the instigation of unseating the current government much ahead of the next general election. The same ISI agent is also reportedly holding secret meetings with some of the retired officers of Bangladesh Army, which still is skipping attention of the Bangladeshi intelligence.

BY :   Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury.

ISI behind attack on Buddhist temples in Bangladesh

Pakistani spy agency Inter-Service Intelligence [ISI] is believed to be mastermind behind pre-planned attack on the Buddhist monasteries in Bangladesh. Extremist Muslims and some unidentified people, who are believed to be Rohingyas from the neighboring Myanmar vandalised and set on fire Buddhist monasteries on September 30, 2012 on hearing of a Facebook post desecrating the Qur'an, which was tagged on the wall of a Buddhist youth by someone else. Within 24 hours of this notoriety, a fresh spate of sectarian violence, two more Buddhist monasteries were burnt down in the same locality. In Patiya of Chittagong, more than 500 workers of Western Marine set on fire two Buddhist temples, Kalagaon Ratnankur Bouddha Bihar and Lakhera Abhoy Bouddha Bihar, and a Hindu temple, Kalagaon Nabarun Sangha Durgabari after midnight past September 30. The total number of damaged temples in Cox's Bazar and Chittagong now stands at 22.

According to information, agents and operatives of ISI became extremely active for past few months within the Chittagong Hill Tract areas under the garb of non governmental organizations. They have been giving provocations to the Muslim population in that area of "conspiracy of vested quarters" of evicting them [Bangla speaking people] from Chittagong Hill Tract areas with the help of the ruling party. They were even instigated of waging secret war against the religious minority groups in the locality, compelling them to migrate to India or Myanmar.

Pakistani intelligence agency has been working under various disguise inside Bangladesh. Since March this year, ISI operatives in the country are ex-armed cadres of now defunct Freedom Party. It may be mentioned here that, Freedom Party was formed by the self-proclaimed killers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman following his brutal assassination in 1975. Founders of this so-called political party received millions of dollars from Libya's former dictator Muammar Al Gaddafi. Freedom Party was recruiting armed cadres from across Bangladesh with the ulterior motive of staging another bloody coup in the country. The armed gangs of Freedom Party made several assassination attempts on Sheikh Hasina and members of her family. But, since few of the kingpins of Freedom Party were hanged to death in 2011, most of its armed cadres went either into hiding or joined local crime rackets. The armed cadres of the party had been given guerrilla warfare training in Libya and Palestine which was financed by Gaddafi and the Pakistani spy agency.

During the tenure of Bangladesh Nationalist Party [BNP] led coalition government [2001-2006], ISI were actively funding anti Ahmadiya activities in Bangladesh, which were also silently witnessed by the ruling party. The anti-Ahmadiya groups continued to attack and demolish mosques of the Ahmadiya Muslim Jamaat as well continue numerous forms of atrocities on this religious minority group in Bangladesh. It may be mentioned here that, under Pakistani law, Ahmadiyas are not considered as Muslims, while Bangladesh has never ceased the rights of Ahmadiyas to be considered as Muslims.

It is even rumored that the August 21, 2004 grenade attack of Bangladesh Awami League leader Sheikh Hasina was originally plotted by the Pakistani spy agency, which later was implemented by some of the influential figures in the BNP led coalitions government. In some of secret meetings to finalize the August 21 attack, station chief of ISI in Bangladesh or some deep-covered officials were present.

When Bangladesh Awami League led coalition government came in power in 2009, activities of Inter-Service Intelligence got significantly tamed as the government was committed working in combating Islamist militancy and religious extremism.

ISI activities inside Bangladesh were significantly increased in the recent months with the ulterior motive of putting the ruling party into huge crisis both domestically and internationally. Its operations in Bangladesh are divided into several segments namely propaganda, information gathering, recruitment, guerrilla training and offensives. Its propaganda plans are implemented by some of the big fishes in a vernacular daily while a self-proclaimed ex operative of Bangladesh's intelligence, who now works for the Pakistani spy agency is coordinating media war against the ruling government in Bangladesh.

It may be mentioned here that, since independence of Bangladesh, this is for the first time; the peace-loving Buddhist population in the country has become victim of such nefarious brutality and barbaric acts.

Pakistani ISI has been actively involved in illegal trafficking of drugs, arms and counterfeit Indian currency into various destinations in India by using Bangladeshi territory as transit. It is confirmed by dependable sources that, currently ISI is operating at least 50 business establishments inside Bangladesh.

