Enlightened Self-Interest Should Be The Cornerstone
India at a heavy cost of men, money and materials helped the people of Bangladesh in its liberation from Pakistani bondage. Since its birth in December 1971, our country has been providing assistance in various ways. The Ganga waters treaty of 1996 is a glaring example. Lamentably, the gestures have not been reciprocated because most of the governments in liberated Bangladesh have been quite unfriendly to India. By and large, they have been faithfully following the same policy towards India as was preached, pursued and practised by Pakistan.
Insurgents
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Hasina
Wajed as Prime Ministers during 1972-75 and 1996-2001, respectively, maintained
good-neighbourly relations with India. But the Khaleda Zia government after
assumption of office in October 2001 has been working against India. Her
government has been providing shelter, succour and logistical support to
insurgents from the North-East in 200-odd camps in Bangladesh and, at the
same time, vehemently denying it. Begum Zia during her first term as Prime
Minister (1991-1996) once told the India government to send its officials
to Bangladesh to verify for themselves whether the insurgents have any
camp there.
She also once termed these rebels
as patriots trying to liberate the North-East from India. Former East Pakistan
was a safe haven for shelter, training and anti-India activities of some
of the militants from Nagaland and Mizoram. It seems that the Khaleda Zia
government has inherited the despicable legacy of India-bashing left by
Pakistan 33 years ago.
In India-Bangladesh discussions
on bilateral relations, India invariably raises two issues —existence of
the North-East insurgent camps in Bangladesh and influx of Bangla nationals
to India. Bangladesh promptly denies them. It is time our country abandons
the ritual and tells the Bangladesh government in the language it understands
to put an end to the sheltering of rebels and influx of its nationals to
India. At the recent DG-level meeting between the BSF and the BDR in New
Delhi, the BDR, while reiterating its denial, said: “The location of the
camps given in the list provided by the BSF were examined and found that
some of these locations were of our cantonment, even our headquarters ...
Some were even in the Bay of Bengal’’. The Bangladesh reply should not
be taken lightly.
Outburst
In early September 2004, Morshed
Khan, the foreign minister of Bangladesh while addressing the Bangladesh-India
dialogue for young journalists made an outburst against India (forgetting
diplomatic decency and decorum) in the presence of Indian High Commissioner
in Dhaka and other diplomats and threatened: “Bangladesh could play havoc
in the North-east as Delhi must remember that seven north- eastern states
of India are Bangladesh-locked. He spoke at length about the exploitation
of the north-east by Delhi and how the Reserve Bank of India was acting
unilaterally against the interests of common and struggling people of north-eastern
states by not allowing them to open letters of credit without Delhi’s permission”.
His statement is not only an affront
to India but also an interference in our domestic affairs. Lodging a strong
protest would not discipline Dhaka; other measures are necessary in the
national interest. In the same address, Morshed Khan poured venom on The
Statesman and accused it of “conducting a campaign against the BNP government”.
He singled out The Statesman because it is the only paper which has been
giving maximum coverage to the ghastly events which have been taking place
in post-poll Bangladesh under Khaleda Zia through its report, articles
and editorials. Its sister publication, Dainik Statesman, has also been
focussing the misdeeds of the Khaleda regime.
The accidental seizure of a huge
cache of sophisticated arms and ammunitions by security officers of Bangladesh
on 2 April in Chittagong port was not only startling but a danger signal
for India. The arms and ammunitions were meant for onward despatch to Ulfa
and other N.E. militants through North Bengal via Bogra in Bangladesh with
a view to arming them for creating panic, unrest and destabilisation in
the North-East. Pakistan has been exporting terror through ISI and Al-Qaeda
operatives in Bangladesh. It is widely believed that the ISI was involved
in the serial blasts in Bhemaji (a district headquarter of Assam) and also
in subsequent blasts in Nagaland and Assam killing and maiming many people
including children and women.
The judicial commission set up
by Khaleda Zia under the chairmanship of Justice Joynul Abedin — a judge
of the Supreme Court, Bangladesh “to investigate the 21 August grenade
attack on Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka, where 22 people were killed, follows
the line that she (Khaleda) took — that the blast was the work of a neighbouring
country trying to destabilise her government and install a puppet regime
in Bangladesh. Short of naming India, Justice Abedin has said that the
local agents of a neighbouring country were responsible for the blast and
mayhem”. The report reflects the mindset of the Bangladesh government.
Soft policy
For several years, the government
of India has been pursuing a soft policy towards Bangladesh. Even the last
Vajpayee-led NDA government was no exception. It was under an illusion
that Bangladesh would oblige India by exporting natural gas and providing
transit and transhipment facilities to the land-locked north-eastern states.
That is why the Vajpayee government remained silent when activists of the
ruling BNP-Jamat alliance perpetrated brutalities on religious and ethnic
minorities in Bangladesh. New Delhi should note that the Bangladesh would
never agree to any scheme which would benefit India.
About two years ago, Bangladesh
entered into a defence pact with China. It does not augur well for India.
The latest unfriendly act of Bangladesh in the serial is the imposition
of restrictions on Indian High Commission staff in Dhaka, Chittagong and
Rajshahi. It is time our policy-makers reviewed the existing relations
with Dhaka and adopted a realistic policy in which enlightened self-interest
should be the cornerstone.