[ALOCHONA] Re: Warmth of Bangladesh-India Relations

Re : Warmth of Bangladesh-India Relations- Response to Shabbir A. Bashar By Subarna K. Samanta, USA Dr. Bashar, Proof of pooding is in eating. How many communal parties are in India now? According to your own definition, BJP is the only communal party for Hindus, while there also exists Muslim league for Muslims. In Bangladesh, since 1947 all ruling parties are communal parties(be it Awami Muslim League or NAP). So, according to your own crierion Bangladesh is ruled by communal party since 1947. So, you can sermon us about communal parties. In essence, pakistan and bangladesh were created for communal purpose. I come form Bardhaman in West Bengal. I have seen so many muslims from Bangladesh coming and settling illegally theer. Can you cite any statistics about how many hindus are going to Bangladesh and settling there illegally. Then, I will accept your premise about India being a rotten nasty and irresponsible neghbor. Regarding China, just look at the history from last 50 years. It was involved in wars with India in 1960s, with Vietnam and Mongolia in 1970s and with Russia in 1980s. So, do not preach about China. It is friendly to India's neghbors since 1950. Nothing is unexpecetd as the enemy (neighbors) of my enemy is a friend of mine. Subarna K. Samanta Princeton USA E Mail : SSamanta@tcnj.edu http://newsfrombangladesh.net/view.php?hidRecord=255164  -------------------------------------- Re:Bangladesh-India Warmth -Response to Mr Bashar By Vinod Joseph By Vinod Joseph Dear Mr. Bashar, I'am flattered that you have taken the time and trouble to respond to my article at such length, especially when you feel that it is one-sided, patronizing and full of immature assumptions typical of a disingenuous arm-chair theorist. I disagree with your statement that the Indian army looted everything from ceiling fans to military equipment, utensils to water taps from the newly formed Bangladesh after the surrender of Pakistani forces in 1971. Your authority for this statement is an article which has appeared in a Pakistani Military journal! The Indian Army has never carried out systematic plunder of the sort you describe. There have definitely been individual instances of Indian soldiers breaking the law, but not on such a scale and definitely not in Bangladesh. I find it strange that you are able to live with the fact that those who collaborated with the Pakistani army and actively colluded in the murder, looting and rape of Bengalis in 1971 are yet to be punished. I agree that there is a trade imbalance between India and Bangladesh. That's mainly because India is a lot bigger than Bangladesh and produces a lot more. There is a trade imbalance between India and China in China's favour. However, no body says that it is China's fault. I am all for India making it easier for Bangladeshi goods to be sold in India. I agree that India and Bangladesh ought to emulate the US-Mexico trade treaty. I don't deny that the bulk of Bangladesh's income comes from remittances from countries afar like Saudi Arabia, UAE, Malaysia etc. and not from India. It is possible that Bangladeshi criminals (political or otherwise) illegally cross the border to take refuge in India. I think there reverse holds good as well! I have never visited Dhaka and have no means of responding to your statement that Kolkata is several decades behind Dhaka in terms of modern development. Maybe you are right. If so, good for you and Bangladesh! Vinod George Joseph E Mail : vinod.g.joseph@googlemail.com www.winnowed.blogspot.com http://newsfrombangladesh.net/view.php?hidRecord=255360   ------------------------------------------------ Re:Bangladesh-India Warmth According to the Reader from The College of New Jersey By Shabbir A. Bashar, USA Ms. Samanta from the College of New Jersey claims that the Indian BJP is communal only by me definition (NFB News, March 30th, 2009). Please allow me to quote one of your own columnists, Abdul Ruff Colachal who writes on the same day, Anti-Islamic agenda of independent Indian leaders and media emboldened many Hindu terrorists in politician's uniform to try to do away with Islam and cripple the Muslims’ genuine interests inside India and its neighborhoods, including Kashmir. BJP leader & Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi who killed as many Muslims as his regime could on various guises has said India is no more safe. Muslims have been saying the same for decades now. The BBC website reported, also on the 30th of March 2009, that Varun Gandhi a BJP candidate and a grandson of the ex-Indian PM Indira Gandhi has been detained under a federal law for inciting religious tensions during the election campaign. Mr Gandhi has allegedly made venomous speeches stating that he would cut off the throats of Muslims. If this is not communalism, I don't know what is. The Awami League or the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, who've dominated all the democratically elected parliaments in Bangladesh since 1971 have never made communal remarks let alone threaten to decapitate anyone because of their religion. Therefore a comparison of our major political parties with India's BJP is simply ridiculous. As for India's belligerence towards its neighbors, Prem Raj writes (NFB, 30th March, 2009), that it is portraying itself as a secular and peace loving country to shield her monstrous activities architected by the RAW. He continues, “Bangladesh and Pakistan are mostly at receiving end of India's launching of multi projects on the rivers which flow through her to turn their land in to desert apart from erection of the fences on border of both the countries. Sri Lankan and Tamils both have suffered at the hands of India, experiencing its intriguing imperialism, as when Tamil