Giving strong reaction at the recent atrocities on the Buddhist and Hindu populations in Chittagong Hill Tract, advocate Gobinda Chandra Pramanik, secretary general of Bangladesh Jatio Hindu Mohajote [Bangladesh National Hindu Grand Alliance] said, "the government needs to give exemplary punishment to the perpetrators and their masterminds. This is the most unfortunate situation for the religious minorities in the country."

He said, "We strongly condemn such barbaric actions and equally demand stern action against the members of the law enforcing agencies, who silently witnesses such massacre on the monasteries and temples."

Gobinda Chandra Pramanik said, "We believe there is some hands of foreign elements behind such notoriety and the government should properly investigate and identify the culprits for the sake of image of the country."

Commenting on such heinous crime, leading English language newspaper The Daily Star in editorial comment said, "What happened in Ramu and some other areas in Chittagong must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. The outrage that was created by people burning down Buddhist temples and houses belies the long tradition of harmonious and peaceful coexistence between people of various creeds in Bangladesh. Religious tolerance and peaceful coexistence are not only an article of our people it is also enshrined in the Constitution of Bangladesh.

"The regrettable incident has struck at the very ethos and the underlying essence of our long religio-cultural tradition. Whatever may have been the causative factor, the violent reaction seems to have been very well orchestrated. We believe that those who believe in the fundamental message of Islam would have exercised more temperance in addressing an issue centering on an anti-Islam picture on Facebook."

Some of the eminent columnists in Bangladesh are already predicting 'monster' behind such notoriety on the Buddhist and Hindu temples in the Chittagong Hill Tract areas.

Columnist Syed Mansur Hashim wrote: "The outrage that some unidentified trouble-mongers committed against Buddhist communities at Teknaf, Ramu and Ukhia upazilas on the nights of Saturday and Sunday has shocked the entire nation. Clearly, the perpetrators have tried to besmear Bangladesh's image as a nation of religious tolerance and harmony. The way Buddhist temples have been damaged and desecrated and houses of Budhist villagers have been ransacked and set ablaze speaks volumes for the monsters behind the mayhem."

He wrote, "The mob violence that engulfed Buddhist villages saw widespread looting and the gutting of religious relics and monasteries. With some of the most revered Buddhist temples in ashes, including the 250-year-old Shima Bihar in Ramu, communal harmony between Buddhists and Muslims is effectively in tatters. The attacks were an attack on harmony and on peaceful coexistence. But given recent events, particularly the worldwide backlash of Muslims against a film made in California mocking the Prophet Mohammad, religious sentiments had already been heightened and subversive elements have taken advantage of the situation to incite communal violence."

English language daily The New Age in its editorial comment wrote, "While it is absolutely unacceptable in a democratic political and cultural dispensation to have the minority communities, religious or ethnic or otherwise, assailed by the majority ones, a section of the majority Muslim community resorted to rampant attacks on Buddhist monasteries, Hindu temples and households in Ramu of Cox's Bazar on Saturday midnight and Sunday."

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Cold war inside Pakistani Presidential Palace

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari became furious on his son Bilawal Bhutto when the junior Zardari received a "special gift" from his girlfriend and Pakistani foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar on the day of Eid Ul Fitr. On the early hours of the day, Bilawal Bhutto received a flower bouquet and a hand-written greeting card stating – "No wonder we waited enough, not its time to give an end to our waiting. Eid Mubarak!"

Later President Zardari came to know about the contents of the romantic greetings card sent by his foreign minister, he immediately called Hina Rabbani Khar and expressed anger for her extra-marital affairs with his "minor son". At this stage, Hina Rabbani Khar in harsh tone criticized Zardari's "meanness" and asked him to refrain from "poking nose into her personal affairs". The Pakistani foreign minister even threatened to resign from the ministry as well as membership of Pakistan People's Party if President Zardari didn't apologise for his "inappropriate behavior". The matter was immediately brought into attention of Bilawal Bhutto by Hina Rabbani Khar and on hearing the news of his father's "rudeness" towards Hina; Bilawal also threatened of leaving the post of chairman of Pakistan People's Party and leave the country by the end of the year. It is learnt from dependable sources within the Zardari family that Bilawal Bhutto has made his mind to bid farewell to politics and leave the country either by end of 2012 or early next year, while Hina Rabbani Khar is also expected to resign from the ministry almost at the same time.

