On Nehru's Vision Of A United India

A video is making rounds on YouTube. It is a speech of a well known and well respected retired bureaucrat at a seminar in the city. He wanted people present at the seminar to know that India has not accepted the partition of 1947 and that they have a plan to reunite Bharat Mata. He spoke of a resolution that Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru helped adopt at a meeting of the Central Working Committee of the Congress party a month after the 1947 partition. When he was charged for the failure of the Congress to protect Bharat Mata, Pandit Nehru found a way out of a tight spot by adopting a resolution that described the 1947 partition as “ temporary” and that India would be united again. The retired bureaucrat gave a range of examples from his official and personal life on the Indian intent.  In one of these examples, he revealed that Bangladesh had given India permission for running the Farakkha Barrage on a trial basis during Bangabandhu’s time for seven days only that India unilaterally extended permanently till the 1997 treaty was signed.  Facts clearly prove that the bureaucrat is correct about India. The way India handled the issue of Teen Bigha is a shame. The way India constructed the Farakkha Barrage and unilaterally withdrew waters of the Ganges was an unfriendly act. India’s failure to be fair to Bangladesh on trade issues is equally unfortunate. Their decision to construct a dam on the Tipaimukh and indiscriminate killing of Bangladeshis on the border are unfriendly and insensitive acts. However, to conclude from these examples that India has a plan to annex Bangladesh to undo the 1947 partition is farfetched.  Lots of water has gone under the bridge that has thrown many new factors into the equation that has changed the way Pandit Nehru and his colleague’s viewed India’s destiny in 1947. For one, Pakistan has since emerged as a nuclear power and thus has a rock solid insurance against Bharat Mata. Bangladesh has emerged in blood. People have tasted freedom. It is not just that; Bangladesh now has a population of 150 million highly politically conscious people. The country has done well all around except in politics. Seven million Bangladeshis live abroad. The country’s GDP by 2010 estimates was over $100 billion.  Its homogeneity could be the envy of nations that suffer ethnic, religious, regional or rich-poor divides .If only it could set its politics in order, Bangladesh could someday become the most successful country in South Asia. Pandit Nehru’s vision did not take any of these facts into consideration. He could not because these facts have emerged after his death. Nevertheless, these facts have altered the dream of Nehru and many like him who took comfort in the belief that Pakistan would not last and India would again become one. However, there are still many in India who believe in the vision that Nehru had left in their psyche. Bharatiya Janata Party’s concept of Hindutva that it espoused while in power is Pandit Nehru’s vision of 1947 by a different name. But the BJP’ dream of Hindutva was a manifestation of its irrational beliefs that millions of Hindu fundamentalists hold that partition allowed the Muslims to escape the clutches of an independent and united India under Hindu domination that would have allowed the majority Hindus to settle the score of  Muslim domination for 800 years. India, looking into the future at this stage of its history, knows too well that such a desire would stand between India and its vision to emerge as a regional leader of world stature with permanent membership in an expanded UN Security Council. One must also think about what India would gain by fulfillment of Panditji’s vision. For one, India would, with Bangladesh a part of it, have to accept all of Bangladesh’s demands made to it over the last four decades. It will have to take care of 150 million people who can be very restive. Indians would also have to consider nearly 300 million Bengalis of Bangladesh and West Bengal uniting under Bengali nationalism which could start the process of India’s disintegration. Equally dangerous to India’s unity would the prospect of 150 million Bangladeshi Muslims uniting with an equal number of Indian Muslims that would make India the largest Muslim nation on earth. If Indian leaders are sensible there is no good reason for India today to believe in Panditji’s vision in the physical sense. India has already achieved more than it bargained for in 1971. When it entered the Bangladesh war of liberation, it was not sure whether it would be able to break Pakistan. Having done that, India has relieved itself of Pakistan’s pressure from the East. The value of this, given the nature of problems in India-Pakistan relations, is fantasy becoming a reality. Nevertheless, the retired bureaucrat’s apprehensions were right about Bharat Mata. There is a genuine problem for Bangladesh with Pandit Nehru’s vision. This is coming less from India but more from amongst us. All of a sudden, some of us---and the number is not small---have woken to the fact that those raising apprehensions about India are wrong; that India is our friend in need. These Bangladeshi friends of India do not see any harm in Farakkha or in trade deficit or the Tipaimukh dam. Nor do they care how generations of Muslims on either side of the 1947 partition have suffered from the Zamindari system overwhelmingly dominated by the Hindus or from their Hindu neighbours. Strangely, they say that the problem then and now is with us; that we are fundamentalists and that Islam makes us that way. The video of the retired bureaucrat is a must watch for these friends of India. While they watch it, they should spare a moment and think about India that they admire for its history; its democracy and its secularism. Our history is as rich as is India’s and our democracy, conflict-ridden as it may be, has made significant strides.  India has hundreds of millions of active members of the RSS and the Hindu Mahashava, both stridently Hindu fundamentalist organizations who support the BJP that had formed government at the centre. The BJP has a chief minister in Gujarat, who has serious aspirations of becoming an Indian prime minister, who stands accused by the United States of personally supervising killings of Muslims in Gujarat. In the context of religious fundamentalism, we are still in the minor league because the overwhelming majority of our people have kept the religious fundamentalists parties insignificant. In India, the BJP with hundreds of millions of its supporters is in the super league and espouses Hindu fundamentalism proudly and has no qualms with Hindutva that proposes to make India a land of the Hindus. Panditji was right about Pakistan being temporary though but not the way he envisioned or the retired bureaucrat concluded. Pakistan was the need of history arising out of the British policy of “divide and rule.” Having taken power from the Muslims without firing a single shot, the British ruled us for 200 years by playing the Muslims against the Hindus. To the Hindus, they gave education, job, and commerce. When the Muslims became politically conscious at the turn of the 20 th century, they found that the British had given the Hindus a head start and had prepared for them a second class status in an independent India. Pakistan allowed the Muslims to escape such a predicament. Everything else about Pakistan was illogical.  West Pakistani leadership ended the illogical state by its genocide in 1971 , although its destruction was embedded in its creation in 1947.   Bharat Mata in the physical sense or the way Panditji visualized it is a myth because India was united only under the British in the sense we understand an independent country today. Nevertheless, Bharat Mata is in Indian psyche; the urge to dominate the Muslims of South Asia for reasons of history. That is what India has manifested in all these four decades with Bangladesh.  Our only chance to escape the grasp of Bharat Mata is to unite. The spirit of 1971 demands of us that unity.

