Contributors to Bangladesh’s Independence Receive Awards

Ishaal Zehra

Hilarious, but true. Government of Bangladesh, or should I say Shaikh Hasina’s government, arranged the 4th phase of honouring the “Foreign Friends of Bangladesh” who supported the liberation war. The grand ceremony was held on 15th December 2012 at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre where Bangladesh conferred awards on 65 more foreign friends for their outstanding contributions to the country's Liberation War 41 years ago.

This was the fourth time of awarding foreign friends since the government first conferred "Bangladesh Liberation War Honour" posthumously on Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on July 25, 2011. In the second phase, Bangladesh awarded 83 with the honour on March 27 and 61 more in the third phase on October 20 this year.
As per the joint press briefing, earlier, at the foreign ministry, Foreign Minister Dipu Moni confirmed sixty-three personalities and two organizations from 10 countries to receive the award on December 15. Among them, 49 are from India and the rest are from the USA, Russia, France, Australia, UK, Sweden, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan.

Speaking at the same press briefing, State Minister for Liberation War Affairs Capt (R) AB Tajul Islam said the government has invited Indian President Pranab Mukherjee to receive the award at his convenient time. The date of his visit will be confirmed by the two foreign ministries later. On the basis of sneering rumors of few Pakistani receiving the award it was asked whether any individual from Pakistan will come to receive the award this time, Dipu Moni said their names would be on the list in the next phase.

One can only speculate if any of Pakistani would take such HONOUR. Leave Pakistani’s aside this whole event is a shame for every sane Bangladeshi as well. Conferring awards to those who are a party to a war which was the outcome of a conspiracy theory is an idiotic thing or another conspiracy in the offing. Bangladesh war conspiracy is a known fact today.

It is a reality that Pakistan has been a traditional enemy of India. The high echelons in the Indian leadership never accepted the division of Sub Continent. Hence, it wasn’t surprising that India took the opportunity of weakening Pakistan by supporting the Bangladesh liberation movement. Former Indian foreign secretary Mr. Dixit is on record saying, "We helped in the liberation of Bangladesh in mutual interest, it was not a favour," As per a senior RAW intelligence officer, “Bangladesh was the result of a 10 year long promotion of dissatisfaction against the rulers of Pakistan”. Thus, helping Bangladesh was not an instantaneous decision of India rather it was a carefully designed strategic plan that was executed in exact precision. Unfortunately, after the liberation, things did not go the way India had planned.

It was then the Indian leaders knew that the only party that was able to meet the Indian strategic demands in Bangladesh is Awami League. From. Sheikh Mujeeb to Sheikh Hasina, they never stopped keeping relations with Awami League and provided all sorts of support to them. According to some well-informed observers, India provided Tk. 300 crore to Awami League to win the 1996 election (Weekly Shugondha, 26th April, 1996). So these so-called awards might be actually a plea to beg their masters further support and possible favors.

Since 1971, Bangladesh has become an "alienated" and "dependent" state with tiny influence in the comity of nation. Geographically it is surrounded by India from three sides but authoritatively completely encircled in her hegemonic sphere. And the total Shaikh family of AL regime leaves no stone unturned to continue this hegemony.

Interestingly, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed refused to attend the D-8 Conference held in Islamabad, unless Pakistan tendered an apology for what she called “the genocide of Bengalis.” Probably as a show of complete obedience towards her Indian well wishers. Although the Hamood-ur-Rehman Commission identified the underlying causes for the 71 tragedy where the Commission criticized the then political and military leaders for their ineptness, it also debunked the propaganda by New Delhi that 2 to 3 million Bengalis had been killed by Pakistan Army. Rather the civil war and the killings of West Pakistanis by Mukti Bahini guerrillas were the two main ignored reasons for that huge genocide.

Besides Hamood-ur-Rehman Commission there are numerous published reports out now which negates the Indian well propagated make beliefs of 1971 war where Pakistan Army was the sole dictator and the only evil. The declassified US reports, Indian military officers account, Pakistan military officers account, General Niazi’s memoirs, Sharmila Bose write ups are only a petty reference of the unending list. Published books and articles as Subversion in East Pakistan, by AMK Maswani, Second Thoughts on Bangladesh, narrated by a repentant rebel, and Bangladesh Today—Indictment and a Lament, by the distinguished East Pakistani intellectual Matiur Rahman proclaim how the East Pakistanis were made the victims of a vast scheme to give up a part of their own country.

