Banner Advertiser

Sunday, October 31, 2010

[ALOCHONA] Independent judiciary ?



Freedom of judiciary eludes nation

The separation of judiciary enters the fourth year of its functioning today. The last caretaker government on this day in 2007 separated judiciary from the executive.Legal experts have observed that the people are yet to get benefits of separation of the judiciary as there are still some shortcomings in the way of making the judiciary independent and efficient.

They underlined the need for removal of all barriers in the way of establishing independent secretariat of the judiciary to make the separation of judiciary meaningful.

Former Adviser of the caretaker government for Law and Justice Barrister Mainul Hosein played the key role in implementing the long cherished demand of the nation. On December 2, 1999, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court had issued a 12-point directives for separation of the judiciary from the executive, giving a six-month time to implement it.

Earlier in 1995, the General Secretary of Judicial Officers' Association Masdar Hossain along with 441 judicial officers filed a writ petition with the High Court in this regard.On January 16, 2007, the then caretaker government took initiative to separate the judiciary from the executive and made a gazette notification in this regard.

Barrister Mainul Hosein told The New Nation yesterday that the objective of separation of judiciary is yet to be fully achieved because of non-completion of some related activities."We wanted independence of the judiciary because without this democracy is not safe. The law passed to separate the judiciary from the executive is not enough. So, we took the initiative for forming a Supreme Judicial Council and initiated the enactment of a law for the purpose. But the proposed law is yet to be passed," he said.

In the absence of a Supreme Judicial Council the appointment of judges are being made on partisan considerations, which is not congenial for the independence of the judiciary, he noted. "Again, we wanted the Supreme Court to have its own secretariat and enjoy financial freedom. But these have not been established. We also wanted a system of appointment of State Lawyers,' who would not change with the change of governments. But lawyers continue to be appointed afresh every time a new government is elected to power," Barrister Mainul observed.
"The separation and independence of the judiciary is thus yet to take a complete shape," he added.

Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Khandker Mahbub Hossain yesterday told The New Nation that the judiciary was separated but in practice it is still being controlled by the executive branch.He demanded restoration of Article 116 of the Constitution to ensure control of judiciary over the functioning of the lower courts. The SCBA President said changes in the mentality of the judges of the lower courts should also be changed as they worked for a long time under the control of the executive branch.

Barrister Rafiqul Islam Miah told The New Nation, "The hopes, with which we started the journey of separation of the Judiciary, have not been materialised yet."
 
"We have 12 directions, given by the HC in its judgment, in separating the Judiciary from the Executive branch of the state. A few of the directions were implemented while most of those are yet to see daylight. Barrister Rafiq, who is also the president of Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Forum, said."A strong democracy and rule of law depend on the independence of the Judiciary," he said, stressing on separation of the Judiciary in real sense following the HC judgment.

Rafiqul Islam Miah said, "The Article 116 of the Constitution of 1972 must be restored for real independence of the Judiciary. Now the Law Ministry in practice is exercising power of posting, promoting and granting leave of absence and maintaining discipline of the judicial magistrates and others. It is totally against separation of the Judiciary"

"A separate secretariat is a must for the Judiciary. But we have not seen such an initiative yet," he said.A higher official of the Judiciary seeking anonymity said, "Financial separation must be achieved first, if we the separation of the judiciary is to come in a real sense."

Law Minister Barrister Shafique Ahmed yesterday told The New Nation, "The government is keen to make the Judiciary separate in the real sense. But the Judiciary first have to ask what it wants from the government."
"The government will act as per the demands of the Chief Justice," the Law Minister said.

Senior Awami League lawmaker Suranjit Sengupta, MP said though the judiciary was separated, people are not getting benefit from it.Referring to the suppression in appointing judges, he said the question has been raised in the legal community as to why a judge has been appointed by superseding 200 judges of lower courts.

http://nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2010/11/01/news0129.htm
 


__._,_.___


[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

__,_._,___

[ALOCHONA] Hindu temple vandalized by ruling party men in Bangladesh



Hindu temple vandalized by ruling party men in Bangladesh
 

A group of ruling party activists of Dhaka University wing vandalized several deities at Ramna Kali Mandir [Temple of goddess Kali in Dhaka] following confrontation between activists of the same party on question of collecting extortion from the locality.

