Deb Mukharji: For Indian Diplomats in Pakistan, the Run up To the 1971 War Was a Very Tense Time / Bharat Bhushan - Dhaka disconnect: Excellent relations marred by violent protests
Deb Mukharji: For Indian Diplomats in Pakistan, the Run up To the 1971 War Was a Very Tense Time 1971. The most cataclysmic year in the history of the sub-continent since the Partition of India in 1947. Even as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Muktijuddho, the War of Liberation, India’s decisive military victory over Pakistan and the emergence of Bangladesh in the comity of nations, one must remember the extreme price exacted by a vengeful Pakistan army, the countless innocent men killed, the countless women violated.
There had been unease in the relations between the two wings
of Pakistan from the very early days. Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s refusal to accept
Bengali as a state language, even though it was the language of the majority,
had caused him to be heckled in Dhaka University in 1948. The language movement
simmered and burst into flames with the killing of students on February 21,
1952, since immortalised as ‘ekushe’, and now observed by the United
Nations as International Mother Language Day. In the first elections to
provincial assemblies in 1954, the Awami (then called the Awami Muslim) League
led United Front trounced the Muslim League comprehensively. The 21-point
manifesto of the Front demanded autonomy for East Pakistan as envisaged in the
Lahore Resolution….
Bharat Bhushan - Dhaka disconnect: Excellent relations marred by violent protests
Unprecedented protests against the two-day visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Bangladesh have led to police baton-charging and firing on protestors across the country, causing nine deaths. He was invited to participate in the 50th anniversary celebrations of Bangladesh’s independence, coinciding with the centennial celebration of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s birth. The protests indicate a widening gap between the excellent functional relationship between the two governments and the perception of the people of Bangladesh.
Moreover, the protests have come at a time when the
relations between the two neighbours could not be better. The invitation to
Prime Minister Modi to deliver the keynote speech at the nation’s 50th
anniversary celebrations was a recognition of the importance Dhaka accords
to the bilateral relationship apart from the acknowledgement of India’s
critical role in Bangladesh’s liberation struggle.
Indian policy makers must not blame the antipathy against
India in Bangladesh on Islamic fundamentalist groups. Undeniably the most
active group organising the recent protests has been the largest non-political
Islamist group, Hefazat-e-Islam with its countrywide network of madrasas. But
protests have also been spearheaded by the Left-wing Bangladesh Students’
Rights Council headed by Nurul Haq Nur, a former vice-president of the Dhaka University
Central Students’ Union, Juba Adhikar Parishad and other non-political groups.
It is noteworthy that no political flags were allowed in the protests.
In his address in Dhaka on
Friday, Prime Minister Modi gave an assurance of resolving all outstanding
differences. He said that both sides were aware of the “sensitivity” of the
tasks ahead and the need to make “meaningful effort” towards their resolution.
The effect of such friendly expression of intent on the public mood is,
however, uncertain.
The most intense protests on March 26, unsurprisingly were
in Chattogram, where Hefazat is headquartered. In Brahmanbaria, protestors
attacked the deputy commissioner’s office, burnt tyres on roads and set fire to
the railway station – one youth was shot dead on the first day of the Modi
visit and five on the second. In Dhaka, protestors began a march from the
country’s largest Baitul Mukarram National Mosque, shouting anti-Modi slogans
and holding shoes in the air to show disrespect. They were confronted by police
as well as helmet-wearing and baton-wielding activists of the ruling Awami
League. Protests at Dhaka University left 20 students injured after protestors
were attacked by the Chhatra League, the student wing of the ruling Awami
League.
Although leaders on both sides have not let irritants in
bilateral ties influence the relationship adversely, three issues irk most
Bangladeshis. The inability of the two countries to come to an agreement on
Teesta River water sharing, the Border Security Force (BSF) shooting
Bangladeshi citizens (whom the BSF claims to be smugglers) along the 4000-km
shared border; and the perception that after providing initial humanitarian
help India did nothing to help Dhaka deal with the 130,000 Rohingya refugees it
has been forced to look after.