Thoughts On The Bangladesh Navy

Bangladesh is a land of rivers and has a long sea area around the border. No doubt we have a prestigious force like the Bangladesh Navy, an eternal vigilant of our country in the sea and in the coastal area. This organisation has a brilliant role in our Liberation War abreast the army and air force and they fought valiantly against our Pakistan enemies after the declaration of independence by our great leader Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1971. For that reason one of the highest prestigious title like “Birshrestha” has been entitled to Ruhul Amin, a proud member of our naval force. Apart from their day-to-day operational activities they are engaged in UN peace keeping missions in different countries. In this respect, I would request the concerned authority to take necessary steps to increase the participants in the UN missions to come. The members of this proud organisation are also playing a vital role in the different spheres in the country like Ministry of Home, Shipping and Foreign Affairs in different positions. Recently, Bangladesh has raised their demand in the UN to get equitable international sea areas surrounding her own territory and in this connection naval force can keep their important role. No need to mention further that like other developed naval forces of the world, Bangladesh navy has attained supremacy in the field of their modern training and equipment. The members of this institution are skilled in three dimensional activities, i.e they can perform in the sea, land and in the air as well. In this context, I want to add the recent declaration to make Bangladesh navy a full fledged force by our honourable premier Sheikh Hasina while she was visiting Khulna regional naval bases. This is a very timely declaration of our prime minister and as an ex cadet of the navy, I hope, all the members of this organisation will keep the prestige of our beloved, glorious Bangladesh by dint of their lives.

