Bangladesh News and Discussion

[Stan_Savljevic]

everything else on Indo-BD front should be kept abegging till there is clarity on the same...Anyone talking of expanding the scope of cooperative framework on 100s of other fronts is a #$#%#...

And giving away land as if it is one's own fief-dom in the cause of a "broader" cooperative framework that will somehow embrace and pass some fluids to the neighborhood with its titillating fancies of a Ghazwa-e-Hind in its various forms is the best-est thing to do. And yes, anyone that brings such existential realities to the table is fancying a mythical clash with (heil sieg) the religion of Supercomprehension.

[chetak]

Why by giving away the enclaves and adverse possessions? Why this sudden fit to become a Nobel Peace contender by selling off sovereign Indian territory? Now there are no oversights for dealing with enclaves and adverse possessions as compared to de jure Indian territory, so I am even wondering if Parliament approval will be sought in handing over these 10,000 acres? Exactly, whose territory is that, INC's or MMS'? Or is it rather the civil society's?

Isn't there a supreme court judgement that mandates permission of the parliament before transfer of land in such cases??

or even amending the constitution itself?

[Samudragupta]

Mir Jafar may be an useful frame of reference when India deals with Bangladesh...It is important for India to find the wannabe MJ which are aplenty in the country....and to directly deal with them....

[somnath]

The issue seems to have blown over, for now...

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/such- ... ks/814190/

[Prem]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/aparna-pa ... 90828.html
India-Bangladesh: Sins of Omission & Commission

On June 29, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in an off-the-record meeting with various editors stated that "at least a quarter" of Bangladesh's population "swear by the Jamiat-e-Islami" and "are very anti-Indian" and "are in the clutches, many times, of the ISI." In a faux pas, these remarks were posted on the Prime Ministers' Office (PMO) website for almost 30 hours before they were edited out.A massive damage control exercise was launched soon after with both Prime Minister Singh and Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna speaking with their counterparts to lower the tensions. Mr Krishna is scheduled to visit Bangladesh next week and Ms Sonia Gandhi, leader of the Congress party, in end-July.
India is a rapidly expanding economy and this economic growth can be shared with its neighbors. As a member of the South Asian community, India has a geographical responsibility and maybe even a civilizational responsibility to make its neighbors feel respected and cherished. It must avoid actions that can be construed as bullying. It is only if India has better relations with its neighbors that it will be able to rise out of the region and be able to play its role in Asia and the world.

[Stan_Savljevic]

There are many reports that are floating around these days (SAAG, IE, etc.) on how GoI should go the extra mile to be nice to the dispensation in Bangladesh and to make this case, many comparisons are made on how the Govt of Tamil Nadu unduly "interferes" with the Govt of India and directs its foreign policy relating to the Tamil issue in Sri Lanka. I think I should openly label this as an apples vs. oranges comparison.

For one, the Govt of Tamil Nadu (independent of which grouping has been and is in power) intercedes with the Govt of India on behalf of Tamils, a numerically minority group. This numerical minority is not a uni-dimensional religious grouping, it includes Hindus, Christians and Muslims, all who speak the same language and get discriminated by the official polity in Sri Lanka with Buddhism as the state religion, Sinhalese as the de jure language of preference in official transactions, primary preference to the Buddha Sasanas over secular work in terms of Constitutional jurisprudence, etc. This also fits within the secular body politic of the Indian Constitution with no preference for any religion either in terms of internal ruminations or external consultations. In contrast, the minority group that gets discriminated in Bangladesh are the Hindu and Buddhist lot. It is a case where the secular fabric of the Indian Constitution prevents a direct questioning of the credentials of the Govt of Bangladesh (independent of the party in power) and the unfairness meted out to these groups by the official polity in its day-to-day transactions.

Two, every state has the need, capability and intention to lobby the Govt of India on economic matters that could mean a major hit on the revenue collection as well as state-funded projects on the well-being of its subjects. This observation should be obvious if anyone looks at how different states intercede with the Govt of India on price increases for petroleum-based products. With this out of the way, with around 75% of the Tiruppur region economically dependent on the textile/readymade garments sector and with Tamil Nadu contributing approximately one-third of India's readymade garment exports, it is only natural that a distinct Tamil Nadu lobby intercedes with the Govt of India on behalf of the dumping duties and structural (para-tariff) barriers imposed on cheap imports from Bangladesh in conformance with the WTO stipulations. To expect either the Govt of Tamil Nadu or the industrial lobby from Tamil Nadu to not work on behalf of their own self-existence and to bend over backwards to ensure the prosperity of the readymade garment sector in Bangladesh is to expect the moon to come down to earth. Similar trends can be seen in terms of a tea lobby from Assam, a cotton manufacturers lobby from Gujarat and Maharashtra, a mining lobby from Jharkhand, West Bengal, Orissa and Karnataka in their respective dealings with the Govt of India. If the Tamil Nadu lobby is expected to put India's foreign policy ahead of its economic sustenance, then the same fairness should be expected of every other lobby in the country irrespective of their regional prosperity (or lack thereof).

Another reason cited for why India should go the extra mile in its relations with Bangladesh is the bonhomie enjoyed by the ruling party in India and the Awami League. Similar bonhomie has been seen in the past when the United National Party combine ruled in Sri Lanka or when the Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party ruled in Maldives or when the Nepali Congress ruled in Nepal. Nevertheless, this has not prevented the Indian polity in establishing points of contact and mutual briefing and debating with other parties in these countries, most notably with the Bangladeshi National Party and the Jatiya Party. Nor has it ensured that whenever such ruling combines ruled in these respective countries has India gone the extra mile especially in the recent past (with ground realities and not talking points being the criteria).

When one also cites the fact that Bangladesh handed over wanted terrorists in India as a reason for the extra miling, it goes against the grain of logic that Bangladesh in fact harbored them in the first place. The very fact that these terrorists had found sustenance in Bangladesh for so long, and the dispensations in Bangladesh had all along denied the presence of these very same individuals in their country, and subsequently handed over them to India officially or unofficially should ensure that the logic on going the extra mile because of this very reason a tenuous one.

In short, there are very many reasons to establish cordial relations with Bangladesh and the Govt of Bangladesh. If religious discrimination becomes the talking point, it goes against the secular fabric of the Indian Constitution. If economic interests become the talking point, one has to include the fact that Indian economic policy is not a monolith just as India is not and it is the sum-total of its various parts and any policy initiative should be of mutual benefit to the various parts that make India as well as simultaneously benefit India-Bangladesh relations, if possible. Short of achieving that objective, the priority should lie in keeping the various parts in India happy rather than accord extra mile benefits to the dispensation in Bangladesh. That is just arrant common sense. Personally, a zero-sum game amongst the various parts of India is a possibility with which Indians should have less pain over. But a zero-sum game involving Bangladesh and a state in the Indian Union which is sold as a win for one, a loss for the other and hence, a succor for our strategic interests is the lemon I am unwilling to buy.

[ramana]

Stan_S,
Do you have blog and are you making sure to post this relevant op-ed/article there?

[Stan_Savljevic]

Stan_S,
Do you have blog and are you making sure to post this relevant op-ed/article there?

Yes, http://dharma-yuddham.blogspot.com/2011 ... -nadu.html

[ramana]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/aparna-pa ... 90828.html
India-Bangladesh: Sins of Omission & Commission

On June 29, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in an off-the-record meeting with various editors stated that "at least a quarter" of Bangladesh's population "swear by the Jamiat-e-Islami" and "are very anti-Indian" and "are in the clutches, many times, of the ISI." In a faux pas, these remarks were posted on the Prime Ministers' Office (PMO) website for almost 30 hours before they were edited out.A massive damage control exercise was launched soon after with both Prime Minister Singh and Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna speaking with their counterparts to lower the tensions. Mr Krishna is scheduled to visit Bangladesh next week and Ms Sonia Gandhi, leader of the Congress party, in end-July.
India is a rapidly expanding economy and this economic growth can be shared with its neighbors. As a member of the South Asian community, India has a geographical responsibility and maybe even a civilizational responsibility to make its neighbors feel respected and cherished. It must avoid actions that can be construed as bullying. It is only if India has better relations with its neighbors that it will be able to rise out of the region and be able to play its role in Asia and the world.

So telling truth and calling attention to terrorist sympathisers is now politically incorrect?
Isnt the resposnibility of neighbors to not harbor terrorists?

if India takes counter-action how is that bullying?

