India-Bangladesh Ties
Prof (Dr) DK Giri
(Professor of Practice, NIIS Group of Institutions)
The latest in India-Bangladesh ties is the ban on imports of yarn from India by Bangladesh through land and ports. It may have been done in retaliation to New Delhi stopping the transshipment facility for Bangladeshi goods through ports and airports. This act by India has apparently been provoked by Mohammed Yunus’ ‘Freudian slip’ or deliberate statement during his tour to China. He said that Northeast India is landlocked, Bangladesh is the guardian of the ocean for the region and could be the gateway for China’s influence in Northeast India. So, the tit-for-tat seems to be the case between India and Bangladesh since Yunus became the Head of Bangladesh government under the sobriquet of chief advisor to the interim Bangladesh government.
Mohammad Yunus is 84-year-old has been an academic, with little experience in politics. He earned unrivalled reputation through the Grameen Bank, an institution he created to lend money to poor rural women entrepreneurs to do business and earn their living. This scheme became such a big success that Yunus was awarded with the highly prestigious Noble prize. His international reputation persuaded the Bangladesh military to install him as the ‘titular head’ of the government. Bangladesh military still has the remote.
Be that as it may, under the pressure from the military and from pro-Pak and pro-China but anti-India forces, Yunus is behaving strangely. He did show some of his own self when he appealed to the rioters to stop tormenting the Hindu minorities. But that was a natural human display of sympathy and solidarity. The physical violence may have subsided, but Hindus continue to live in fear and insecurities. This is a major cause of concern for Indians and New Delhi. Second, Yunus, due to his geo-political inexperience, is playing into the manipulation of China. Beijing is deviously sneaking into South Asia, to encircle India by a hostile neighborhood.
Beijing mollycoddled Nepal against India by flaunting it surplus money. It did the same in Maldives, Sri Lanka and now Bangladesh. Pakistan is a different case. It has become a vassal state of China. Beijing uses Pakistan against India wherever it sniffs an opening. The Chinese game plan aims at browbeating India by seducing away her smaller neighbours.
It is indeed sad that Bangladesh fails to see the long-term benefits of associating with India. The shared history, cultural affinities and economic mutuality should not be lost on its leadership. The present young generation of Bangladeshis may not remember the pain and horror of the 1971 partition. Without the active intervention of India, the violent and ghoulish occupation of the country by Pakistan would have continued unabated. America was trying to caution as well as counsel India against it. But India and its Prime Minister Indira did. The rest is history.
Seikh Hasina gratefully acknowledges the contribution of India to the liberation of Bangladesh. She had gone through the trauma and torment with her father, Seikh Mujibur Rehman, who spearheaded the liberation movement. At any rate, one could not live in the past. New Delhi could hardly expect eternal obligation of Bangladesh for liberating it. Remember how Germany psychologically turned against America although it rebuilt the war-torn country with the latter’s money that came under the Marshall plan.
The mistake of basking in the reflected glory of the past should not continue to be committed by India. New Delhi has to deal with Bangladesh as it is today– rising Islamic radicalism, a generation unconnected with the liberation movement, caught in crosshairs of India vs Pakistan and China, and Trump’s American given Yunus’ expressed liking for Democrats.
Second, New Delhi should not repeat the strategic mistake it did in Nepal at one point in time. That is when it supported the Madhesis in relation to the government in Kathmandu. New Delhi should deal with Bangladesh, not just Seikh Hasina. The resentment, and later, revolt occurred against Hasina when she made reservation in jobs for 1971 freedom fighters’ family members. They were already getting a pension. Hasina became overconfident heedless of the shimmering discontent that blew in her face consuming her government. She should sort out herself and her party and possibly plough her way back into politics of Bangladesh. It is the internal political matter of her country. India giving asylum to her is another matter independent of the political turmoil in Dhaka.
Third, New Delhi should not let Dhaka slip away into the Chinese camp. India is presently using the carrot and stick policy. The suspension of transshipment facility has hit Bangladesh hard, especially its garment industry, which is its major export industry. Thousands of workers are scared of losing their jobs. Bangladeshi media has reacted sharply for incurring the displeasure of New Delhi and the consequent cancellation of the facility.
Finally, New Delhi should treat the deterioration of India-Bangladesh ties as a consequence of Chinese attempt to sting India through her neighbours. India can no longer ignore the hard fact that China is her biggest threat. New Delhi should deal with China, but not get carried away by Beijing’s deceptive benevolence of granting easy visas to 85000 Indians. Beijing’s overtures are a desperate reaction to American tearing tariffs of 245 per cent on Chinese exports.
Some of us have written trees of articles to alert South block to the lurking menace of China. The External Affairs Minister, thankfully, has recently publicly acknowledged that India could no longer ignore that China is a problem. New Delhi’s robust geopolitical strategy towards China should restore friendship and normalcy with all her neighbours except Pakistan who is incorrigible at its best.
At the same time, Dhaka should do well to learn from the bankruptcy that Sri Lanka plunged into by embracing China’s debt-infected investment policy. Sri Lankan then president had to flee the country to escape the anger and despair of the people that spontaneously spilled onto the streets in protest and picketing. One Prime Minister of Bangladesh also fled her country albeit on different grounds. Let there be no repeat of another leader escaping the country.
India-Bangladesh relations consist of multiple interconnected ties. Bangladesh should seek to snap them at its own peril. India should also be sensitive to the current political instability in Bangladesh which would pass. New Delhi’s neigbours are wary of its big-brother attitude which stems from the comparative bigger size of the country. New Delhi has done well not to behave as one. The same attitude should permeate New Delhi’s relations with her neigbours. Let the wise words of the former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee continue to ring in the South Block, “We can change our friends, but we cannot change our neighbours”. — INFA