Propaganda Against The Army Of Bangladesh

I had a chance to talk to some of people about the BDR mutiny in Bangladesh and I was shocked to see a lot of negative emotion or impressions about the army of Bangladesh. Most people categorically states that the army of Bangladesh has become corrupt and they are doing all sorts of wrongs. While I could respect their opinion, I have to say someone is feeding wrong information to these people and their conspiracy runs deep. Even the bloody acts against the army officers could not sway their judgment on the army. Then I came across the article Lies about Bangladesh Army, conspiracy and responsibility of the Nation ( www.americanchronicle.com/ articles/view/ 92690) where the writer tried to depict a clear distinction about why people have negative feelings about the army. There was some obvious propaganda against the army. The only motivation behind it is to make Bangladesh a bottomless basket and present as a rogue state. One recent example as the writer put forward is: “The renegade troops alleged that the Director General of Bangladesh Rifles, Major General Shakil Ahmed Chowdhury [who has been martyred by the renegade troops] was buying edible soyabean oil for Tk 40 [US$ 0.57 ] per litre and selling in the market at a rate of Tk 104 [US$ 1.50 ]. Anyone having minimum knowledge about the world market will agree that, price of soyabean oil during the entire period of 2007 [June] to 2008 [ October] was above US$ 1 ,200 per ton. In this case, the import cost of soyabean oil was US$ 1.20 or Tk 82.80 per liter. There is 19.50 per cent Value Added Tax and other duties on the import. So the landing cost per litre was Tk 98.88 [US$ 1.43 ]. Then Bangladesh Rifles purchased the imported edible oil from the local importers [it was not directly imported by BDR]. The importers levied Tk 4-4.50 profit per liter [minimum]. In this case, the BDR director general managed to sell the purchased oil only with a most minimum profit of TK. 0.50 per litre, or may be even less, while in the open market, retail price of soyabean oil was above Tk 120 per litre. So, the allegation of the renegade troops was not true at all. Commenting on this, one of the leading oil importers said, it was not possible for the ordinary troops of Bangladesh Rifles to know the import cost of the edible oil. “ There are thousands of stories like this that is circulating in blogs and other places. If we sincerely look at all this rumours, we will find out like the previous example most of them are sheer lies , not true and propaganda only. They are only rumoured to harm the interests of Bangladesh and create distance between the brilliant and patriotic army of Bangladesh. The army and the patriotic people of Bangladesh need to be vigilant against this people and watch out so that situations like the BDR mutiny never happens in this beloved country of ours. We can not lose to conspirators, but must shine above all.

Mayanmar : The Ultimate Threat To Democracy

A tragedy of torn diplomatic relations and uncertainty has existed for almost three decades between the neighbouring countries of Myanmar and Bangladesh. This situation has become even more strained since November 2008 , due to the growing diplomatic and military crisis caused by disagreement between Myanmar and Bangladesh over maritime boundary demarcations. Over the past four months, the crisis has mounted on the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, as Myanmar goes ahead with construction of a barbed wire fence along the border. The Myanmar authority has completed the construction of pillars covering over 80 kilometres of the 270- kilometre land border between Myanmar and Bangladesh, from Teknaf to Bandarban. They have recently also set up several border outposts. The present crisis is rooted in what happened in November 2008 , when Myanmar hired South Korea’s Daewoo International Corporation to carry out hydrocarbon exploration in a stretch of the sea that both countries claim, about 90 kilometres southwest of Bangladesh. At that time, four Korean ships guarded by the Myanmar navy started searching for oil and gas reserves 50 nautical miles southwest of Bangladesh, in a stretch of ocean both countries claim. At that point, Bangladesh resumed negotiation with Myanmar to define their maritime borders. A series of discussions took place between the two neighbouring countries to resolve the issue, but the crisis was not resolved. In mid-October of 2009 , Myanmar stationed small- and mid-sized warships 20 miles southeast of the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, at the Sai Tin River, east of Maungdaw. Bangladesh also sent warships into the bay, to counter the alleged intrusion. Although Bangladesh managed to defuse tensions after involving China in negotiations, the fencing project is still going on and a notable number of troops are being deployed by both countries to reinforce their side of the border. Both countries are advocating precautionary measures along the border to avoid any undesirable situations. Bangladesh has taken their maritime border issue with Myanmar to the UN, so why are there still tensions? Obviously, there is no chance that war will break out between these two neighbouring nations. Recently, in a closed door meeting with senior foreign intelligence officials, some specific information about the ongoing crisis between Myanmar and Bangladesh was shared. An intelligence official shared some specific facts about the Myanmar-Bangladesh border crisis. Behind the scenes, politicians from both the Bangladesh Awami League and the pro-Islamist party, senior officials of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence ( DGFI) and a group of senior foreign intelligence officers of three different countries are working closely for different causes. Amidst all this action, General Moeen Uddin Ahmed, the former Chief of Army Staff, is playing the vital role of communicating with those involved from Myanmar and the two other countries. While the situation is tense at the border, the main action is happening in the Hill Tracts in the deep forest near the border. A large amount of arms ammunition is on the way, due to come by the end of October, from three different locations that will include 7.62- mm A-91 small-size assault rifles, 9- mm 9 A-91 assault rifles, AEK-971 assault rifles, easy- to-carry hand grenades, surface-to- surface missiles and specially made biological weapons. The different people in this mission have different agendas, yet their mission is same. The groups are targeting different establishments for attacks before December 16 th, and already a group has been highly trained to attack an important air establishment in Bangladesh. A large number of tribal people were trained in that group, including a notable number of women. Also, some DGFI officials and a foreign ministry official is connected to the plotters to ensure the proper movement of arms and people. The plotters’ target is to destabilise the country and bring down the present government, while the main target is to kill the present Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, some of her cabinet members, and a group of intellectuals. In doing so, when the plotters come to power, the three different countries who are helping them will get certain benefits from them. The government and its intelligence have failed to face the plotters. The country continues to face a great threat, and the peace and security of the region will be disturbed if the plotters are not faced by the government.