Under msipercepton that India will break up the neighbors harbor terrorists. Well get rid of that perception and the terrorist sympathisers in and out of govt.

India has risen due to the efforts of its citizens while the neioghbors were harboring terrorists in hope of impeding that rise.
So cant take credit for India's rise.

Enough whining.

[somnath]

But a zero-sum game involving Bangladesh and a state in the Indian Union which is sold as a win for one, a loss for the other and hence, a succor for our strategic interests is the lemon I am unwilling to buy

This is the sort of erroneous assumptions that underlie uninformed rhetoric...A comprehensive cooperative architecture with BD, or indeed the rest of South Asia (lets keep Pak aside for a moment), is going to have bulk of its benefits accruing to India - in trade, in macroeconomy...Even if certain states or industries in India come relatively worse off, the aggregate benefits to India are a big positive...

There are numerous studies to that effect - some of which were posted earlier in another thread...

Empirically, we have seen the same thing with such architectures elsewhere - the FTA with Thailand, concluded by ABV with Thaksin, had similar protests from Kerala...Thereafter Kerala politiians protested against the Indo-ASEAN FTA, signed in 2009 by MMS...The net results of both have only been beenficial to India, in broad politico-economic terms...

As a democratic state, India will need to be sensitive to the sensitivities of individual communities as well as economic groups of the Union..But it is also the duty of the state to harmonise these disparate views and take calls in broader national interest.

In the meanwhile, C Raja Mohan on the Indo-BD relations..
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/natur ... s/814376/0

Dhaka, then, is a natural partner for Delhi in the strategic re-imagination of our immediate and extended neighbourhood.

[brihaspati]

The same old arm-chair rhetoric of increasing trade and concessions from the "larger" side, "causing" reduction in "conflict"! Was not this rhetoric once shown to be hollow - since even the paper quoted to push this rhetoric was not really read by the quoter, or the difference between elasticity and "causality" not really "comprehended"? The paper author actually firmly pointed out that he did not have sufficient data to test for causality - and what he was able to show was some degree of elasticity. This paper was apparently - solid empirical proof that "trade reduces conflict" - according to the persistent claim of "more and more concessions to BD == good for India as a whole"!

Subsequently there have been other empirical works which have found causality in the opposite direction too! Of course the quoter chose to fall silent and not go beyond "elementary" googlable econometrics!

[Rony]

Hindus Decide: Save your Brethren or let them Die

By Dr. Richard L. Benkin

Address to Telugu Association of North America (TANA)

Santa Clara, CA

July 2, 2011

Namaskar. Shphodim.

Last month, I was in conversation about a book I wrote on Bangladesh’s ethnic cleansing of its Hindu population. The person with whom I spoke was very taken by the material; so taken that she wanted to help make sure people got word of this atrocity. She knows the American publishing and book buying world very well and said that all the elements were there for a successful project; all the elements except one. And remember this person is a friend, an ally, one of the “good guys,” someone who does care and wants to help. She said, ‘I just don’t see people getting real excited over a bunch of Hindus being killed.’ Think about that for a moment. It should make everyone in this room furious; and if it does not make you furious, you better ask yourself why because three things hit me—a non-Hindu—immediately.


My first thought was, ‘Shame on us if that’s who we are.’ Is this another example in which the so-called civilized world would prefer to wring its hands over body bags piled too high to ignore—as it did in Nazi Europe, Rwanda, and countless other places—rather than prevent the atrocity? The second was that those of us who do understand what is happening have a moral obligation to take effective action to stop it, whatever that means; or we are as complicit in the crime as anyone else. And the third was this: Hindus better not count on anyone else helping them, no matter how much they prattle on about things like “justice” or “human rights.” Those supposed arbiters of right and wrong might apply these concepts to Egyptian and Libyan protesters or warp them beyond recognition so they can prop up those Arab terrorists they call “Palestinian”; but they will not apply them to Hindus in Bangladesh—or for that matter, Hindus in Pakistan, Hindus in Kashmir, Hindus in Malaysia, or Hindus anywhere else, including if it comes to it, Hindus in Andhra Pradesh.

So when considering this weekend’s events, I asked myself if it was going to be another one of those gatherings where the attendees shake their fists and complain about how unfair things are—or one where we actually accomplish something. Despite the preponderance of the former over the latter, we are on the cusp of a new dawn where real accomplishment is possible. It will start here in the United States, and it must begin with us; or else we will have frittered away a golden opportunity to change the trajectory of history and in the process sit by while a lot of innocent people die.

We have a great tradition here in which groups of Americans can petition our government and take concerted action, and I want to give you an example of that from my own Jewish community. Those of you who were around in the 1980s will remember that back then, you could not pass a synagogue that did not have a large banner proclaiming, “Save Soviet Jewry.” Our people were being persecuted horribly in the Soviet Union as part of the Communists’ attempt to eradicate their Jewish religion and Jewish identity. A few, like Natan Sharansky who later became an Israeli Cabinet Minister, garnered some attention, but most suffered without fanfare. The American Jewish community saw their persecuted brothers and sisters and recognized the obligation to save them. Moreover, it acted on that obligation.

We lobbied Washington and our local officials; prevailed upon other religious bodies to recognize the atrocity and let Washington know their position. Average Jews who you might see at the office or in the supermarket—people just like you—went to Russia at their own expense to smuggle religious books and other Jewish artifacts at considerable peril to themselves. After all, this was the mighty Soviet Union.

Jewish children reaching their Bar and Bat Mitzvah rite of passage were “twinned” with children in the Soviet Union who did not have the freedom to celebrate their own; so we did it for them. Younger children in religious schools corresponded with pen pals their own age from the USSR and gave them hope. And before it was over, we helped get 1.2 million Jews out of that communist hell. It strengthened our own identity, and every Jewish child who was part of that effort never forgot it or their own sense of Jewishness; and it helped us realize that we could in fact stand strong for our people, that the only thing stopping us was ourselves.

The Bangladeshi Hindus can be your Soviet Jewry. It is an issue of human decency; an issue that transcends partisan politics and speaks to those values that are basic for all Americans. It can galvanize American Hindus to take pride in their Hinduism and help support a resurgent Hindu youth. Will we act?

Two years ago, I stood before you to talk about the Bangladeshi Hindus. Let me list for you everything that Sheikh Hasina and the Bangladeshi government has done to protect their Hindu citizens since then:

[about 10 seconds of silence]

That’s right, nothing, zip, bupkis. That same “list,” moreover, contains everything the United Nations has done for them, everything Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have done; every word of protest uttered by the governments of India and the United States. It seems my friend is right: Nobody gets excited over the killing of Hindus.

The facts warrant a different reaction. In fact, the numbers are so compelling they cry out for an explanation. At the time of India’s partition in 1947, Hindus made up a little less than a third of East Pakistan’s population. When East Pakistan became Bangladesh in 1971, they were less than a fifth; thirty years later, less than one in ten; and reliable estimates put the Hindu population at less than eight percent today. Professor Sachi Dastidar of the State University of New York estimates that over 49 million Hindus are missing from Bangladesh. Still having trouble wondering where this is going? Take a look at Pakistan where Hindus are down to one percent or Kashmir where they are almost gone. Take a look at the future of Bangladesh’s Hindus if we do not act.

This is not opinion or “Islamaphobia.” These are facts! Want another? For years, we have received report after report documenting anti-Hindu incidents there; incidents including murder, gang rape, assault, forced conversion to Islam, child abduction, land grabs, and religious desecration. And while Bangladeshi officials might object that the perpetrators were non-state actors, government culpability rests, at the very least, on the fact that it pursues very few of these cases and punishes even fewer perpetrators. And that’s our key. Unfortunately, minorities are attacked pretty much everywhere. The critical question is when it happens, does the majority population have a problem with it; and the best measure of that is what the government does in reaction. When Hindu students were attacked in Australia, the government went after the perpetrators with a vengeance. In the United States, crimes against any minority are considered just that, crimes; and the state will punish you to the fullest extent of the law; but not in Bangladesh.

Here’s another irrefutable fact. While this information pours out of Bangladesh with numbing ferocity, it does not do so through the mainstream media—here, India, or anywhere else. Thus, people are often shocked and sometimes dubious when I present the facts to them. Many wonder out loud how something so horrible could be kept hidden; how our own CIA or India’s RAW could not know about it—were it actually true. They often ask me why, if this is so dire have we read nothing about it in our major papers or watched it on CNN or Fox. ‘Why,’ they ask, ‘hasn’t Amnesty International taken it up,’ or most damning, ‘Why have Hindus themselves said nothing?’

