Mohammad Amjad Hossain :
Bangladesh has achieved independence having fought along with India on 16 December 1971 with the struggle and sacrifices of millions of people at the altar of brutal arm forces of President Yahia Khan. It is the themost traumatic development in the history of the South Asian subcontinent since the partition ofBritish India in 1947.
Apart from sacrifices by millions of people inside the country, diplomats from different Pakistan foreign missions switched over their allegiance to the government in exile joined hands with the political leaders in mobilizing public opinion against the military oppression and genocidal activities perpetrated by the occupation forces in erstwhile East Pakistan and sought moral and financial support in favour of the emerging nation state.Perhaps the Indo-Soviet treaty of friendship and cooperation, which was signed on 8 August, 1971 gave moral boost to the Indian military strategist to take a decision for intervention and Bangladesh came into being on 16 December in 1971.As a result the Prime Minister of newly independent Bangladesh Bangabandhu Sheikh MujiburRahman paid a visit Moscow at the earliest opportunity from 1to 3 March in 1972.
Apat from India Moscow has had good political relations with Bangladesh which reflected recent refrained from casting a vote against Russia to suspend Russia’s membership of the United Nation Human Rights council. Vote took place 0n 7 April 2022.India has had decisive stand for Bangladesh from October 1971,but now relation with Dhaka did not match with the desire of Bangladesh in respect to sharing water from Teesta and Feni rivers. Trade relation is also extremely in favour of India. Foranti-Pakistan attitude of India, South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is now mostly dead. Bangladesh initiated SAARC in December in 1985. There is no logic to stop operation of SAARCand also no possibility is still in viewto revive its operation. It is interesting to note that as many as 500,000, Indian citizen are employed in ICT Information and commercial sector of Bangladesh.
As of now Bangladesh could not succeed to convince both India and China to repatriate evicted Rohingya ruthlessly by Myanmar armed forces in 2017. As many as 80,000 Rohingyas took shelter in refugee camps in Bangladesh. As of now no sign is visible for their return to Myanmar.Since Bangladesh has maintained good relation with China and India while these two countries have maintained excellent relation with Myanmar but as of now no visible sign for the repatriation to Myanmar. Rohingyasare indigenous people living in their ancestral homeland: Arakan for centuries. It seems to be a failure of diplomacy indeed of Bangladesh.
Another hard hitting proposal is that US oil giant: chevron should stop doing oil business with Myanmar as reported Us oil giant continue business through third party. The United States of America suspended trade and investment agreement with Myanmar until elected representatives installed in Myanmar.Businessesare continuing hurdles in selling timber and precious stones like jade. Asean already boycotted the head of Tatmadaw of the armed forces of Myanmar.It is high time that both the United Kingdom Great Britain and Japan since both countries ruled Burma in recent past should exert pressure on the leader of Tatmadaw to return to democracy for the sake of the people of Myanmar. It is high time that democracy should be restored and Tadmdaw should retire to barracks.
While hue and cry has been raised by the government of Bangladesh when the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions against Bangladesh RAB, paramilitary Rapid action forces . Sanction has been imposed on the current officers along with former members of RABID while the digital security act goes against the news media men and women in Bangladesh in spite of protest by leaders of press organizations. This draconian law continues in Bangladesh.
(Mohammad Amjad Hossain, retired diplomad from Bangladesh and former President of Nova Toastmaster International club of USA, writes From Falls Church, Virginia).
