Tanbir Uddin Arman :
Bangladesh and India have very recently held an inter-ministerial meeting agreeing a dozen initiatives so as to boost trade and cooperation between the two countries. The initiatives include opening more rail links , improving land ports, setting up several river ‘ports of call’ and border haats, and opening Dhaka- Guwahati air route.
However, it generates a rib-tickling paradox when Indian leaderships on the one hand say that they are longing to increase cooperation and to better reciprocity with Bangladesh, but one the other hand the go on continuing border killings and tightening up iron-fence on borders in the name of precluding terrorists. During a meeting on the sidelines of recently held BIMSTEC summit in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, Indian Premier – Manmohan Singh said his Bangladesh counterpart, ‘Bangladesh is not only a neighbor, but also a tested friend of India’. However, such an utterance as they often give has now become a ‘cliché ridden speech’.
Let us go a little in-depth to fathom out India’s real policy behaviours towards Bangladesh. Take the example of the water sharing of Teesta River. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee threw a hissy fit while she was being swayed over the due shares of Teesta’s waters. Former Foreign Minister of Bangladesh – Dipu Moni – has had a stab at resolving the issue.
But Banerjee was furious at being ambushed while Moni was arguing with her over water sharing. Banerjee even publicly declared that she would not give Bangladesh even a cusec of Teesta’s waters. However, in the last week meeting in Myanmar, when PM Sheikh Hasina raised the issue of ‘Teesta water sharing deal’, Manmohon Singh sidelined the talk about the deal terming it ‘difficult one’.
Bangladesh has suffered a great deal due to the Farakka Dam for the last forty years. Bangladesh agreed a 40-day experimental run of the dam as a gesture of friendly relation upon India’s request.
But the dam project continued even after the expiration of the experimental running. Farakka Dam notwithstanding , the Indian government has already signed an agreement on the Tipaimukh Dam Project with the Manipur State Government and hydro-electric companies in 2011 disregarding the grave concerns over the dangerous threats to Bangladesh’s environmental security and ecosystems.
However, a most recent example may be the Rampal Coal-Fired Power Plant Project. Despite grievous concerns of the Bangladeshi people, politicians and environmentalists over inevitable threats from the project to environmental security and ecology of Bangladesh, the construction of the project has officially been inaugurated. Need to be mentioned here, the plant was supposed to be constructed in Madhya Pradesh in India. But the plant proposal was rejected by a Green Panel because of environmental considerations upon the report of the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) of the Environment Ministry of India. The committee reported that the land proposed for the plant was primarily agricultural and a great portion of the land had double crops.
Hence it may be told with no dubieties that this Rampal Project is actually a banned project of India, which the Indian Government now urges Bangladesh to construct in its territorial land.
Indian government be often carked and expresses concern over communal flare ups against Hindu minorities in Bangladesh.
In2013, BJP which is considered as religiously extremist party and upholding a sheer communal stance, even has had a stab at and declared marching towards Bangladesh protesting attacks on country’s Hindu minority people following the verdicts of some alleged war criminals. Even the communal violence in pre and post phases of the recently held 10th National Parliament Election in Bangladesh has added a new attribute to the electoral manifesto of the BJP in forthcoming election in India.
However, one may be found defiant in an accord with the argument that violence against the Hindu minority people in Bangladesh is actually not as flagitious as that of India against her local minority Muslims. Nonetheless, it is a home truth.
In a flare up of rioting in Assam- India in 2012, at least 73 Assamese Muslims were killed and about four lakh rendered homeless by the Bodo tribal as per the reports. But the community leaders have termed these Indian citizens who have been living in Assam for centuries as ‘Bangladeshi infiltrators’.
So at the end of the discussion it is pertinent to say that aforementioned issues along with the prolonged maritime boundary disputes with Dhaka, plus New Delhi’s attention deficit in making SAFTA effective denote that New Delhi’s Dhaka policy is hitherto ill-disposed in the reality. Delhi’s foreign policy behavior is made up more on the basis of domination and power aspiration than on cooperation and amicable relations vis-à-vis her neighbors. In this circumstances, Dhaka does need to formulate ‘cooperative but realistic’ polices rather than those made out of euphoria in order to defend its national interests in respect of New Delhi. In addition, the bureaucrats and the politicians should make a stab at fathoming out New Delhi’s ‘real policy’, and at prioritizing highest national interests over regime interests.
(Tanbir Uddin Arman is a Research Assistant, Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies (BIPSS), Dhaka Email: [email protected])