This means that anything we present has to be verified with certainty; if we present information that turns out to be untrue or exaggerated it will sink our efforts. We can expect the Bangladeshi government and even the US State Department to challenge it; and expect the recognized human rights industry to dismiss it. Both parties have an interest to do so, for if we are correct, Amnesty International and the others will be asked why they missed or ignored the situation. The Obama Administration and the rest of the international talking heads have maintained as an article of faith that the December 2008 election of Sheikh Hasina and the Awami League ushered in a new era for Bangladesh. They will point out that it ended almost two years of military-backed rule; and the government before that, , included the Islamist Jamaat in its coalition. Moreover, they will say, the left-center Awami League has always claimed to be Bangladesh’s “pro-minority” party, and these outside groups with no real knowledge of Bangladesh swallow that line. So, it is in their interest to maintain that fiction.

And they are not the only ones. In January 2009, I was asked to address a coalition of Bangladeshi Hindu organizations about how they might respond to the Awami League victory. My advice was to press their advantage since Hindus helped Awami to victory. The last thing they should do, I said, was to “fall asleep. That would be a critical mistake.” Some agreed, but the prevailing sentiment among the organization leaders was fear of angering the new government. “Give them time,” they said, to which I replied, “This attitude of passivity and ‘let's give them a chance’; how well has that worked for the minorities in the past? Not well. We are sitting by while people are being killed and tortured! So, yes, we must give them some time—but not much or we will see that their words are nothing more than words.” And that is exactly all they turned out to be.

During the first year of the Awami League’s rule, there were major anti-Hindu attacks at the rate of at least one per week. I say “at least” because you will recall that our allegations will be held to a higher standard than most. Out of the flood of reported incidents, those were the ones I personally verified—either through my own missions to South Asia or through Indian and Bangladeshi Hindus who investigated and verified the allegations for me. All of these attacks were serious, involved Hindu victims and Muslim victimizers; and in every case, the government refused to take action against known perpetrators. Police and government officials actually took part in some and led a cover up of others. And in none of them, did the police help recover Hindu women or children who were abducted, likely raped, and forcibly converted to Islam. And I re-confirmed the facts as recently as this spring, so the government’s support for anti-Hindu action lasts long after the crimes themselves. Here are three examples.

• For three days in March and April, 2009, an anti-Hindu pogrom raged in the Sutrapur section of the Bangladeshi capital. It occurred right behind a police station and involved arson, beatings, and the deliberate destruction of a Hindu Temple. Many were hospitalized, and dozens still remain homeless. Not only are the perpetrators free of prosecution, but they actually were awarded some of the land they invaded. Officials including the Dhaka Chief of Police and an Awami League Member of Parliament warned local human rights groups to stop inquiring about it.

• On June 13, 2009, 20-year-old Hindu college student Koli Goswami was abducted from her bed in the middle of the night. Muslim men broke into the family home and brandished firearms when confronted by family members. Police refuse to pursue a case, calling it a “love affair,” despite admitted evidence of violence and a struggle. They claim that Koli has “voluntarily” converted to Islam and threaten family members and human rights groups while keeping them from interviewing the young woman. Koli Goswami has not been seen since the night she was taken.

• At 10am on February 26, 2009, two men abducted 14 year old Tanusree Roy and raped her multiple times. Although the distraught father has filed official reports of the incident, authorities have refused to help recover his child or prosecute the known perpetrators. The latter continue to threaten Tanusree’s father if he does not drop the matter. Human rights activists report that the girl has been forcibly converted to Islam and kept incommunicado for the past two years.

There was no let-up during the Awami League’s second year in office. In one 25 day period between March 12 and April 6, 2010, for instance, there were seven major, confirmed attacks.

All we get from the Bangladeshis are words. Like actors reading from a script, they repeat the same hollow denials—the same party line I got when I raised the issue with a Bangladeshi Cabinet Minister in Dhaka earlier this year. He might have parroted the usual denials, but his nervous ticks, obvious discomfort, and averted glance told quite a different story. (I also recall how several years ago, a Bangladeshi general tried to convince me that their Vested Property Act was actually instituted as a device to protect Hindus, although when I pressed him he could not explain how that could work.) And how many times are we going to hear their empty promises to repeal “anti-minority laws.” Sheikh Hasina made that very promise to visiting NATO commander Gerard Valin on May 1, 2009, thereby admitting that her country in fact has anti-minority laws on the books. In the long standing tradition of Bangladeshi leaders, she went no further than those words and the discriminatory laws remain. Yet, no nation or international body seems to have a problem with that.

What message does that send to anyone who covets a Hindu family’s small farm—or their daughter? And what message are we sending them—and our own children—if we look the other way while it happens?

There is something else. Some of you might be thinking, ‘Perhaps that is all true, but my family is from Andhra Pradesh where we have our own problems. This is about Bengalis.’ And that plays right into the hands of those who wish to destroy us. Were the bombs that went off on 26/11 harmful only to some? Did they discriminate between Telugu and Bengali? Did the killers ask people if they were from Kashmir or Gujurat before firing? And if they destroy the Hindus in Bangladesh and Kashmir, will they then say, ‘it is enough’ and urge their fellow jihadis to leave Andhra Pradesh in peace? iNo, no, no, and no again. If we fail to unite, we will be easy pickings for our enemies—who have put aside their own ancient divisions for the sake of jihad.

So, instead of treating you to a litany of more atrocities, I want to identify one simple thing we all can do from our secure positions in the United States. Everyone can decide today whether to do something simple and save lives or watch another rerun of House or Law and Order while the murders and rapes continue.

To get things started, we have to make people aware of the problem. Despite the flood of emails and consistent documentation successive in Hindu American Foundation reports, few people here are aware of this atrocity or how it threatens them, and we have to fix that. Human rights atrocities generally proceed when governments believe they can commit them without anyone noticing—or caring—which is what we have here. For Bangladesh, that means that it incurs no cost if it allows its Hindus to be eradicated; that is, their leaders have pointed out the domestic political concerns if they take action, but they have none if they let things remain as they are. We have to make it cost more for them not to change.

The US is Bangladesh’s third largest trading partner, and we have given Bangladesh over $5.5 billion in aid. For years, Bangladeshi governments—regardless of party—have wanted a free trade agreement with the United States or at least a reduction in tariffs on their goods. You might call it their holy grail. That is a tremendous amount of leverage we can exercise if we have the will to do so, and it will take a concerted and relentless effort to get our elected officials to use it.

I am currently working with a Member of Congress on a letter that addresses this issue. It will ask the US to re-consider its policies and use all of that leverage to save the 15 million Bangladeshi Hindus. Because at this point, the actual letter is unfinished and needs final approval, I cannot divulge the Member’s name or the specific contents; but the initiative is real and his support genuine. Once it is complete—hopefully during the summer—we will look for other Members of Congress to sign it before sending it to Secretary of State Clinton. Do we expect that this letter will lead the US government to all of a sudden revamp its entire foreign policy? No, but remember the intent: to shine light on an atrocity that is allowed to proceed because it does so in the dark.

Hopefully, the administration will take a serious look at the issue; but whether it does so or not, the letter will provide the basis for further action: Congressional hearings, which are already in the works; confronting the Bangladeshis; and from there action on trade and tariffs. It will take this issue to a new level, and everyone in this room can and should have a role in making it happen because success is premised on getting a range of Congressmen and Congresswomen to sign it. When you came in, you were given a piece of paper to fill out with contact information and questions to determine who your Congressional Representative is. Everyone here who votes can help get that elected official’s signature on the letter and support for the actions we take subsequently to stop this carnage. Please pass in the papers. Now, can each of you do that one small thing? Is there anyone here who can’t?

That’s good, because Congressman Mike Pence (R-IN) once said that any Member of Congress who gets ten phone calls on an issue will sit up and take notice, call staff meetings about it, and probably support their constituents’ position; but whether it is ten, two, or a hundred, the principle is the same. Using these papers, I will identify Members of Congress whom you can call and we can go to for support. When we are ready to circulate the letter, I will contact each of you and ask you to make that call. Moreover, each of you knows other citizens who can make the same call. Urge them to do it—even if they live in the same house as you; so long as they are eligible to vote in the next election. My associate, Prasad Yalamanchi will help with that, but today he and I will be getting information from people and groups that can get things done.