While the hidden cold war between the father and the son is getting complex every day, Hina Rabbani Khar on the other end is negotiating a settled divorce with her husband millionaire businessman Firoze Gulzar, from whom she has two daughters named Annaya and Dina. One of the common family friends of Gulzars and Khars is assigned to mediate the settled divorce. It is learnt that, Hina Rabbani Khar is offloading her shares of Polo Lounge in the name of her children following the settlement of the divorce, while she also has signalled to waive Firoze Gulzar from paying her any alimony after the divorce. Trouble between Hina Rabbani Khar and Firoze Gulzar reportedly began two years back when Firoze was caught in having extra-marital affairs with one of the female staffers of his business ventures. She brought this matter to the attention of her father and later they collected some evidence of extra-marital affairs of Firoze Gulzar. At this stage, being terribly shocked at the betrayal of her husband, Hina Rabbani Khar attempted to commit suicide by taking sleeping pills. The incident was kept out of attention of Pakistani media. During such extreme adverse time, relations started growing between Hina Rabbani Khar and Bilawal Bhutto, which ultimately turned into romantic affairs. It is learnt from the intelligence source that, President Asif Ali Zardari is vehemently opposing his son's willingness of knotting marital relations with a woman with two children, saying it would not only jeopardize Bilawal's political career but would also invite political doom for the ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP). Being aggrieved by his son's ego and determination in making family with Hina Rabbani Khar, Asif Ali Zardari played key-role behind using country's intelligence agencies in spreading the scandal about the evasion of electricity bills worth 70 million Rupees by Galaxy Textile Mills, a company owned by Khar's husband Firoze Gulzar and father-in-law. The media reports also alleged that she and her husband are also among many other beneficiaries of NRO - an ordinance drafted to save corruption money and provide immunity to the corrupt.

At this stage, sensing his father's aggressive attitude towards Hina Rabbani Khar, Bilawal expressed anger and even threatened of resigning from the post of Presidency of Pakistan People's Party. He even told Asif Ali Zardari that he would settle in Switzerland with Hina Rabbani Khar and her daughters, though later he even told his father that, Hina might leave her daughters with her husband after the divorce. It may be mentioned here that, Bilawal Bhutto's mother Benazir Bhutto left a hidden wealth worth a few billion dollars in Switzerland and Bilawal is the legal nominee of all those properties. The secret affairs between Bilawal Bhutto and Hina Rabbani Khar came to the knowledge of Asif Ali Zardari, when the duo was caught in compromised situation inside the official residence of the President, where his son Bilawal Bhutto also resides. Later, President Zardari collected mobile call records between Bilawal and Hina and found evidences of relations between the two. The relations became much exposed to Asif Ali Zardari, when Hina Rabbani Khar sent Bilawal a greeting card on his birthday on September 21, 2011 with hand-written message stating – "The foundation of our relations is eternal and soon we shall be just ourselves."

Asif Ali Zardari reportedly also made numerous attempts to reconcile relations between Firoze Gulzar and Hina Rabbani Khar with the target of making an end to Hina-Bilawal romance. But nothing worked as Hina was unwilling for such reconciliation. A confirmed report of a Western intelligence agency even stated Asif Ali Zardari's secret attempt of getting Hina Rabbani Khar assassinated. Through one of his friends in Dubai, President Zardari even contacted the underworld killer gang offering US$ 2 million for the murder of Hina Rabbani Khar.

Bilawal Bhutto is the legal nominee of Benazir Bhutto's secret wealth worth US$ 930 million in Switzerland along with some properties. In 1994, executives of the two Swiss companies wrote, promising to pay "commissions" totalling 9 percent to three offshore companies controlled by Asif Ali Zardari and Nusrat Bhutto [Benazir's mother]. A Cotecna letter in June 1994 was direct: "Should we receive, within six months of today, a contract for inspection and price verification of goods imported into Pakistan," it read, "we will pay you 6 percent of the total amount invoiced and paid to the government of Pakistan for such a contract and during the whole duration of that contract and its renewal." Similar letters, dated March and June 1994, were sent by Societe Generale de Surveillance, promising "consultancy fees" of 6 percent and 3 percent to two other offshore companies controlled by the Bhutto family. According to Pakistani investigators, the two Swiss companies inspected more than US$15.4 billion in imports into Pakistan from January 1995 to March 1997, making more than US$ 131 million. Bhutto family companies made US$ 11.8 million from the deals. For Societe Generale de Surveillance, with 35,000 employees and more than $ 2 billion a year in earnings, the relationship with the Bhutto family has been painful. In addition to doing customs inspections, the company awards certificates of technical quality. In effect, its business is integrity.