Right after the incident, police arrested Animesh, Govinda and Prakash, who are members of Bangladesh Chhatra League [student from of the ruling party] from the spot while they were continuing such notoriety.

http://amardeshonline.com/pages/details/2010/11/01/51634

Police sources told reporters that the clash had erupted over ownership and extortion into shops located in the area.According to eye witnesses, during afternoon of Saturday [October 30, 2010], at least 45-50 activists of the ruling Bangladesh Awami League [BAL]'s student front, led by Utpal Saha, armed with machetes, iron rods, cricket stumps and hockey sticks went on the rampage and vandalized at least two deities inside the temple and ransacked the rooms of the priest.

It may be mentioned here that, since Bangladesh Awami League came in power in January 2009, members of its student wing are seen active in violence in almost all the university campuses in the country. Bangladesh Chhatra League is openly involving in extortion, terrorism, grabbing land and properties and various forms of illegal activities and the government has virtually become captive in their hands.

http://www.weeklyblitz.net/1063/hindu-temple-vandalized-by-ruling-party-men-in

http://www.newagebd.com/2010/nov/01/front.html

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/latest_news.php?nid=26700



__._,_.___


[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

__,_._,___

[ALOCHONA] Uncle Sam, energy and peace in Asia



Uncle Sam, energy and peace in Asia
From the beginning, the US saw the TAPI's potential to bring Pakistan and India together and also bind the two South Asian adversaries to it, thus providing an underpinning to its overall Asian strategy. Moscow and Beijing would have a sense of unease about what is unfolding. The recent Moscow commentaries display some irritation with New Delhi. Last weekend there was an unusually preachy opinion-piece on India's 'Chechnya' — Kashmir,
writes MK Bhadrakumar

IN THE Orient, offspring don't rebuke parents, even if the latter are at fault — especially in the post-Soviet space where Marxian formalism continues to prevail as political culture. The sort of stern public rebuke bordering on short shrift that Ashgabat administered to Moscow is extraordinary.
   But then, Moscow tested Turkmen patience by trying to create confusion about Ashgabat's policy of positive 'neutrality' — building energy bridges to the West alongside its thriving cooperation with Russia and China.
   On Thursday, the Turkmen foreign ministry bluntly rejected any role for Russia in the proposed Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project, commonly known as TAPI. Ashgabat alleged that Moscow is spreading calumnies and expressed the hope that 'future statements by Russian officials will be guided by a sense of responsibility and reality.'
   The reference was to a friendly and seemingly helpful statement by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin (who accompanied President Dmitry Medvedev to the Turkmen capital last weekend) that Russian participation in the TAPI figured in the latest Russian-Turkmen summit talks and 'Gazprom may participate in this project in any capacity — builder, designer, participant, etc ... If Gazprom becomes a participant, then we will study possibilities of working in gas sales.'
   The Turkmen foreign ministry said, 'Turkmenistan views such statements as an attempt to hamper the normal course of our country's cooperation in the energy sector and call into question its obligations to its partners.' It added that there was 'no agreement whatsoever' regarding Russian participation in the TAPI.
   The TAPI presents a knot of paradoxes and the Russians who hold the pulse of the Central Asian energy scene would have sensed by now that Uncle Sam is close to untying the knot, finally, after a decade-and-a-half of sheer perseverance. The TAPI falls within the first circle of the Caspian great game. When it appears that Russia all but checkmated the United States and the European Union's plans to advance trans-Caspian energy projects bypassing Russia, a thrust appears from the south and east opening up stunning possibilities for the West.
   Russia promptly began slouching toward the TAPI—which, incidentally, was originally a Soviet idea but was appropriated by the United States no sooner than the USSR disintegrated—against the backdrop of renewed interest in the project recently among regional powers amid the growing possibility that Afghan peace talks might reconcile the Taliban and that despite the Kashmir problem, Pakistan and India wouldn't mind tangoing.
   The TAPI pipeline runs on a roughly 1,600-kilometre route along the ancient Silk Road from Turkmenistan's fabulous Dauletabad gas fields on the Afghan border to Herat in western Afghanistan, then onto Helmand and Kandahar, entering Pakistan's Quetta and turning east toward Multan, and ending up in Fazilka on the Indian side of Pakistan's eastern border. An updated Asian Development Bank estimate of 2008 put the project cost for the pipeline with an output of 33bcm annually at $7.6 billion.
   The signals from Ashgabat, Kabul, Islamabad and New Delhi in recent weeks uniformly underscored that the TAPI is in the final stage of take-off. India unambiguously signed up in August. On Wednesday, the Pakistan government gave approval to the project at a cabinet meeting in Islamabad. The ADB is open to financing the project and is expected to be the project's 'secretariat'.
   As things stand, there could be a meeting of the political leaderships of the four participating countries in December to formally kick-start the TAPI.
   The commencement of the TAPI is undoubtedly a defining moment for Turkmenistan (which is keen to diversify export routes), for Afghanistan (which hopes to get $300 million as transit fee annually and an all-round economic spin-off) and for Pakistan and India (which face energy shortages).
   However, the geopolitics trumps everything else. For the first time in six decades, India and Pakistan are becoming stakeholders in each other's development and growth — and it is taking place under American watch. The rapprochement would positively impact the Afghan chessboard where Pakistan and India are locked in a futile, utterly wasteful zero-sum game.
   