There is something else we can do, and it refers to something that is happening now. Last month, Bangladesh’s Supreme Court ruled against some constitutional amendments instituted during two military dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s, and it asked the government to submit replacements for ratification in the Awami-dominated parliament. So what did this oh-so-progressive and freedom-loving Awami League do? It submitted new laws that outlawed military governments and religiously-based parties; but it left intact one of the most significant amendments that came under the Court’s scrutiny: the Eighth, which made Islam the official state religion and essential to the character of all that flows from Bangladeshi law. It is an amendment that Hindus and others say makes them second-class citizens in their own country. Every law they have to follow begins with “in the name of Allah the beneficent.” Madrassas (Islamic schools) are given a favored position by their government and often receive public support, even those preaching radical Islam. This is not the action of a government that really wants to protect its minority citizens, but rather one closer to Iran. It is certainly not the action of a “moderate Muslim nation,” which is how Bangladesh tries to portray itself.

Has there been even one phone call from President Obama or Secretary of State Clinton to Bangladesh, challenging the government on this or other anti-minority actions? Has anyone reminded Sheikh Hasina of her still unfulfilled promises to end official minority discrimination in Bangladesh—and how she has an opportunity with this constitutional change to prove that she and her party are not shams? The answer to all those questions is the same: “No.” I ask my esteemed colleagues at the Hindu American Foundation to work with me now to prevail upon Congress and the Administration to address this matter with Bangladesh while there is still time to fix things. It will also tell us if these people deserve our votes next year.

Let me put it to you this way. If there was a similar situation involving Muslims somewhere in the world, what do you think the American Muslim community would do? How vocal would organizations like Council on American-Islamic Relations be? What about Jewish organizations or Evangelical Christians for their co-religionists? Do Hindus have fewer rights than they do? Does the American Constitution say ‘everyone except Hindus’? No; the only thing stopping us is ourselves. For this effort to succeed, we do not need the entire 2.5 million Hindus in the United States to act. But we do need a core group of individuals who care more about the lives of their oppressed brethren than being thought impolite. And it starts here; it starts today. From this effort, we can make the issue of anti-Hindu oppression a US concern. Each of you can do this one thing, and possibly save the lives of millions of people.

Once we find success in this quarter, we can expand in any direction we wish; tackle any anti-Hindu human rights issues we want—those in Pakistan, Kashmir, Malaysia, Fiji, or anywhere else. In the lead up to the November 2010 vote, some of us in the Chicago area helped organize community members in support of certain candidates who will support us. As a result, some people are beginning to see the Hindu community as a constituency that cannot be ignored; whose concerns cannot be dismissed. And it will stay that way only so long as we continue to exert whatever advantage we have and deny our support to those lawmakers who do not care about those issues important to us, who do not care if Hindus are being killed and raped in Bangladesh. We have a critical election coming up in 16 months, and the papers you filled out today will be added to others to help elect lawmakers who will stand with us and not let our brothers and sisters in Bangladesh or anywhere else be persecuted with impunity.

Whatever we do, however, it all ultimately depends on you. Some of us who are dedicated to saving the Bangladeshi Hindus can lead, can organize, can take on a certain amount of the burden; but our efforts will come to little if people see that the rest of the community does not care enough to stand up and say so. The Congressional letter will be our first test.

And just in case you are wondering whether why you should take this tiny step, please allow me this one last piece of motivation. In 2009, I interviewed a Bangladeshi Hindu family that crossed into India only 22 days earlier. They told me about an uncle being killed, the father beaten, and their tiny farm invaded by a large number of Muslims. I also looked into the eyes of their 14-year-old daughter as she talked about being gang raped. Who did it? Not al Qaeda or Jammat; but simply Muslims who lived in the area and knew they could have their way with the family, seize their land, and get away with it.

Joseph Stalin is said to have remarked, “One death is a tragedy, a million deaths a statistic.” That 14-year-old rape victim—that child—I met was no statistic, and God help us if we make her one.

Thank you.

[RajeshA]

Rony ji,

Considering that there is not much interest in providing asylum to Hindus from Bangladesh in India or some other suggestions on strategies to deal with the issue, I guess the answer is - "Let Them Die"!

[Aditya_V]

Rony ji,

Considering that there is not much interest in providing asylum to Hindus from Bangladesh in India or some other suggestions on strategies to deal with the issue, I guess the answer is - "Let Them Die"!

1) See, we have to understand Hindu culture as it today is a very selfish culture and does look at anther man's viewpoint and does not think in strategic terms on issues. Give them Rs. 1000 each or waive Rs. 10000 loan or Tax break for Rs 15000 PA or provide reservation to specific castes, project caste leaders you can buy atleast around 75% of thier vote. The best example of this selfish behaviour you see on Indian roads, where people give no consideration for others or convience to the rest of society. So such thinking for Hindus in Bangladesh is impossible to be expected from forget Hindu society but by Indian Soceity in General.

2) Saar, for those Hindus who fled Bangladesh and entered India, thier fate has not changed, Many such Hindu Shopkeepers still pay Jaziya for Muslim festivals, have thier Homes and Temples demolished in West Bengal by an elected TMC MP(secular dispention) who had included it as part of his election Manifesto. So if there fate is the Same whether they are in India or Bangladesh, how does matter? And Hindus in India don't get a fair deal where is the question of Bangladesh?

3) And for a Larger Hindu population unless they see how muslims in a majority behave they are going to keep more and more space to Islamists and will keep ceding territory. For eg. many secular minded folk are not even aware that there was a large Non-Muslim population in Pakistan(especially Paki Punjab) before 1947 and treat the Partition violence as an equal equal completly ignoring that the level of violence completly ethinically in fascist way cleansed areas of thier Hindu and Sikh population, they are only interested in Sachar Committee reports.

Worst Part people like Amartya Sen whose father had too flee Dhaka in 1947 have the same feeling. Unless we change the levers of Power in Indian Politics, Indian Beauracracy, Indian Education and Indian Media, nothing can be expected.

[Anindya]

Worst Part people like Amartya Sen whose father had too flee Dhaka in 1947 have the same feeling. Unless we change the levers of Power in Indian Politics, Indian Beauracracy, Indian Education and Indian Media, nothing can be expected.

probably one of the worst examples of this kind is Sarmila Bose - who spends her life white-washing Pakistani crimes; knowing fully well that people (especially Hindus) who have lived through 1971 and 1950 will readily paint for us, for the most heart rending situations that they endured. Facts and extreme human suffering can be swept under the carpet for the benefit of political correctness.

[brihaspati]

Ah! The demand and loud growl from the p-sec p-nationalists will be - "how long do you want to keep harking back to the past? we have to move on! smell the coffee - have a life!" This was what I was told after the first few months on the forum - by a Bengali, and committed defender of the "nation".

Many of the Hindu rajahs and zamindars and chiefs actually converted to Islam under the Turko-Afghans to preserve their power and lands. These would naturally be the pinnacles of Hindu forward castes at that time - and thus they would have carried all the worst characteristics that can develop with by-birth-superiority-from the-rest-of-birth-society claims.

Hindu forward castes - with pretensions of such by-birth sense of superiority become detached from the rest of their birth society which they have been taught to think of servants/subhumans onlee. We have seen such subconscious thinking dripping off from Bengali sentiments on this forum too - in a casual slip that mocked and derided language use/culture or ideas, because they were assumed to have come from "rural" background.

It is a persistent feature of such "high"-born all along the GV, to provide a section that eagerly starts licking foreign and hostile ideology boots, especially if such foreign ideologies apparently show a "masculinity" - a kind of robust domination and use of power. This aspect fulfills the psychological hunger in such elite caused by the emptiness left out of deracination from the rest of their birth society. Also a solid core of apparent ruthlessness that they feel lacking in their own roots. This is the voice we see reflected in a shameless demand for greater concessions to BD or Pak.

[brihaspati]

It would be wrong to paint the whole of "Hindu" by the deracinated "forward" birth-superior specimens. The "lower" orders get confused and dismayed by the behaviour of their "superiors". But they preserve in their own way, the continuity - much more steadfastly than the top-orders. The resistance will come from these sections. But the much greater experience at manipulation of society and the infrastructure of "manufacture of consent" [rashtryia coercive machinery/media/legitimization devices like legislature and judiciary] - that the deracinated GV elite hold - will delay this revival. We have to wait until these "superior" folks are swallowed by the Islamists and the EJ.