WIKILEAKS : Prof. Yunus Considers Entering Bangladesh Politics Expecting Bruising Response

1. ( SBU) Summary. On February 12 , ConGen spoke with Nobel Prize winner Dr. Muhammad Yunus about his plans to enter Bangladesh politics. Yunus, on a two-day visit to Kolkata, expressed a strong interest to enter the political fray and said that he was reviewing his options. He expressed support of the present Caretaker Government and its decision to declare a "State of Emergency," saying it had averted a possible civil war. Yunus felt that Muslim fundamentalists represented a fringe and that while the dominant parties had developed ties with fundamentalists for political gain, most Bangladeshis did not favor the extremism. Yunus was also receptive to closer commercial and trade relations with India. Yunus recognized the risk of entering politics and its potential to tarnish his exemplary image. However, even as he professed that he was still considering his options, he indicated a strong intent to plunge into the maelstrom of Bangladesh politics. End Summary.  2. ( SBU) As a fellow Bengali, Prof. Muhammad Yunus, received a hero's welcome while participating in two days of programs in Kolkata, West Bengal, from Feb. 11-12. During a lunch hosted by the Calcutta Chamber of Commerce ( CCC) for its 175 th anniversary, ConGen spoke with Dr. Yunus about the present political situation in Bangladesh. On February 11 , Yunus had issued an open letter saying that he was seeking support from Bangladeshis to launch a political party to reform the violence and corruption in Bangladesh. In the letter, Yunus asked people to send him their opinions on forming a political party focusing on good governance. ConGen asked Yunus was he was intent on entering politics as recently reported. Yunus confirmed that he was interested, having supposedly been asked by many people to step-in and overcome the political impasse between the two strongest political leaders, Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia. Yunus added, though, that he was still discussing the merits of becoming a political figure. CCC President Manoj Mohanka questioned the advisability of Yunus joining the messy world of Bangladesh politics and noted the likelihood of Yunus' reputation being tarnished. Yunus quickly responded that he understood the dangers of entering politics but felt that responsible people had to step into the political field to make a real change in Bangladesh, which was wracked by corruption and poor governance.  3. ( SBU) ConGen asked Yunus for his views on a recent "Economist" magazine article that described the present Bangladesh Caretaker Government's state of emergency and its support by the Bangladesh military as "The Coup That Dare Not Say Its Name." Yunus was supportive of the imposition of the state of emergency, saying that it had averted a possible civil war. He did not believe that the military's support was significant and added that the Caretaker Government's role was clearly defined under the constitution.  4. ( SBU) When asked about the perception in India of the rising fundamentalism in Bangladesh, Yunus said that he saw the Muslim fundamentalists as a fringe not accepted by the Bangladeshi mainstream. ConGen noted, however, that even the Awami League (AL), which had been the primary advocate of a socialist, secular nation, in December had signed an agreement with fundamentalist group Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish (BKM). The agreement with BKM would recognize fatwas issued by Imams and block the introduction of laws contrary to sharia law. Yunus responded that the agreement was a reflection of the AL's moral bankruptcy and was based on pure political calculus to garner a few additional votes and another example of the need for a new political party.  5. ( SBU) ConGen asked Yunus about his views on India and whether better trade relations could be developed. Yunus was positive about expanding economic ties with India and within the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). He felt that Bangladesh would be receptive to better relations with KOLKATA 00000050 002 OF 002 India but that often it became a divisive political issue, with Bangladeshi politicians stoking resentment against India for political gain. However, he recognized that the GOI maintained significant non- tariff barriers restricting Bangladeshi goods from India's markets. He was favorable to opening Chittagong Port to regional trade with India, Burma, Bhutan and China; but said that the port was presently too small and at full capacity. He added Grameen Bank was considering the possibility of financing a new " mega-port" project in Chittagong to meet the regional demand.  6. ( SBU) Comment: Although Dr. Yunus limited himself to saying he was still considering his options, the tenor of his comments indicated a strong to desire to jump into the maelstrom of Bangladeshi politics. He recognized that he would face a potentially bruising response from the "two ladies" and other established political figures, but he felt that the situation in Bangladesh had reached a critical juncture as "civil war" had only just been averted. As a person of great moral stature and strong organizational skills, Yunus' candidacy could offer a possible out from the present Hasina-Zia zero-sum game that cripples Bangladesh's democratic process. 7. ( U) This message was cleared with AmEmbassy Dhaka.