She loves me, she loves me not Dhaka-based journalist Misha Hussain considers the Indian elections in light of Bangladesh's love-hate relationship with the world's largest democracy. The recently elected government in Bangladesh has a special relationship with the current Indian administration. It was, after all, Indira Gandhi's Congress Party that catalysed Bangladesh's liberation and secured the freedom of East Pakistan for Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's Awami League. India opened up its borders, set up refugee camps, helped to train and arm the Mukti Bahini guerrillas as well as collected tax to ease the suffering of the Bengalis. Independence was India's engagement ring to Bangladesh in a marriage of convenience. Despite a prevailing sense of gratitude, there are many who continue to raise eyebrows at Indian regional hegemony and feel that Bangladeshis are still paying off the dowry. The India-Bangladesh relationship began to sour in the mid-1970s with the erection of the Farakka Barrage. The dam, which was meant to run on an experimental basis to help navigation in the Calcutta ports, created problems in irrigation and aquatic life, silted up rivers and increased salinity, thereby threatening crops further downstream in Bangladesh. Over 100 bilateral talks have taken place since then to establish provisions to guarantee water for Bangladesh, but these were never properly upheld. Thirty-five years later, the water sharing of the Ganges is still fresh in the minds of the rural population. As Nadim Shah, a Baul (mystic minstrel) from Kushtia, puts it: 'What kind of country denies its neighbour water?' The fact is, India still regards itself as the regional breadwinner and thinks accordingly. 'Its attitude towards countries in South Asia was clearly set out in the Indira Doctrine," says Professor Akmal Hossain from the department of International Relations at Dhaka University. This doctrine essentially argues that India can do whatever it wants, but no other country can act without the express permission of India. This attitude was evident in the surprise visit of the Indian Foreign Minister earlier this month, which went against required protocol and shocked parliamentarians. As recently as 2007, India started constructing the Tipaimukh Dam on the Sylhet border without consulting Bangladesh. Previously, in 2002, India made an unprecedented move (anti-dumping measure) to stop the sale of acid batteries from Bangladesh. This was later overturned by the World Trade Organisation, but slapping a least developed country (LDC) like Bangladesh with an anti-dumping measure is the diplomatic equivalent of wife beating. The fact is, India still has a long way to go.. There is a disproportionate amount of poverty (India is estimated to have one third of the world's poor) and the health and education systems outside the major population centres are as bad as anywhere else in South Asia. How can a nation call itself a democracy when an estimated 200,000 farmers have committed suicide in the last 20 years, 20 million female foetuses have been aborted in the last 10 years, and people remain unequal due to the caste system? There is a strange mix of pride and denial amongst the Indian elite, resulting in little room for criticism and a lack of recognition that India is still struggling - it's the image that is thriving. That said, one cannot deny the immense progress that India has made over the past 60 years. With the exception of a 21-month period when Ms Gandhi had declared emergency, the 1.4-billion-strong population has seen a succession of elected governments. This uninterrupted political progression has helped to boost India's GDP from 3.1 per cent of the world's income to 6.8 per cent (three trillion dollars, purchasing power parity) – and there is a lot that Bangladesh can learn from that. India's economy is so strong, its population so big, its military so powerful that it creates a sense of helplessness in neighbouring countries. Even in the market-leading garments sector, which pulls in over 11 billion dollars a year, Bangladesh is now beginning to lose ground. The depreciating rupee has meant that orders are increasingly being placed in India as the Bangladeshi taka remains strong. In addition to this, India-based companies are setting up liaison offices in Dhaka. Trading from Dhaka using Bangladesh's 'most favoured nation' status means lower tariffs in the US and European markets. The shipment comes out of Bangladesh, but the money ends up in the India. For Bangladesh, there is nowhere to turn. The only platform for protest, SAARC, has been reduced to nothing more than marriage counselling for nation states due to endless bickering between Pakistan and India. No doubt, there is an inferiority complex that can be associated with any smaller nation. But Bangladesh should realise that it has a lot to offer in terms of fighting terrorism (both separatist movements in Assam and religious extremism), allowing transit to the Seven Sisters, and, of course, taking the edge off the threat posed by an increasingly unstable Pakistan. However, the lack of magnanimity shown by the current Indian government and its predecessors with regards to water sharing, the lowering of tariffs and transit to Nepal has left Bangladeshi politicians with their hands tied. To be seen as giving in to India would be tantamount to political suicide. Indeed, there has to be a shift in attitude from both sides. 'If the Indian elite become a little more generous to their smaller neighbours, they will automatically have a spiritual leadership over this area,' says Nurul Kabir, editor of the left-leaning New Age, an English-language daily in Bangladesh. India is also increasingly being seen as America's puppet in the region and thus running the risk of isolation. 'Go to any SAARC capital and you'll find a significant number of well meaning intelligentsia who are anti-Indian,' adds Kabir. For the most part, though, Bangladesh has mixed feelings towards India. No one here truly believes that a BJP or Congress-led coalition will do much in the way of improving the country's situation and it is clear that the government is in no position to negotiate. Still, Bangladesh remains thankful to have a thriving industry that it can tap into, both officially and unofficially. One just hopes that matrimony doesn't turn into acrimony, as is so often the case. |
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