[RajeshA]

Dealing with Ethnic Cleansing of Hindus

brihaspati garu,

the case is crystal clear. If Indics can reformulate the whole issue in terms of the liberal vocabulary - of human rights abuses, ethnic cleansing, genocide of the Hindus in Bangladesh, and start giving it prominence and attention through Blogs, Videos, Western media, and some Indian nationalist media, then the issue would start getting attention.

Basically I think, the issue has the potential of another Rath Yatra of 1990 by LK Advani.

We have MMS giving 10,000 acres to Bangladesh, and on the other hand we have some Hindu Nationalist Party like BJP protesting the ethnic cleansing of Bangladeshi Hindus.

Actually, I support the overtures, MMS is going to be making towards Bangladesh, including the land swap, especially if it gives us a hassle-free border fence. Then there are going to be other agreements, when MMS goes there. Then there are the concessions that Mamata Government has provided to the Bengali Muslims. This is going to create an impression among Indians that Indics that UPA-2 Government is willing to overlook all that is happening against Bangladeshi Hindus.

On the other hand a BJP or BJP-like political group can start bringing out huge rallies to protest against the treatment of Hindus in Bangladesh.

That has all the elements of the Rath Yatra. Injustice to Hindus.

Now one could say, why were there no similar protests when Kashmiri Muslims threw out Kashmiri Pundits. There should have been. But there is one difference. Here the Muslim group, the Hindu groups would be criticizing would not be internal to India, Indian Muslims, or even Kashmiri Muslims, or Bangladeshi Muslims who have voting rights in India. Hindus would be protesting against Bangladeshi State, against Bangladeshi Muslims in Bangladesh.

Now if Trinamool does not pick up this issue, and INC does not pick up this issue, and neither does the various Communist parties, then it is BJP's for the taking. At the moment they do not have a single seat in the Assembly. If there is concerted presentation of this issue as a human rights issue, even Bengali "non-communal" Hindus would have to agree with BJP's PoV. It is a possibility of polarizing the Bengali society, making it much strongly rooted in the Hindu identity. West Bengal cannot take any more of pseudo-secularism.

Secondly, I think, BJP should merely demand that the Indian Govt. should allow all Bangladeshi Hindus to receive asylum in India, so as to escape their inhuman ethnic cleansing and intimidation in Bangladesh. This step as such is not anti-Bangladesh, as India is not attacking the country or anything.

With the issue of Bangladeshi Hindus, BJP has a chance to turn the whole politics of West Bengal. I am hoping here, but should a Nationalist Govt. take charge in West Bengal, it can be possible to put into practice what I suggested earlier.

[RajeshA]

We have to wait until these "superior" folks are swallowed by the Islamists and the EJ.

The "Superior" Folk would keep their Hindu names, and won't be swallowed even as they do the Islamist bidding. One can't wait for this to happen, before something is done!

[brihaspati]

Don't be so despondent - we have quite a good trend! Start with Suman Chatujjye becoming Kabir Suman.

[somnath]

A good compilation of opinions on the Indo-BD equation....The ex-diplomatic community is nearly unanimous!

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?277571

Says Abdul Matlub Ahmad, president of the India-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry, “India’s credit for building the road and railway infrastructure from Bangladesh to Tripura will widen the scope to explore the huge consumer market in India’s northeastern states.”

[brihaspati]

Pushing the Islamophile agenda from the Indian side can lead to plenty of funny spots. Now some "ex-diplomatic-community" voices are being quoted to claim that the reality of BD politics is somehow overwhelmingly in support of "transit". Not following up on current trends from a wide spectrum of opinions which are really relevant for immediate or future policy from BD side is inexcusable. Most of the academics, ex-public servants whose opinions are often cited by governments, or those which populate gov advisory or consultatory forums in BD are actually firmly divided in their assessment.

One of the first questions that Krishna had to face in the "strategic" seminar was whether the transit was going to open up greater threat to the security of BD from NE extremists, and he had to clarify that all transit through BD would be non-military. The question may seem innocent, but the three major points on which the BD opinionmakers are divided are this supposed consequence of Indian transit traffic attracting NE retaliation, BD not being able to squeeze enough in concessions from India in return for granting this transit right, and most importantly the currently negative assessment by a wide spectrum of "specialists" as to whether BD can at all exploit the NE markets given lack of complementarity of trade components.

Even those that are in tacit favour from among those that "count", are cautious in also adding warnings about these three - that unless these factors are super-guaranteed BD should not hurry about "transit", and both sides of the divide agree that transit should be conditional and linked to concessions on the land-exchange/border/natural resources-marine boundary questions.

There should be a limit to the shamelessness with which a blind propaganda in favour of Congress Islamophile steps - is pushed here. The BD electorate and population has been repeatedly indicated to be almost equally divided in their attitude towards India - on this forum. Already all the BNP-Jamaat and Islamic parties have taken a position against the transit. India's strategic needs are not going to be satisfied by this - except a gesture of potential commercial gain in transit fees to BD biz and gov interests. What we know of BD politics, BD establishment is very much aware of this Islamophile weakness of the Congress and uses it to strengthen its own Islamist infrastructure and gain concessions over the decades of existence of BD - all the while Hindus and Buddhists get reduced in number, raped, abducted, evicted, looted.

The example of returning "some" ULFA activists to India was thumped up here as big result of India's warming up. The fact is, as was pointed out, that ULFA was given shelter and base in BD in the first place, and onlee some faction has turned up in India. The main kingpin is still "missing", and there is evidence that from top to bottom functionaries of BD state were involved in covering up ULFA in BD. Thus we are yet to assure ourselves that the Rajkhowa faction that "returned" is really a "change of heart" or a tactical step from ULFA and their co-sponsors from within the BD rashtra and society. It is almost similar to the old Islamic practice of raiding a community - abducting someone or looting something and holding it to ransom, to gain later by returning the person or the object.

[somnath]

Ahh, so all motivations of better Indo-BD relations stem from "islamist" considerations...Apparently transit to integrate NE, increasing trade with South Asia's second-fastest growing market, consolidating India's neighbourhood under stronger cooperative stuctures - these are all peripheral...Its all about closet-islamism

[brihaspati]

http://newagebd.com/newspaper1/national/23657.html

No rush in giving transit to India: Gawher Rizvi
$3 billion needed to build infrastructure for transit: ADB
24th June, 2011.
Staff Correspondent

The prime minister’s foreign affairs adviser, Dr Gawher Rizvi, on Thursday said there is no need to hurry to enter into an agreement with India over transit, and the country’s benefit is above all other considerations.

‘Nobody can solve overnight the problems pertaining to transit, but we have to start the process…At this stage, given the infrastructure, movement will be on a small scale,’ he said.

Rizvi was speaking at a seminar on ‘Regional connectivity and transit: Bangladesh perspective’, organized by the Media Initiative for Public Policy in collaboration with the Press Institute of Bangladesh.

The Centre for Policy Dialogue’s distinguished fellow Debapriya Bhattacharya, Mohammad Yunus of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, PIB’s director Rafiqul Islam Chowdhury and the Associated Press Bureau’s chief Farid Hossain also addressed the seminar.

Debapriya Bhattacharya feared that any hasty agreement on would deprive Bangladesh of its due benefits, and said that the national interest cannot be sacrificed in the name of ‘transit’. Admitting that the nation which closes its doors to the rest of the world is illiterate, he still warned that Bangladesh is yet not ready for connectivity with India.

Debapriya suggested that public opinion should be built up in transit’s favour and thorough technical analysis must be undertaken before any agreement is signed with India on connectivity. Mentioning the ongoing debate on a transit deal with India, he said everybody is highlighting the reasons against it, but nobody is discussing its benefits.

‘Transit has to be economically viable, and very visibly, to make it sustainable, otherwise it will politically suicidal,’ Debapriya warned.

BIDS’s research director Muhammad Yunus said a recent study by the Asian Development Bank revealed that an investment of more than $3 billion was necessary to build the needed infrastructure for transit.

Other speakers at the seminar opposed any ad hoc agreement on transit and recommended a framework agreement involving other regional countries like Nepal and Bhutan.

