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Sheikh Hasina, Khaleda's successor, made one marvellous effort over water and a pact was signed; a great achievement, which the Khaleda's BJP said was a submission to India. But everything else has stood still. Sharing Ganges water, Transit facilities, buying and selling of power, enclaves left high and dry during border demarcation, everything stood still.
Mr Narasimha Rao", said a retired Indian ambassador to me, "Had no interest at all in Bangladesh".
It's not impossible to understand why. Begum Khaleda Zia's husband General Zia, always thought of India as a large, prehensile invader. His wife and the party he bequeathed to her and his followers in the Bangladesh Army took over his attitude. The Indians were perhaps exasperated by the continuously obstructive behaviour and snide remarks of Zia and later, of his wife's Bangladesh National Party. As it is, the Secretariat in Dhaka moves with glacial slowness, the Indian bureaucracy gives it a good run f
r money in slowness and so nothing seemed to happen in negotiations. They meander on and on. Sharing Ganges water, Transit facilities, buying and selling of power; enclaves left high and dry during border demarcation, everything just stood still.
Sheikh Hasina Khaleda's successor made one marvellous effort over water and a pact was signed; a great achievement which the Khaleda's BMP said was a submission to India. But everything else has stood still. The bus service due to run from Dhaka to Ajmer via Calcutta is still not on as the pact has not been signed. All the machinery for dealings between the two countries was rusty and creaking and has just begun clanking to move. Most of the senior civil servants were Pakistan - admirers (it is well known
that the ISI had carte blanche in Khaleda's time) and for the first time the more level-headed bureaucrats have to be very careful. The, "India-lover" label had kept the Awami League as a minority party for many years and Hasina knew she had to shrug if off somehow.
Meanwhile must India continue to behave as if the minorities in Bangladesh don't exist? Buddhists and Christians are only 1 % but the Hindus are about 12.5 million still and, ever since 1964, they have been leaving the country at the rate of 534 a day. Over 5 million people have left already and most of those remaining would leave if they could afford to.
I spoke to many Hindus, not a single one would stay if he or she had the means or the opportunity to go.
Some frustrated Hindus in Bangladesh would like to see the Indian Army march in and force the Bangladesh Government to given them their rights. This is, of course, absurd. But India could surely do something about the greatest afford to Hindu rights - President Ayub's Enemy Property Act of 1965 whose name has been changed to Vested Property Act but nothing else has changed. If a Hindu lives in 'enemy' country (legally Bangladesh or East Pakistan is still at war with India) then his or her property can b
requisitioned and acquired.
By this grossly discriminatory and unconstitutional law, 1,048,390 Hindu households have been affected and 1.05 million acres are dispossessed. Till this evil law is annulled there can be no security for Hindus, no secularism and no communal harmony. India doesn't have to send troops but it can press hard for justice to be done. Otherwise it will have to become permanent host to millions more Hindus.
There is this curious duality about Bangladesh. Nowhere could one be more welcome, especially the Bengali. There is no problem in meeting anybody, a simple phone call unlocks doors. Hospitality is overwhelming.
One stays with friends not as a guest but as a loved member of the family. Most of the intelligentsia treat the Hindus like anybody else and there is no ill-feeling.
And yet the Hindu minority is desperately unsettled and unhappy.
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