Henry Kissinger’s voluminous work, The White House Years, adds heavily to the account. When the relevant written material is placed beside the events that took place before, during and after the war, the analysis exposes the US hand in fomenting rebellion by the Awami League against the State, assisting India in raising, arming and deploying the Mukti Bahni terrorists in East Pakistan, then provoking the war and devising a quick defeat for Pakistan.

Sarmila Bose, a Senior Research Fellow in the Politics of South Asia at the University of Oxford, through a detailed investigation of events on the ground contextualizes and humanizes the war while analysing what the events reveal about the nature of the conflict itself. The story of 1971 has so far been dominated by the narrative of the victorious side. All parties to the war are still largely imprisoned by wartime partisan mythologies. Her book challenges assumptions about the nature of the conflict, and exposes the ways in which the 1971 war is still playing out in the region. As a matter of fact, this whole honour and award drama is just a mere extension of the Indian chess moves in the region where Sheikh Hasina, unfortunately, is just a pawn progressing in the directions of her master mind.

Bangladesh after 41 years of independence is still going through a transition period (like all third world countries) struggling to provide its citizens with social justice, equality, quality education, better living standards, fair independent judiciary, free and fair election. Would it not be appreciable if the government focuses on her people miseries rather give awards to foreign friends of some political party. Basic fundamental rights of citizens come much earlier than such staged dramas. I am sure the original friends who really want to see a prosperous Bangladesh will surely adore the idea.

Tipaimukh Dam: A Hazard for Bangladesh

Mamoona Ali Kazmi

The Indo-Bangladesh relations have never been cordial. Regrettably, India’s expansionist policy in the region and anti-Bangladesh propaganda continued unabated. In Bangladesh, India is viewed as a bully, throwing its weight around and threatening the sovereignty of its smaller neighbors.

There are several issues between the two countries, which are of grave concern for Bangladesh. These include water issue, land issue, fencing of border, Indian support to Chakma community, killing of innocent civilians by BSF, subversive activities by India’s intelligence wings, Bangladesh’s high profile criminals taking asylum in India, smuggling from India etc.

Most important issue that mars bilateral relations between India and Bangladesh is water. Most of the rivers, which Bangladesh shares with India are controlled and managed by India. It has evolved plans to divert waters, from the northeast of the country to its drought prone west and south, of some 54 rivers which flow from India to Bangladesh.

India’s construction of dams or barrages on the common rivers one after the other not only violates international law regarding common rivers but also threatens the norms of good neighbourliness and the livelihood of the people of Bangladesh. After building Farraka and Teesta barrages, India has started construction of the Tipaimukh dam on river Barack just a kilometer north of Jakiganj in Sylhet. The construction work of Tipaimukh dam was stalled in March 2007 in the face of protests within and outside India for not following the international conventions about the international rivers. Linked to this dam is the Fulertal barrage. To be located 500 meters downstream from the flowing rivers of the Barack and Tuovai rivers, the Tipaimukh dam lies on the south western corner of the Manipur state of India. Its reservoir will have a water storage capacity of 15,900 million cubic meters with a maximum depth of 1,725.5 meters. The dam and barrage when completed in 2012 are supposed to provide 1500 megawatts of hydel power to the Indian state of Assam but in return its going to bring about a major disaster for Bangladesh, practically contributing to drying up of 350 km long Surma and 110 km long Kushiara rivers which water most of the northeastern region of Bangladesh. The Tipaimukh barrage is going to seriously affect not only agriculture in large portions of Bangladesh, particularly in winter, but is also gong to bring about negative ecological, climatic and environmental changes in vast areas of Bangladesh. Education Minister of India Nurul Islam Nahid said, “If India withdraws water from the Barack River, the free flowing Surma and Kushiara rivers will dry up”. Surma-Kushiara and its 60 tributaries support agriculture, irrigation, navigation, drinking water supply, fisheries, wildlife in numerous areas in the entire Sylhet division and some peripheral areas of Dhaka division. So around five crore people in Sylhet and Dhaka division will face problems as Surma and Kushiara will lose five feet water in the rainy season. Abdul Karim Kim, an organizer of the Sylhet Paribesh Andolon feels that besides other parts of Bangladesh, Sylhet will be gravely affected. “The dam completion will disrupt agriculture, irrigation, navigation, drinking water supply and ground water levels. Sylhet will face the same consequences faced by the south western region of Bangladesh”.