[brihaspati]

4 days later: Rizvi ubacha,
http://www.newstoday.com.bd/index.php?o ... 2011-06-28

Rizvi for providing transit to India without any delay

Prime Minister's Foreign Affairs Adviser Dr. Gowher Rizvi on Monday said that there should be no further delay in providing transit to India, reports UNB.
"We've waited for 40 years to offer transit to India. We can't wait anymore," he told a seminar organized by Economic Reporters Forum (ERF) at the Jatiya Press Club in the city.
The seminar titled "Connectivity: Economy and Other Aspects" was also addressed by Tariff Commission chairman Dr. Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) research director KAS Murshid and ERF president Monwar Hossain.

He said it's not true that India would not pay any fees for the transit. "We'll get every legal and legitimate fee from India for using transit facilities."Dr. Gowher Rizvi said Bangladesh expects transit facilities through India from Nepal and Bhutan in near future.

Tariff Commission chairman Dr. Mujibur Rahman said transit issue is not a new issue. India has been enjoying transit facilities from Bangladesh for many years in the river routes. "But the transit through roads and railways are now being re-established through the new agreements."He claimed that both the governments of Ershad and Khaleda Zia had recognized the necessity of transit. So, it has a popular support.

BIDS research director KAS Murshid said transit should not be offered to India before carrying out a thorough study on the loss and benefits for Bangladesh. He said if there is any proven necessity, at best the railway transit could be offered to India on a mid-term basis.

[svinayak]

ping pong keeps going. But keep watching

[Kati]

Yesterday (July 8th) Dhaka police raided the Model Pre-Cadet School and confiscated a huge
amount of Jamaat literature, poster, banners, CDs, etc etc. They also found pakistani flags
and leaflets demanding the release of jailed Jamaat leaders. The head of the school, Alamgir Hossain,
a local jamaat leader, has been arrested along with six others. They used to use Bangladeshi national
flag to clean the school's desks and chairs, and instructed students to do so.

[brihaspati]

http://www.bdnews24.com/details.php?id=199865&cid=2

BNP now plans to force govt out
Fri, Jul 1st, 2011 9:01 pm BdST

Dhaka, July 1 (bdnews24.com)—The BNP has dropped the call for snap polls and is now focussed on the one-point demand to push the government from power instead, according to acting secretary-general. Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir announced the shift in the stance at a council of a Dhaka metropolitan unit of the largest opposition in parliament on Friday.
[...]
The BNP leader also slammed the government on its foreign policy. "They have sold national interests by giving transit [to India] through Akhaura. Bangladesh won't get anything from the transit...On the other hand, people are being shot dead in the borders like bird. The government has no courage to protest this," he said.

A slightly older 2009 conference bringing together academics and policy analysts had this in one session: http://www.biiss.org/policy.pdf

Dr. Abdur Rob Khan, Research Director, BIISS, presented the second paper of this session on transit issue in Bangladesh’s foreign policy.
[...]
Given the fact that arguments for and against transit were heavily loaded and biased, he purported to steer a ‘safe’ course by presenting views of both sides and trying to bring out the bottom line arguments from both sides to draw certain conclusions. He also deliberated on how the divergent arguments impacted the foreign policy of Bangladesh.

Arguments for giving transit to India included the question of regional hub, gain from multilateral connectivity, removal of trade barriers, opportunity cost of investment etc.

Arguments against giving transit to India included the generation of elements of mistrust and suspicion between India and Bangladesh, India’s reluctance to allow transit to Bangladesh to Bhutan and Nepal, Bangladesh’s security concerns, infrastructural damages, possibility of losing market in northeast India etc.

Dr. Khan commented that public opinion about giving transit to India was a conditional ‘yes’ rather than absolute ‘no’. He said that we should send a signal to India for earning the goodwill of Bangladesh’s people; and we needed to pin down India in specifying what they really wanted.
[...]
Professor Dr. Delwar Husain, Department of International Relations, University of Dhaka, discussed on the paper. He pointed out the absence of any substantive research on transit issue in Bangladesh. Citing a study, he said that from transshipment charges, Bangladesh could earn 400-500 million US$ a year. He quoted famous scholar Professor Talukder Maniruzzaman who termed transit as an Indian design.
[...]
He described three different views existent in Bangladesh regarding transit, which were: i) supporters for giving transit to India. ii) opponents of giving transit to India. iii) the opinion of Bangladeshi business community which was some kind of middle path.

The policy recos at the end include two curious bits :

Increasing co-operation with Indian states adjoining Bangladesh, with Nepal, and with Bhutan. using manpower along the entire courses of the rivers addressing local wealth and expertise.

Reengineering our policy towards great powers, showing national strength by proving our communal harmony, democracy and secularism, establishing strong international links and leverage in all our geo-strategic location amongst China, India, ASEAN countries for all types of gains, strongly pursue multilateral diplomacy, establishing friendship lobbies in the parliaments of powerful states, following or getting engaged in public diplomacy and portray our soft power, creating an image of secularists despite being devout Muslims, manage the media etc., developing our image abroad, and review the Bangladesh stance in bi- and multilateral economic forums by portraying both past and present follies of the donors.

The "increasing cooperation" bit with adjoining states - and not India as a whole, is a bit worrisome, given that demographic invasion has been continuing in a planned manner for decades. "Creating" and "image of secularists" despite being "devout Muslims" shows the awareness that devotion to Islam is incompatible with "secularism" but it has to be pretended as an image anyway.

followed by

Sending a signal to India for earning the goodwill of Bangladesh’s people; and need to pin down India in defining what they really wanted. Establishing a multilateral framework including Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar, larger connectivity keeping the Asian Highway and the Trans Asian Railway in mind.
• Have well qualified negotiators both in government and private sectors, raising the amount for service charge for transit, pay attention to infrastructural damages that may be caused by Indian vehicles;
• Paying attention to political problems and their implication on transit (if given), think a lot before giving transit to India keeping in mind their previous records.

The implication is that India's "previous" record is very bad indeed!

[Kati]

.....
When I called him it was post lunch, in the background Radio Bangladesh's music program was presenting
Rabindrasangeet (tagore's songs).......It is one of the room's in one of Dhaka University's student hostels...
....
Q. How are you?
A. I'm fine, dada, how are you doing?

Q. I'm good too. So how are the things on campus?
A. Well, quiet now, small things happen here and there....you know, it is a huge campus.

Q. More brawl between Chhatra League and Chhatra Shibir?
A. That happens mostly near the Kala Bibhaag (Arts faculty), not near the Biggyan Bibhaag (Science faculty)...

Q. How about Jamaat elements?
A. Even since Awami League came to power, those elements have been kicked out systematically
by Chhatra league members. Now they reside just outside the campus in rented houses. They also
provide accommodation to similar minded students who can't find spots in campus hostels.

Q. Communal Situation?
A. Dada, things are much better now, but you know, it is just under the surface. However, during the
last Saraswati Puja, there were at least 50 pujas taking place within the campus. The govt provided
financial support. Every department organized puja initiated by the hindu students.

Q. Can Hasina tackle the BNP-Jamaat threat?
A. Good question. Depends on price of common consumer goods, agricultural production. But the govt
is certainly utilizing the cultural front to push back the fundamentalism. All over the country thousands of
thousands of cultural events, music festivals with Rabindrasangeet and Nazrulgeet are taking place.
Colleges and Universities are urged to join this bandwagon. The cuntry is sharply divided between those
who want to ignore pakistani oppression prior to 1971 and those who never wants to forgive Pakistan.

Q. Please continue the last discussion we had a few months back....
A. Oh!.........I was saying, look I was born after 1971...from my parents I have heard a lot about the
liberation war......but I don't agree with him on a few things. They always say that in this country 'this
is not good, that is not good...things are better in India...'...and I say, 'look, may be I am a hindu, I
belong to the minority community here, but I'm a bangladeshi first...don't tell me India is better, or this or
that....it is our responsibility to make bangladesh better.......so I should look at the bangladesh's interest
first before I patronize India'. Well, this is a common issue of friction in many families.......

Q. Have you faced any partiality in Dhaka U campus?
A. No, not so far.......actually, things are not that bad as you might think.......I get encouragement from
my teachers from both communities......But is the overall situation in the country gets worse then I know
very well that communal angle will get worse too.......

Q. How about in rural areas?
A. In rural areas the problem is mainly maintaining the order, and that is taken advantage of by many jamaat
elements to terrorize the minorities. Well, actually that happens to many liberal muslims too who want to send
their daughters to schools...........
....
okay, thanks, I'll chat with you later again......Give my regards to your parents..........
.....