Tigers were being trained & equipped by RAW, simultaneously the government of India was showing her muscles to Sri Lanka to purchase weapons from not other than India and also while leaving the choice of armament to her. The small nations like Nepal, Maldives and Bhutan are forced to act in a manner like a servant to the master who is totally disregardful to the rights of people. The north-east of India is particularly underdeveloped and suffers from high unemployment and hence a disproportionate share of political unrest. These seven-sister states are far removed and harder to reach from the economically stronger regions of India. Bangladesh has a better infrastructure and more efficient logistic access to the high seas and an intricate water transport system. Were sense to prevail, the powers that be in India would sooner opt for warmer relations with its neighbor to the east to foster closer economic ties and trade relations instead of bogus cries about communalism to win elections. It would lead to a win-win situation for all inhabitants of the region and sustained growth in both countries. While I commend her undoubted patriotism, I do hope that your reader from the College of New Jersey will check her facts before challenging someone in future. Rest assured no one is interested in demonizing India but to persuade her to play a friendlier role towards its neighbors if it wants to win the hearts and minds of the people who live there. Shabbir A. Bashar, PhD Vancouver, USA E Mail : shabbir_bashar@yahoo.com   http://newsfrombangladesh.net/view.php?hidRecord=255356 --- On Sat, 3/28/09, Isha Khan <bd_mailer@yahoo.com> wrote: Warmth of Bangladesh-India Relations By Shabbir A. Bashar It was both amusing and irritating to read Vinod Joseph's analysis (http://desicritics.org/2009/03/24/095016.php) of why Bangladesh-India relations are not warmer. Amusing because Joseph starts off by saying that he “researched†before embarking on his write-up yet totally fails to cite any references. It is irritating because it's one-sided, patronizing and full of immature assumptions typical of a disingenuous arm-chair theorist. For example, Joseph conveniently overlooks the fact that the Indian army looted everything from ceiling fans to military equipment, utensils to water taps†from the newly formed Bangladesh after the surrender of Pakistani forces in 1971 (http://www.defencejournal.com/2000/feb/raw.htm). Thousands of Indian Army vehicles were used to carry looted goods back home. It is said that the scale of these cruel and heinous plunders could not have been possible without connivance of higher Indian authorities. Let's cut to the chase and face the real issues behind Bangladesh-India relations. India has a 20:1 trade imbalance with Bangladesh and yet does everything in its power to prevent Bangladeshi goods being sold in its markets. India refuses to allow transit and thus trade between Bangladesh and land-locked Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan. India defies all international norms and protocols when it comes to sharing the waters of the Ganges that flows through three countries. India maintains and seeks to create new disputes over Bangladeshi maritime boundaries and encroaches on our mineral wealths. The facts show that India behaves as the regional bully not only with Bangladesh but also with Nepal and Sri Lanka – having already annexed SSikkim. Relations between India and Pakistan aren’t exactly the warmest. A pattern is obvious. India needs to stop behaving like a belligerent big brother if it wants to earn the respect of its neighbors. Today we live in an interconnected and inter-dependent world with a multitude of trade and business opportunities for everyone. If India fails to see the benefit of maintaining good relations with its neighbors, pretty soon it will find that those neighbors are turning to quarters that make more economic sense for them. For instance, we see that China is cozying up with Nepal given how badly India treats the Himalyan Kingdom (http://www.kantipuronline.com/kolnews.php?&nid=186510). The claim that Bangladeshis illegally immigrate to India for work overlooks the fact that a huge chunk (to the tune of billions of dollars) of our income comes from remittance of our overseas workers not based in India but in countries afar like Saudi Arabia, UAE, Malaysia etc.; On the other hand, there’s no shortage of reports on Bangladeshi political criminals illegally crossing the border to India to take refuge from our laws. May be this is why many Bangladeshis do not see India in such high esteem: India simply is no where near a positively meaningful country as it could be to Bangladesh. Contrast this with the relationship between US, Canada and Mexico. The facts speak for themselves. Bangladesh is a majority Muslim country. It is no historical accident but rather a direct outcome of our geographical terrain. When Islam was brought to South Asia primarily by the seafaring Yemenese, they found today’s Bangladesh to be much more of a fertile ground for converts than other parts of India. The vast Ganges delta with its deep waters in Bangladesh was easier for them to penetrate while its myriad of islands was harder to administer by the Hindu hierarchical cast system. The hitherto mostly lower caste Hindu inhabitants of today's Bangladesh found greater personal freedom in embracing Islam than being subjugated to the whims of the upper caste Hindu Zamindars. Contrast this with the arid parts of India where water – a major ingredient of human survival - from a well would be under the direct control of the village administrator making it hard for outsiders (spreaders of Islam in this case) to influence the lower class population. Thus, today's Bangladesh is a convolution of both its language and its