   NATO enters energy business
   THE most important geopolitical factor, perhaps, is that the US is the 'ideologue' of the project and its Great Central Asia strategy—aiming at rolling back Russian and Chinese influence in the region and forging the region's links with South Asia—is set to take a big step forward.
   India and Pakistan, traditional allies of Russia and China, are in essence endorsing the Great Central Asia strategy. It signifies a tectonic shift in the geopolitics and immensely strengthens the US's regional policies. India and Pakistan are becoming stakeholders in a long-term US presence in the region.
   Equally, NATO is set to take on the role of the provider of security for the TAPI, providing the alliance an added raison d'ĂȘtre for its long-term presence in Central Asia. NATO's role in energy security has been under discussion for some time. Russia used to robustly contest the concept, but its thoughts are mellowing as the reset with the US gains traction.
   Broadly, the NATO position was outlined by the alliance's former secretary general Jaap de Hoop Schaffer in January last year when he said: 'Protecting pipelines is first and foremost a national priority. And it should stay like that. NATO is not in the business of protecting pipelines. But when there's a crisis, or if a certain nation asks for assistance, NATO could, I think, be instrumental in protecting pipelines on land.'
   Clearly, the long-term 'strategic cooperation' agreement between NATO and Karzai's government which is expected to be signed at the alliance's summit in Lisbon on November 19 now assumes an altogether profound meaning.
   Besides, the TAPI is also a 'Western' project, as several NATO countries involved in Afghanistan's stabilisation—the US, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Norway—are also members of the ADB and TAPI is piloted by the US and Japan, two major shareholders in the ADB.
   More important, the BP Statistical Review 2009 puts Turkmenistan's known gas reserves so far at a staggering 7.94 trillion cubic metres. A 2008 audit of the gigantic South Yolotan-Osman field in western Turkmenistan by the UK firm Gaffney, Cline & Associates estimated the reserves of this field alone at anywhere between 4 to 14tcm of gas. Many more fields in Turkmenistan are yet to be audited. Without doubt, the propaganda that Turkmenistan lacks gas reserves to supply markets beyond Russia and China stands exposed.
   And the curious part is that South Yolotan-Osman—and the gas reserves in Uzbekistan and northern Afghanistan—can be linked to the TAPI and a TAPI branch line can be very easily extended from Quetta to the Pakistani port of Gwadar, in which case Europe can finally tap Central Asian energy reserves directly, dispensing with the Russian middleman.
   