[brihaspati]

Here is another nugget - I am not sure has been highlighted before :
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100815/j ... 813492.jsp

Dhaka, Aug. 14 [2010] : Moves are afoot to link Bangladesh with Pakistan by rail through India, 63 years after the subcontinent was partitioned. “We would like to have transit and be connected to all South Asian nations, including Pakistan,” Bangladesh foreign minister Dipu Moni told The Telegraph.

India had agreed last week to allow Bangladeshi truckers to pass through its territory on their way to Nepal and Bhutan, and promised Dhaka railway links with these land-locked nations. Till the 1965 Indo-Pak war, goods trains used to travel between Lahore and Dhaka — then part of the same country — through India. Islamabad has already said it wants the rail link revived.

Last month, while allowing Afghan trucks transit to India, Pakistan had refused to grant Indians passage to Kabul, saying this would have to wait till Delhi gave it transit to Dhaka. Top Indian railway officials said they were willing to run a Lahore-Delhi-Dhaka service — initially with goods trains and later, if politics allowed, with passenger trains.

This proposal was floated at a Saarc transport ministers’ conference earlier this year, the officials said. “We have talked to our Pakistani counterparts as well as to Iran on possible railway links,” an official said. Bangladesh, which lost an estimated two million people in a genocide by the Pakistani army during its freedom struggle in 1971, had until now not been inclined towards any rail link with Pakistan.

Moni, who at 53 is Bangladesh’s second-youngest foreign minister, reflects new thinking that wants to go beyond past hostilities and suspicions. “We are in favour of the Asian Highway connectivity plans.… We want all countries on board in that project,” the minister said.

The Asian Highway is a co-operative project among countries in Asia and Europe, supported by the UN and global banks such as the Asian Development Bank. It seeks to link countries in Asia, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, China and Japan, with Europe [maybe here lies the main interest - pushing it all through?] through a 7,000km trans-continental highway and railway system. The gaps in the railway and highway networks lie mostly in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar. [the three most problematic sources of trouble for India. Actually, it is India which might start wondering about how Indian security could be compromised by filling in these blanks and allowing a two-way flow]
[...]
However, Moni struck a confident note on Bangladesh’s plans for the future: “We are not concerned with electoral imperatives, even though there will be an election in another four years. Our plans have a long-term timeline... we have planned till 2021 (when Bangladesh will turn 50).”[this is also significant : for a electoral-politican electoral imperatives are compensated more than enough over the longer term! - so what has been the real incentives?]
[...]
A $1-billion soft-loan treaty signed in the presence of finance minister Pranab Mukherjee last Saturday, which would give Bangladesh credit to build its road and rail infrastructure and to buy railway coaches and buses, was dubbed “a 20-year treaty of ghulami (slavery)” by BNP head Khaleda Zia at a massive rally. [There goes overwhelming support for Indian moves]

[somnath]

Its amusing to see that different shades of opinion in BD is being touted as a "proof" of how greater engagement should not be attempted! It is but natural that in defining relations, especially with large powers, more so if they happen to be neighbours, there will be multiple shades of public opinion...In India, we still have opinions harking back to the Cold War on issues of relations with the US! We had the party that invested perhaps the maximum in the last 20 years in the US-relationship adopting the most bizarre anti-US stance on the nuke deal...It doesnt stop either US, or for any dispensation in India, to look for ever-converging cooperative structures...

BD (along with SL), is the most "strategic" country for us in South Asia - it is large, it is growing, and the polity is looking at the latter with much more seriousness than on existential issues relating to metaphysical and historical grievances...

A full FTA with BD will unleash a tremendous dynamic within India's "larger East"....Not only will NE get more integrated with India's heartland, Calcutta will get another shot at becoming a financial-trans-shipment-cultural hub, this time of the East, as 180 million more consumers get integrated with a "common market", one that can potentially include Myanmar and Thailand, maybe even beyond....

Its seldom that boldness is displayed by our foreign policy apparatus...But as CRM said in that article, with BD now is the time to do so...The PM can go to BD and conclude a whole bouquet of policy initiatives - from transit, to an FTA to maybe even a work permit programme...The last would go down well politically in both BD and our NE, as a legal system would create stakes for everyone involved to minimise the illegal structrues of immigration...

Else, we can keep cowering behind delusions of islamist fear, erect walls (actually its already there, so maybe one mroe layer!), and let China sieze the initiatives in our own backyard!

[RajeshA]

a whole bouquet of policy initiatives - from transit, to an FTA to maybe even a work permit programme...The last would go down well politically in both BD and our NE, as a legal system would create stakes for everyone involved to minimise the illegal structrues of immigration...

No work permits! Fence is top priority!

[Anindya]

"delusions of islamist fear" - why should an Indian, given our history and the nature of Islam in the sub-continent, ever have anything like Islamist fear? LoL!!

[Samudragupta]

Dealing with Ethnic Cleansing of Hindus

brihaspati garu,

the case is crystal clear. If Indics can reformulate the whole issue in terms of the liberal vocabulary - of human rights abuses, ethnic cleansing, genocide of the Hindus in Bangladesh, and start giving it prominence and attention through Blogs, Videos, Western media, and some Indian nationalist media, then the issue would start getting attention.

Basically I think, the issue has the potential of another Rath Yatra of 1990 by LK Advani.

We have MMS giving 10,000 acres to Bangladesh, and on the other hand we have some Hindu Nationalist Party like BJP protesting the ethnic cleansing of Bangladeshi Hindus.

Actually, I support the overtures, MMS is going to be making towards Bangladesh, including the land swap, especially if it gives us a hassle-free border fence. Then there are going to be other agreements, when MMS goes there. Then there are the concessions that Mamata Government has provided to the Bengali Muslims. This is going to create an impression among Indians that Indics that UPA-2 Government is willing to overlook all that is happening against Bangladeshi Hindus.

On the other hand a BJP or BJP-like political group can start bringing out huge rallies to protest against the treatment of Hindus in Bangladesh.

That has all the elements of the Rath Yatra. Injustice to Hindus.

Now one could say, why were there no similar protests when Kashmiri Muslims threw out Kashmiri Pundits. There should have been. But there is one difference. Here the Muslim group, the Hindu groups would be criticizing would not be internal to India, Indian Muslims, or even Kashmiri Muslims, or Bangladeshi Muslims who have voting rights in India. Hindus would be protesting against Bangladeshi State, against Bangladeshi Muslims in Bangladesh.

Now if Trinamool does not pick up this issue, and INC does not pick up this issue, and neither does the various Communist parties, then it is BJP's for the taking. At the moment they do not have a single seat in the Assembly. If there is concerted presentation of this issue as a human rights issue, even Bengali "non-communal" Hindus would have to agree with BJP's PoV. It is a possibility of polarizing the Bengali society, making it much strongly rooted in the Hindu identity. West Bengal cannot take any more of pseudo-secularism.

Secondly, I think, BJP should merely demand that the Indian Govt. should allow all Bangladeshi Hindus to receive asylum in India, so as to escape their inhuman ethnic cleansing and intimidation in Bangladesh. This step as such is not anti-Bangladesh, as India is not attacking the country or anything.

With the issue of Bangladeshi Hindus, BJP has a chance to turn the whole politics of West Bengal. I am hoping here, but should a Nationalist Govt. take charge in West Bengal, it can be possible to put into practice what I suggested earlier.

If 600 Acres of Land can destroy 35 years of regimented rule..think of the possibility of 10000acres.....

[somnath]

We have MMS giving 10,000 acres to Bangladesh, and on the other hand we have some Hindu Nationalist Party like BJP protesting the ethnic cleansing of Bangladeshi Hindu

It would be interesting if that happened..Not implausible, but interesting...Given the lengths to which the ABV govt went to turn a new chapter in Indo-BD relations...Including literally turning a blind eye to the killing of the 17 BSF soldiers in Pyrdiwah - all to give some political cover to Sheikh Hasina facing an election (its another matter that she lost anyways)...
Not to forget the fact that the JWG on the boundary question was set up during ABV's time!

It would also be interesting to note BJP's opposition to greater cooperative structures with BD, given that the ABV govt started a bus link between India and BD, and ABV himself spoke of a sort of trans-Asian road network passing through BD into India...

My very very personal opinion is that a land swap, even with some "loss" of territory, isnt going to be a huge deal in West Bengal, especally if it is framed in the larger template of better relations and a promising future...Dont see either Mamata or CPM objecting to it too much.......