However, new elements have impacted public perception under
the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. Its anti-minority
image and use of religion for electoral gains worries Bangladeshis. While Hindu
illegal Bangladeshi migrants are eagerly accommodated as Indian citizens by the
Citizenship Amendment Act, Muslim illegal migrants are dubbed “termites” to be
identified and detained by compiling a National Citizens’ Register. This has
seeped into the public consciousness in Bangladesh, leading to a negative
public sentiment about India.
In an unprecedented development, the people of Bangladesh
are keenly watching the state Assembly elections in the bordering states of
West Bengal and Assam. They have earlier seen Assam elections contested through
religious polarisation and now see the strategy repeated in West Bengal.
As in India, many in Bangladesh are irked by Prime Minister
Modi’s detour adding Orakandi, 190 km from Dhaka, to his formal itnerary.
Orakandi is the birthplace of Harichand Thakur, founder of the Matua sect of
the Namshudra Dalit community. Matua migrants from Bangladesh have a
significant presence in West Bengal and are said to determine electoral
outcomes in more than half a dozen Assembly constituencies. They voted for the
BJP in the previous West Bengal assembly elections but are unhappy at the delay
in implementation of the CAA, which would have hastened the citizenship process
for more recent migrants.
There is also a significant section of Bangladesh’s
intelligentsia that looks askance at Prime Minister Modi’s record as the chief
minister of Gujarat and his party’s current position on pluralism, its policies
in Jammu & Kashmir, its push for amendment of citizenship laws and the
handling of communal riots. A senior Bangladeshi politician told this
correspondent that people have begun seeing the BJP as a party “weaponising
religion” against Muslims, including Bangladeshis. “This has polarised
public opinion against
India. This was not the case earlier, even though there were differences
of opinion about
Indian hegemonic ambitions, trade issues, border disputes and water sharing,”
he said.
While the BJP and its government cannot be expected to
jettison their policies to assuage Bangladeshi sensibilities, many opinion-makers
there believe that India can course-correct by resolving the thorny bilateral
issues and investing in people-to-people relations. Perhaps it was to provide
tangible benefits at the level of the people that Prime Minister Modi during
his visit to Dhaka announced one thousand Suborno Jayanti Scholarships for
Bangladesh students and invited 50 Bangladesh entrepreneurs to connect with
India’s start-up ecosystem.
Public perception is also likely to become more wary of
India as it becomes a frontline player in “the Quad” formed to counter growing
Chinese influence. Bangladesh is reluctant to be drawn into any big power
competition. It is a major beneficiary of infrastructure investments under
China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Chinese companies are involved in all the big
infrastructure projects in the country from construction of the Padma Bridge,
Payara deep-sea port, the Dhaka-Chattogram high-speed railway, and the tunnel
connectivity project under the Karnaphuli River in Chattogram. Therefore, apart
from the ideological issues, perception of India among the people of Bangladesh
is likely to become even more complicated as India takes on a bigger role in
the Quad.
An Open Letter
to the world on the Bangladesh crisis of 1971
Bharat Bhushan: A hanging in
Dhaka, courtesy Delhi
Snigdhendu Bhattacharya: How Bangladeshi Bloggers Paid
The Price For Protesting Religious Fanaticism
Syed Badrul Ahsan - In Dhaka, return of a spectre
Imtiaz Alam Khan - History: the fall of Dhaka from
Bihari eyes
Bangladesh to Exile 100K Rohingya Refugees to an
Island “Prison”
Exiled Bangla poet Daud Haider refused India visa
Bangladeshi communist writer Shahzahan Bachchu gunned
down
Haunted by unification: A Bangladeshi view of
partition
Books reviewed - Deb Mukharji: 1971, Bangladesh and
the Blood Telegram