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High profile romance in Pakistan exposed

One of the Western intelligence agencies have romantic relations between youngest foreign minister of Pakistan, Hina Rabbani Khar and Bilawal Bhutto, the son of President Asif Ali Zardari and slain Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. The report even indicated a 'cold feud' between the father and the son, following Bilawal's decision of marrying Hina Rabbani Khar, as she is poised to end her marital relations with millionaire businessman Firoze Gulzar, from whom she has two daughters named Annaya and Dina. Born on November 19, 1977, Hina Rabbani Khar hails from an influential feudal and landowner family and is the daughter of politician and landowner Nur Rabbani Khar and the niece of Ghulam Mustafa Khar, a former Governor of Punjab. The Khar family has roots in the village of Khar Gharbi located in Kot Adu – a tehsil (subdivision) in Muzaffargarh District in Punjab; and has many land holdings. The Khar family owns an estate that includes fisheries, mango orchards, and sugarcane fields as well as a local steel mill.

After graduating from local high school, Khar attended the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) in 1995, and earned B.Sc. in Economics with cum laude in 1999. The same year, she went to United States to resume her higher studies and attended the post-graduate school of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and subsequently earned a Master's degree in Hospitality and Tourism Management in 2002.

Hina Rabbani Khar was brought into national prominence and national political arena by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in 2004, who publicly appointed her into the Finance ministry. In previous 2002 general elections, she successfully contested and secured the parliamentary constituency of her father, after most members of the family were disqualified. With financial support of her father, she campaigned on a newly founded PML (Q Group) platform against Pakistan Muslim League. After the elections, Khar was elected as a Member of Parliament, representing the NA-177, Muzaffargarh-II constituency in Punjab, a position her father had held previously, but a new law requiring all candidates to hold a university degree meant he could not run that year. The Guardian wrote, "In deference to local sensibilities about the place of women, her landlord father Noor addressed rallies and glad-handed voters; Hina stayed largely at home, with not even her photo appearing on the posters." In 2005, she was elevated as the deputy minister of economic affairs and served under Shaukat Aziz. As deputy minister, she dealt extensively with the donor community during the 2005 earthquake that hit Northern Pakistan.

In 2007, she made an unsuccessful attempt to renew her alliance with PML-Q, but the party denied her a ticket platform to campaign for re-election in 2008, she was later invited by the senior members of the Pakistan Peoples Party and successfully campaign for her constituency for a second time. The PPP secured plurality of the votes and formed a left-wing alliance with the Awami National Party, MQM and PML-Q. They nominated and elected Yousaf Raza Gillani as Prime Minister.

It is learnt from the intelligence source that, President Asif Ali Zardari is vehemently opposing his son's willingness of knotting marital relations with a woman with two children, saying it would not only jeopardize Bilawal's political career but would also invite political doom for the ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP). 

Being aggrieved by his son's ego and determination in making family with Hina Rabbani Khar, Asif Ali Zardari played key-role behind using country's intelligence agencies in spreading the scandal about the evasion of electricity bills worth 70 million Rupees by Galaxy Textile Mills, a company owned by Khar's husband Firoze Gulzar and father-in-law. The media reports also alleged that she and her husband are also among many other beneficiaries of NRO - an ordinance drafted to save corruption money and provide immunity to the corrupt.

At this stage, sensing his father's aggressive attitude towards Hina Rabbani Khar, Bilawal expressed anger and even threatened of resigning from the post of Presidency of Pakistan People's Party. He even told Asif Ali Zardari that he would settle in Switzerland with Hina Rabbani Khar and her daughters, though later he even told his father that, Hina might leave her daughters with her husband after the divorce. It may be mentioned here that, Bilawal Bhutto's mother Benazir Bhutto left a hidden wealth worth a few billion dollars in Switzerland and Bilawal is the legal nominee of all those properties. The secret affairs between Bilawal Bhutto and Hina Rabbani Khar came to the knowledge of Asif Ali Zardari, when the duo was caught in compromised situation inside the official residence of the President, where his son Bilawal Bhutto also resides. Later, President Zardari collected mobile call records between Bilawal and Hina and found evidences of relations between the two. The relations became much exposed to Asif Ali Zardari, when Hina Rabbani Khar sent Bilawal a greeting card on his birthday on September 21, 2011 with hand-written message stating – "The foundation of our relations is eternal and soon we shall be just ourselves."

It may be mentioned here that, Bilawal Bhutto is 11 years younger than Hina Rabbani Khar. Earliest this year, Bilawal Bhutto was caught in sex scandal with some unknown females.

BY :   Preeta Memon.

Sister sledgehammer

 

Locked in a painful clash, the Congress government, or its welcome new economic reforms, could now fail.