[Samudragupta]

BJP is not going to make any noise on Hindu ethinic cleansing in Bngladesh specially now when it is much better than 2003.....and we have moved much beyond ABV both BJP and the region itself....
It does not need Mamata/CPM to start the agitation....any third party can use it as a plank specially now when land issues are right at the centre of politics specially in WB...and if it gets certain momentum...its only a matter of time beforre both TMC and CPM will join the bandgown..

[Samudragupta]

The overall objective of building sustaiable politco-strategic framewirk with Bangladesh is well understood by all the parties....but the overwelming questionis at what cost? I dont think GOI is going to leave any strategic space to Bangladesh in this effort...the aim is very clear in as much as Indian POV...it need to have certain say in the internal dynamics of Bangladesh....and in this case AL may not be the only horse...and mostly economics will be the factor in this integration...

[brihaspati]

I had hoped that the crass, criminal bootlicking of Nehruvian Islamophilia that talked of "delusions of Islamist fear" in the lead up to 1946-47, from prominent "Hindu Bengalis" - would have taken a lesson from the results of deliberately false propaganda in trying to delude the rest - that every concession given to Islamists of BD was somehow a step forward in assuring the future "peace and prosperity". But it seems that the same agents of Delhi based Nehruvian bartering of land, life and shame or tears of ordinary Bengalis and Punjabis - are still kicking live and hearty.

At first the loud propaganda was that there is overwhelming support for a pro-India or at least not anti-India position in BD by selectively quoting only favourable noises from sections within BD - which also turned out to be not relevant for policy making apart from AL linked gov or party functionaries - who will support in any case, given the current scenario.

When pointed out the alternative and the counter-voices - also from a similar professional/academic/political cross-section - this becomes "different shades of opinion" onlee! Something to be dismissed casually while an even lesser apparent number of voices supporting and quoted - is supposed to be acceptable as indicative of broad support! How low can Nehruvian Islamophile bootlicking sink someone's logical faculties?

I happen to know that at least some among the Bengali Congressmen who had joined the Nehruvian camp in Bengal, still fought for preserving several districts and parts of other districts in what was to become WB - and not give it up to ML demands - against the initial demands of the Delhi based clique. It seems even that basic spine has now gone out of all that remains of a section of Bengali forward caste bootlicking and ability to sell their soul off for profit and esteem.

[somnath]

but the overwelming questionis at what cost? I dont think GOI is going to leave any strategic space to Bangladesh in this effort...

The attempt is not to lose any strategic space, but gain a lot of it....A larger constituency for India in BD, cuttign across parties is perhaps the biggest "space"...Along with it, BD is looking at "normal" variables today - economic prosperity...The grand bargain is to give BD a share of the "India pie" in return for things like transit, access to Chittagong port, clamping down in anti-India types - all of these adding up to a larger positive relationship with BD...The way I see it is that BD can be what Canada is to the US, in some ways....

Net net, generally sloganeering on islamist dangers et al will get us nowhere (not surprising that uber nationalit sloganeers generally have no idea of practical solutions, barring fantastic ones of "conversion" to dharmic, reintegration and some such rubbish)...It will only leave BD to fall in the lap of others like China...

[brihaspati]

X-posting from strategic scenarios thread:

The Islamists have called a multi-day hartal on Islamic issues and BNP has supported it.Here is a report from Frontline -but a decade ago. People can compare with current reports [today or the next few days and can replace it almost word by word by this one from 10 years before]

http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl1805/18050550.htm

Fighting fundamentalism
[Mar03-16, 2001]
Quote:
The Opposition in Bangladesh mobilises religious fundamentalists to try and dislodge the Awami League government and the latter takes up the challenge with unprecedented determination.
HAROON HABIB
in Dhaka

POLITICS in Bangladesh took a turn for the worse in the first fortnight of February when fundamentalist forces took to the streets, encouraged by a frustrated Opposition[...]
The immediate provocation for the fundamentalists was a High Court judgment that made the issue of fatwas a punishable offence. The landmark ruling from the country's highest court, which has been stayed on an appeal, would have gone a long way in protecting women, who have been targets of fatwas issued by mullahs, suppressing their legal and social rights. Fundamentalist forces called a rally in Dhaka's Paltan Maidan on February 2, under the banner of the Islami Ain Bastabayan Committee (Committee for the implementation of Islamic Laws), avowedly to wage a jehad (holy war) against the court ruling and also to "wipe out" non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that opposed the regime of fatwas. The mood at the rally was defiant. The speakers tried to provoke the large number of participants, drawn mostly from madrassas (Islamic religious schools), into launching a jehad. They issued death threats against the two Judges (one of them a woman) who delivered the judgment. The Judges were described as murtads, an expletive reserved for secular intellectuals and NGO leaders opposed to fanaticism.[a good twist from Frontline editors to obfuscate the real meaning of "murtad" in Islamic terms]

No wonder the rallyists, mobilised by clerics from all over the country, turned violent. With covert support from the Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Jamaat-e-Islami, they clashed with the police. They also announced their intention s to foil a rally called by the Oikya Badha Nagorik Andolon, a combine of the secular intellectuals backed by NGOs, against thefatwa regime on February 3. Interestingly, Khaleda Zia's BNP and Gen. Ershad's Jatiya Party have not commented on the court ruling while the Jamaat-e-Islami spoke against it bitterly.

Concerned at the flare-up and suspecting the hand of the BNP-led alliance in it, the government hit back. This it did, despite the risks involved in attacking the influential mullahs.
[yes things are repeating exactly as 10 years before]

The BNP, which leads a four-party alliance that includes Islamic fundamentalists, kept away from [...] the national parliament, for the past two years as part of a political strategy. Undeterred by criticism from within the country and abroad, the alliance increasingly resorted to hartals, demonstrations, road blockades and so on in an attempt to bring down the government.

[yes Parliament boycott, hartals, demos...going on exactly as 10 years before]

The barrage of allegations against the Hasina government relate to the "deteriorating law and order situation" (for which the Opposition holds some close relatives of the ruling party members responsible); its "pro-Indian policy", "politicisation" of the administration and "persecution" of Opposition leaders and workers by implicating them in false cases. Successive agitations, however, did not pay political dividends. Taking the fundamentalist line, it appears, was their last resort. The latest charge against the Hasina government is that it is "anti-Islamic" and that it is conspiring to close down mosques and madrassas in order to stop Islamic education.
[yes this is the same charge again..]


The Jamaat-e-Islami is among the forces that still dream of a united neo-Pakistan. The Islamic Oikya Jote (IOJ), led by radical clerics, joined the BNP alliance. The alliance makes no secret of its plan in the event of a victory in the elections. It has announced that it would revive the "spirit of 1947"[...], "restore Islamic values" and bring Bangladesh "out of Indian domination".
[yes they are doing it again now - in BD the more things change more they remain the same!]

Independent analysts say that Khaleda Zia might have committed a blunder by openly aligning with and encouraging fundamentalism in her attempt to seek power. The shift from liberal democratic politics to religious fanaticism and communalism would alienat e the moderate, Bengali-speaking sections of Bangladeshi society. It might also lead to the consolidation of pro-liberation, democratic forces against the BNP. Much before the present flare-up, secular thinkers had issued repeated warnings about the impe nding danger of fundamentalism taking centrestage in national politics. The political parties, including the Awami League, the strongest secular power in the country, did not take them seriously.

[It happened exactly opposite to this tall fantasy - BNP alliance won with a thumping majority!]

Even within the BNP the moderates were unhappy about the party high command's decision to boycott Parliament and the induction of the Jamaat-e-Islami, (it had opposed Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan) into the alliance. But the hard line prevailed .
[yes, they are unhappy even now - but the hardline prevails...]

Significantly, this is the first time in the last 30 years that the Bangladeshi state has taken on fundamentalism directly.[well it has already become 2nd/3rd/4th time..]

The fundamentalists, including Jamaat-e-Islami, do not have much popular following. [...] However, their armed cadres, foreign funds and cheap religious slogans are cause for concern for secular-democratic Bangladesh.
[the p-sec sublime logic again - something without much popular feeling is still of concern if they open their mouth!]

There are some here who claim things have moved on in BD! India's gestures have led to a fundamental change - and more "giving" is required. It should be easy for anyone with some access to BD news sources to match almost word by word any current news dealing with the multi-day "hartal" called by the very same combination that went through similar excuses and methods 10 years ago! Nothing much has changed in BD, and our eminent analysts were wrong then in predicting the future outcome. They are likely to prove fantasy peddlers even now.