majority religion. To lose sight of this basic fact is to disregard our inherent national identity. The fertile plains of the Ganges have attracted immigrants from other parts of the subcontinent for centuries; we are the descendants of people who were willing to venture out to uncharted territories to find a better living for themselves. This explains the resilience of the Bangladeshi character. We are not afraid to seek out better living standards for ourselves no matter where that may be and it is therefore little wonder that we take any kind of patronization and subjugation with a great deal of offence. Perhaps irked by these facts, many West Bengalis often try to paint Bangladesh as a den of communalism yet Bangladeshis have never voted a communalist party like India’s BJP into power. West Bengal, the former capital of the British Raj, is all but a sad reflection of its glorious past. Today's Kolkata is several decades behind Dhaka in terms of modern development; Kolkata's roads are full of potholes while many of its middle class neighborhoods are like shanty towns and its central shopping areas are but a shadow of provincial Bangladeshi townships. Dogged by centuries of clerical mentality (a direct effect of being the underdogs of the British occupiers), West Bengalis have forgotten what it is like to take responsibility and make a decision for themselves. Many successful businesses in Kolkata are in fact run by the more entrepreneurial minded Indians from its west and southern parts. Kolkata’s “Bengali Babus are stuck in a time trap and the only way they can get any attention these days is by mud-slinging at Bangladeshis. They forget that while we share the same language, we are less interested in being clerks than we are being owners of our own lives. They forget that the embracing of Islam by the majority of Bangladeshis was a way out of being the slaves of upper class Hindus for the rest of our lives. Bangladeshis, like all other peoples of the world, are far more interested in an equitable life rather than ornamental alliances of language or religion. Bengali Babus, like Pakistanis, should come to terms these facts. Those who collaborated with the Pakistani army and actively colluded in the murder, looting and rapes of our citizens in 1971 will soon be tried as war criminals. The question is, who will try the Indian army soldiers and officers who responsible for looting our wealth in the name of liberating us? Along with the war-criminals of 1971 in Bangladesh, there is also a section of so called misguided intellectuals who even today continue to act as no more than Indian agents. Perhaps our history will be the true witness to their menacing misdeeds. Bangladesh will indeed get past both of these parasitical by-products of our past and move on. Vinod Joseph deserves praise for pointing out that India should stop toying with the internal politics of Bangladesh. Both the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party were born out of a need of our people to stand up against subjugation and mistreatment. The Indian Government would be better off paying less attention to West Bengali propaganda and start thinking more of Bangladesh as a sovereign nation. It is laughable to note Pranab Mukherjee, the Indian Foreign Minister (incidentally from West Bengal) did not have time to meet with our Leader of the Opposition when he visited Dhaka to greet our Prime Minister after the recent general elections. This was a gross violation of international protocol. When a majority party headed by an Italian born woman can see the wisdom in appointing an intelligent Indian born Sikh as its Prime Minister, I have faith that one day the majority of Indians will indeed stop pandering to the clerical West Bengali mentality. India will have moved on past its British Raj mentality. Both Sheikh Mujib and Ziaur Rahman were two of our great national leaders and we don't need any endorsement or explanation from the likes of an ill informed Indian to decipher our history. Given half a chance, no sane foreign country – be that India or Pakistan - will ever put its own interest behind that of another nation. Let us be and leave us alone when it comes to showing respect for our own leaders; these are matters for Bangladeshis and Bangladeshis alone to think about. Show some respect and don’t try to inject malice in our national politics. We know and understand your motives very well. The best way to warm up to Bangladesh for any nation, be that India, Pakistan, China or the United States is to trade with us in an equitable fashion. If the US and its often warm but most importantly a workable relationship with Canada and Mexico is anything to go by, India would do well to learn that maintaining good relations with its neighbors will not only enhance its own economic standing but also allow it to focus on playing a more mature and positive regional role – something it is acutely failing to do by constantly anttagonizing all of its neighbors. Majority of Bangladeshis have little interest in either religious militancy or indeed the sycophancy towards West Bengal. Start to see Bangladesh beyond our majority religion and our language and recognize us with actions as a willing partner in trade and very soon you will see how quickly Bangladesh-India relations truly warm up. Shabbir A. Bashar, PhD Vancouver, USA E Mail : shabbir_bashar@yahoo.com http://newsfrombangladesh.net/view.php?hidRecord=254744

__._,_.___

[Disclaimer: ALOCHONA Management is not liable for information contained in this message. The author takes full responsibility.]
To unsubscribe/subscribe, send request to alochona-owner@egroups.com

Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully Featured
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe

__,_._,___