HER voice is high and birdlike. Tiny, she is fond of finger wagging. Her party, the Trinamool Congress, has just 19 of the national parliament’s 543 elected members. She offers little beyond vague talk of the “common man”, and after a year running West Bengal she looks ill-at-ease in office. Yet Mamata Banerjee feels she is now a sledgehammer in national affairs.

On September 18th, in a tirade before cameras in Kolkata, she tried to topple the Congress-led government in Delhi, led by Manmohan Singh. Crowing that “the whole country is watching us”, she offered Mr Singh a non-choice between risking swift political collapse or what amounts to a slow, humiliating policy defeat. Congress’s leaders will probably find another way out. But India’s already wobbly economy is likely to suffer.

Ms Banerjee, widely known as “Didi” (Bengali for elder sister), said she would pull her ministers from the coalition government in Delhi and end parliamentary support for it, on September 21st. Other parties may be found to back Congress. If not, Congress, with 205 seats of its own plus smaller allies, would be in a minority. Formally the government still has until mid-2014 before the next election, but Ms Banerjee predicts it would tumble in “three or six months” without her.

Her fury is over economic policy. She thrives on fights. The past year has seen confrontations over rail fares, petrol prices, a water deal with Bangladesh and foreign supermarkets in India. She is horrified that Mr Singh and his new finance minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram, have shown rare boldness by announcing economic reforms. The reforms were long overdue. Yet it was sadly telling that neither Sonia Gandhi, Congress’s cagey leader, nor her son, Rahul Gandhi, the tongue-tied pretender, dared offer the prime minister public backing.

The reforms were supposed to cheer investors in need of encouragement and tackle a dangerous budget deficit, which this year will easily breach the official target of 5.1% of GDP. On September 13th diesel prices went up for the first time in over a year, by 12%. The fuel, which sells at well below the world price, is heavily subsidised. The price rise means only the tiniest dent in the deficit. Similarly, plans to cut subsidised supplies of household gas, which is widely stolen, would help government finances only a bit. The idea was to signal, especially to credit-rating agencies ready to recast Indian debt as junk, that the days of profligacy are over.

The next day brought more. A politically sensitive plan was revived to let supermarkets, such as Walmart and Tesco, set up in India. The proposal was advanced last year, but stalled when Ms Banerjee threw her weight behind objections, claiming that foreign retailers would cost local jobs. For foreign investors waiting for straws in the wind, it became a symbolic issue, though investment flows into retailing are unlikely to be huge. This time round a proposed fudge would let individual states veto foreign supermarkets, though that may not prove legal.

Restrictions went, too, on outsiders’ single-brand shops, like Sweden’s IKEA, selling furniture. The government told foreigners they could buy minority stakes in domestic airlines. It also said it was selling equity stakes in state-run firms, to help fill the public kitty.

Investors cheered, the stockmarket rose and Mr Chidambaram hinted at still bigger changes to come. 

Seemingly endless talk about corruption fell away, a boon for Congress. But the political reaction, led by Ms Banerjee, only mounted. The opposition parties—the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Communists and various regional parties—organised street protests and vowed to block change. Even a Congress ally from Tamil Nadu joined the protests.

The BJP, which used its tantrums to stymie the parliamentary session that has just ended, demands that MPs now reconvene. Its approach looks risky: middle-class voters may think it is becoming anti-growth. But a rumour also spread suggesting Congress only wanted more balanced books so it could afford to dish out goodies in next spring’s budget.

Ms Banerjee’s stock is probably set to fall. Though outspoken, she also looks untrustworthy and fractious. Yet she leaves Congress in a bind. If Mr Singh pulls back hard on reforms, he will look craven and cowed by an ally a tenth his party’s size. Yet becoming a minority government is awkward too, especially given scandals over corruption and Congress’s likely walloping in several big state elections next year.

So, as The Economist went to press, Congress was hunting for a replacement for Ms Banerjee’s support. That may be a party which is not keen on early national polls. Perhaps parliamentary backing could come from the 21 national MPs controlled by Mayawati, the dalit (untouchable) leader from Uttar Pradesh.

More likely the current ruler of Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party of Mulayam Singh Yadav, with 22 national MPs, might be persuaded to join if offered a big enough dollop of development funds for the state. One way or another Congress should hang on. The trouble is that the prospect of recasting India as open for reforms and higher growth could dim once more in the coming days. The baffling swirl of Indian politics makes for a gripping entertainment. But after the drama, will someone remember the economy and India’s stalled development?

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