A Water resources expert, Professor Mustafizur Rahman Tarafdar discussed the ill effects of the Tipaimukh dam. He said, “If this dam is eventually constructed as intended, Bangladesh would have to suffer the adverse effects. This dam would lead to hydrological drought and environmental degradation. This dam would cause the Surma and Kushiara to run dry during November to May which would eventually hamper agriculture, irrigation, navigation, shortage of supply of drinking water, etc. This shortage of water in these months would decrease the boost of ground water which over the years would lower the ground water level, which in turn would affect all dug outs and shallow tube-wells. Agriculture, which is dependent on both surface as well as ground water, would also be affected. Also, any interference in the normal flow of water in the Barack would have an adverse effect on the Surma in Bangladesh that, in turn, feeds the mighty Meghna that flows through Bangladesh. Arable land will decrease and production of crops will fall, leading to an increase in poverty. Roughly 7 to 8 percent of total water of Bangladesh is obtained from the Barack. Millions of people are dependent on hundreds of water bodies fed by Barack in the Sylhet region for fishing and agricultural activities. A dam-break is a catastrophic failure of a dam which results in the sudden draining of the reservoir and a severe flood wave that causes destruction and in many cases death downstream. If the Tipaimukh dam were to break, impounding billions of cubic meters of water, it will cause catastrophic floods because of its colossal structure”.

India never bothered to discuss the matter of the Tipaimukh dam with Bangladesh. The Tipaimukh Dam project was entirely developed and approved without informing the government of Bangladesh or involving its people in any meaningful exercise to assess the downstream impacts of the dam. Since the river Barack is an international river, Bangladesh as a lower riparian country should have an equitable share of water. Moreover an access to the design details of the project, planning and design etc also is a right of the country. Mir Sajjad Hossain, member of Joint River Commission (JRC) said, “We do not know what is going on there. We came to know from our sources that India is panning a hydroelectric plant. India has not sent any official documents about the proposal”. This is clearly a gross violation of co-riparian rights of Bangladesh. India has violated provisions of the 1997 UN Watercourse Convention on the Article 5 (1) Equitable Utilization, (7) No Harm Principle, (9) Exchange of Information.

According to International Law, it is illegal to construct any dam on an international river without consent from the other side. But India has violated it by starting the construction of Tipaimukh Dam on the Barack. Unilateral water diversion, or withdrawal of water from international or common rivers, has been the long standing policy of India. India has seldom bothered to think about the impact of such policies on a low riparian country, such as Bangladesh, in diverting water from common rivers. The high commissioner of India Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty to Bangladesh admitted that the Indian government has resumed the process of construction once again from the end of 2008. According to Chakravarty the dam would produce hydroelectricity and would not harm Bangladesh in any way. It would only regulate the rivers’ flow. As it is a project aimed at producing hydroelectricity, no water would be withheld from Bangladesh. But this is not as simple as said by Chakravarty as to produce electricity the water flow would have to be obstructed which means that there will be less flow of water to the riparian neighbouring country. Furthermore, Chakravarty also stated that the water will not be used for irrigation purposes. Where as according to sources the original plan of India is to supply water to the areas of Rajasthan and other states from Barack River, around 900 km away from the Manipur state. How can the people of Bangladesh trust that India’s Tipaimukh dam will not do any harm to them when they have been suffering numerous environmental disasters for the last 35 years due to the barrages, in the upstreams of the Ganges and the Teesta, built by India?

India is withdrawing waters of almost all the common rivers by building dams on the upstream, which will eventually cause Bangladesh to turn into a desert. India’s lack of sensitivity to the neighbours does not speak of friendly act by a friendly country. By constructing Tipaimukh dam India is only looking its own interest. India wants to control the water flow to facilitate irrigation of the Cacher plain. India should not be insensitive to the environmental and the negative consequences of the Tipaimukh dam on the lower riparian Bangladesh.