   Obama has style
   QUITE obviously, the TAPI meshes well with the Afghan endgame. Karzai used to work for Unocal before he surfaced in Kabul as a statesman in 2001, and Unocal originally promoted TAPI in the mid-1990s. 'Good' Taliban were all along enthusiastic about the TAPI project provided the US traded with them as Afghan interlocutors.
   The US initially warmed up to the Taliban in the early 1990s as a stabilising factor that could put an end to the chaotic Mujahideen era and help facilitate the transportation of the Caspian and Central Asian energy to the world market via Pakistani ports. Senior Taliban officials were hosted by the US State Department and things were indeed going spectacularly well until militant 'Arab fighters' began influencing the Taliban leadership and spoiled everything.
   The Americans dithered far too long in according recognition to the Taliban and Osama bin Laden grabbed the window of opportunity. Nonetheless, there is reason to believe that the contacts continued all the way up to the eve of the al-Qaeda's 9/11 attacks.
   The 'good' Taliban are in business again. NATO aircraft ferry them to Kabul so that they can urgently talk peace.
   From the beginning, the US saw the TAPI's potential to bring Pakistan and India together and also bind the two South Asian adversaries to it, thus providing an underpinning to its overall Asian strategy. Moscow and Beijing would have a sense of unease about what is unfolding. The recent Moscow commentaries display some irritation with New Delhi. Last weekend there was an unusually preachy opinion-piece on India's 'Chechnya' — Kashmir.
   The plain truth is that the TAPI revives the Silk Road, which can also unlock Afghanistan's multi-trillion dollar untold mineral wealth and transport the hidden treasures to Gwadar port for shipment to faraway lands.
   If George W Bush were handling Barack Obama's job today, he would probably thread into his forthcoming November visit to New Delhi a regional summit where the TAPI gets formalised as a historic American initiative in regional cooperation.
   But that isn't Obama's style — descending from the skies wearing a windbreaker and proclaiming premature victory from the deck of an aircraft carrier. He trusts 'smart power'.
   Obama would intellectualise the TAPI as the harbinger of peace in one of the most destitute regions on the planet — which it indeed is. He would then probably sit down and explain that what seems a setback in the Caspian great game is ultimately for China's and Russia's larger good. A 'stable' Afghanistan is in their interests, after all.
   Asia Times Online, October 30. Ambassador MK Bhadrakumar was a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service. His assignments included the Soviet Union, South Korea, Sri Lanka,Germany, Afghanistan, Pakistan,Uzbekistan, Kuwait and Turkey.
 


__._,_.___


[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

__,_._,___

[ALOCHONA] Hollywood movie on Bangabandhu



Hollywood movie on Bangabandhu

Bangladeshi cine production and distribution company, Vibgyor Films is planning to undertake a new project of an English feature film named BANGABANDHU, which will be based on the life of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh. Theme of this planned film will be similar as English feature film named Gandhi, which was based on the life of Mahatma Gandhi. Ben Kingsley played the role of Mahatma Gandhi in this film.

Earlier some Bollywood [Indian film industry] producers planned to make a film on the life of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. At that time, it was even rumored that, Bollywood king, Amitabh Bachchan was going to play the role of Bangabandhu.

Hollywood produced movie BANGABANDHU will reach millions of audiences in the world. Though the initial language of this movie will be in English, it is expected that, later it will also be dubbed and sub-titled in Bangla, Hindi, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Korean, Hebrew and Arabic.

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman led the war of independence of Bangladesh in 1971. He became the Prime Minister and later President of the country after the independence of the nation from Pakistani occupation. But, in 1975, Bangabandhu was brutally assassinated along with his family members. Bangabandhu's daughters, Sheikh Hasina [current Prime Minister] and Sheikh Rehana luckily survived the assassination, as both were in Germany at that time.

Trial into the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman ended few years back. Few months back, few of the imprisoned killers of the founding father of Bangladesh were hanged. But, till now, a number of self-proclaimed killers of Bangabandhu are absconding in various countries, such as UAE, Pakistan, Libya, United States and Canada. It is even learnt that, few of the absconding killers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman are shuttling in various countries such as Hong Kong, China, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Cambodia, Cuba, South American nations and African continent. Bangladeshi government has made numerous appeals to the international in arrest and returning of the self-proclaimed killers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Vibgyor Films is already working on the story lineup of the film BANGABANDHU by collecting various facts and information on the life of this legendary Bengali leader in the history of the sub-continent. A small team of the company is dedicatedly collecting information in this regard, which later will be sent to the authorities concerned for approval.

Several internationally acclaimed movie directors, such as Stephen Spielberg, Roman Polanski etc are being contacted for directing this movie while it is assumed that this film will be produced by one of the largest Hollywood film production companies.