The neighbour next door – a persistent pain in Bengal’s neck

Ishaal Zehra

Bangladesh Premier Sheikh Hasina has said that the recent mutiny in the paramilitary force Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) which killed 73 army officers was aimed at triggering a civil war and warned that the masterminds behind the bloody revolt still wanted to achieve their goal. The 33-hour mutiny by the rebel BDR soldiers on February 25-26, 2009 was initially believed to have been caused by disputes over pay and command structure.
Commerce Minister Lt Col (Retd) Faruq Khan, who heads a high-power committee to coordinate the foreign and local investigations into the February 25-26 carnage, said “a dangerous conspiracy is going on to destroy the development of the country". Whereas the State Minister for Foreign Affairs Hassan Mahmoud admitted that terrorist outfits with alleged cross-border links still existed in the country despite years of massive anti-terrorism campaigns.
At a glance, Bangladesh's 37-year history has been a turbulent one, with many incidents of political turmoil and violence, where most of the time cross-border linkage was confirmed at the public level (even if not acknowledged at government level). This recent mutiny reminded me of the tempest that rocked Dhaka University and other educational institutes of Bangladesh, in August 2007 which ended up in the imposition of curfew like situation in the country. At that time too the sole purpose of the tempest creators (master minds), seemingly, was to start a civil war by bringing the people face to face with the armed forces through the so-called student movement. The Bengali media reports later disclosed that the havoc was actually masterminded by the Indian Intelligence Research and Analysis Wing – RAW. In an exclusive interview with VOA Bangla service, the first elected mayor of Rajshahi City, Mr. Md. Mizanur Rahman Minu said that he feels that India is behind the terrorist activities in Bangladesh. Minu said that because of the Indo-Bangladesh porous border, it has not been possible for the government to apprehend the terrorists.
Yet today the same situation is again being sensed in the country. “Foreign hands” had been detected by the new Chief of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) Brigadier General Mohammed Mainul Islam who revealed the involvement of outsiders wearing BDR uniform in the mutiny. Ironically, had there been no revelation from General Mainul Islam, people would have believed that BDR personnel targeted Army officers on account resentment over biased treatment as well as difference in their pay, allowances and other benefits. Chief of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, Matiur Rahman Nizami, in the same regard, also claimed that the killing mission was executed from Indian intelligence headquarters through close monitoring. Analytically, Mr. Nizami might be true as the increasing frenzy in Bangladesh is only paving an easy way for India to increase her hegemony in political, economical and cultural arenas.
The story is quite simple if considered logically. Bangladesh, having the population of more than 140 million - 40% of whom are below the poverty line - and it is dependent on foreign aid and investment, seems a soft target to digest. And by initiating a civil war in the country many disrupted plans could have been fulfilled like crippling the economy of Bangladesh, disrupting and destroying the road communications and infrastructures thus proving Bangladesh a dysfunctional and failed state and finally paving the way for Indian military invasion.
To achieve the objective, the people of Bangladesh were being targeted in an ingenious way and from all dimensions of life. RAW is exploiting this civil force to meet its own evil objectives. India’s agenda does not obviously end in creating and keeping Bangladesh as a nominally independent country. Since 1972, India has been pouring in huge material and intellectual support to Indianise the mind and psyche of Bangladeshi people. The so-called modern school educational curriculum, in general, and the social sciences, in particular, have been said to be shaped and oriented to Vedic philosophy rather than to Islamic values and virtues. Besides the promotion of narcotics in the society RAW is said to be supplementing terrorism via educational institutes in Bangladesh and the recent BDR mutiny exhibits the reach of Indian tentacles.
There lies a real dilemma for Bangladesh in forging some form of much needed unity to stand concrete against constant onslaught of Indian hegemony. Indian policy makers are well aware that the traditional method of occupying a country by force is neither appreciable nor acceptable in the recent scenario. Today, to run over a country, an aggressor cripples psychologically of the civil force of the nation and reduces its economy to shambles and creates such a situation that its citizens no longer possess mental strength and inspiration to be self- reliant. And RAW is persistently attempting to create such a situation in Bangladesh. It is known to all that Indian intelligence agency is engaged in disruptive activities in Bangladesh since it came into being in 1971 to create the demand for Indian intervention from within the country. As a matter of fact, India has a condemnable history of swallowing Hyderabad, Manvadhar, Goa, Dumn, Deue and Kashmir and of course not forgetting the illegal and conspiratorial annexation of Sikkim, a tiny and rocky mountainous kingdom of Himalayas. Recalling all this it would be quite naive to believe that India is not interested in capturing a strategically important country like Bangladesh as this annexation seems necessary for them to suppress the on-going liberation struggles in North-Eastern Indian states bordering Bangladesh.

It wasn’t surprising at all when General Mainul Islam said that the BDR mutiny was a conspiracy by outside forces. Even history is evident that India's assistance in the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971, did not originate from their sense of humanity for the people of Bangladesh, but to dismember Pakistan and finally merge them to 'greater Bharat, what Nehru termed as 'Aakhand Bharat'. At that time probably the Indian leaders thought that dismemberment of Pakistan would lead to the accession of Bangladesh to India but unfortunately this dream of them could not materialize even after the lapse of 38 years but hats off to the consistent nature of India that she has still kept her dream alive and is still working for its establishment.