Filming of English feature film BANGABANDHU is expected to begin in 2011.

http://www.weeklyblitz.net/1051/hollywood-movie-on-bangabandhu



__._,_.___


[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

__,_._,___

[ALOCHONA] Arundhati Roy has stirred up a debate, not about Kashmir, but about herself



Arundhati Roy has stirred up a debate, not about Kashmir, but about herself
 
 
Roy has important things to say, but her tone and bluster ensure the only people listening are those who already agree with her.

Arundhati Roy does what any good polemicist should do. She annoys people and forces them to take sides; she highlights an issue and gets people talking. Too bad that what she gets them talking about has nothing to do with the topic at hand. Inevitably, the debates she stirs tend not to centre around dams, or Maoists, or Kashmir, or even freedom of speech, but around Arundhati Roy.

Speaking at a conference on Sunday, Roy said, "Kashmir has never been an integral part of India. It is a historical fact." The rightwing opposition BJP party, already in a mood over a similar conference last Thursday, decided enough was enough – this was their issue of the week, never mind that she has expressed similar sentiments before.

The government of India, with its usual lack of backbone, explored the possibility of arresting Roy for the laughably archaic crime of sedition. On Monday, the Hindustan Times reported she "may be booked for sedition". On Tuesday, the Guardian decided she "faces arrest over Kashmir remark". By Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times was convinced that "the Indian government took steps to authorise the arrest". Come Thursday, and editorials and blogs appeared praising Roy. Somewhere amid the ruckus, Kashmir was forgotten.

There are many things that are wrong with India. Its foreign policy is wishy-washy, its manner of handling internal security threats is dubious, the way India's powerless are treated by the state is despicable, and Kashmir – that great mix of the three – is an all-round disaster. All of these are worthy of essays, of debate, of balanced analysis and – as important – of partisan rants. There are plenty of rabid righties that need to be balanced by rabid lefties.

In an India obsessed with shiny new shopping malls and expressways and the launch of the latest international luxury brand, in rapidly morphing cities where slum-dwellers are shunted out to the suburbs and even the raincoats on a policeman's back are sponsored, there is a desperate need for polemicists to remind the smug middle class about the 800 million-odd who don't get to partake in what the tourism department calls Incredible India. Palagummi Sainath, the author of Everybody Loves a Good Drought, did it with elegance. Arundhati Roy does it with infinite righteousness.

Roy wrote a paean earlier this year to the cause of the Maoists – a group dedicated to the violent overthrow of the state and responsible for beheading policemen, murdering civilians and killing dozens of soldiers – while skewering the state for waging war on the poor. In her most recent essay before the Kashmir kerfuffle, Roy told readers of one of India's best-selling news weeklies that the government is a farce, the media is a shambles, the military is not to be trusted, the mainstream communist parties are a joke, and India's democracy is only nominal.

Who would want to live in Arundhati Roy's India? Who would even want to read about Arundhati Roy's India? The government of India has many faults, but even Roy has to admit that living in this country isn't entirely intolerable. Confronted with the relentlessly bleak picture she paints, one in which the only good guys are murderers and mercenaries, who can blame middle India for retreating into their iPods and tabloid newspapers?

Roy has important things to say, but her tone and bluster ensure the only people listening are those who already agree with her. She is preaching to the converted. To the left-leaning publications of the west, she is an articulate, intelligent voice explaining the problems with 21st-century India. For the university lefties in India, she confirms their worst fears of a nation falling apart. But to any intelligent readers who may be sitting on the fence or for anyone from middle-class India taking their first tentative steps towards greater political involvement, her polemic serves to terrify and alienate.

As Salil Tripathi writes over at the Index on Censorship blog, "Initially her dissent was seen as admirable, then as a novelty, and now her view is largely marginalised." This week's shenanigans prove that debate about Arundhati Roy is, as ever, thriving. But her writing is rapidly becoming irrelevant in Indian public discourse.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/oct/31/arundhati-roy-kashmir-controversy



__._,_.___


[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

__,_._,___

RE: [ALOCHONA] who runs the country



Move to Free Kalyanpur Canal

Drive abandoned as MP weighs in










__._,_.___


[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

__,_._,___

[ALOCHONA] Dr Miznur Rahman Shelley on performance of the govt



Dr Miznur Rahman Shelley on performance of the govt
 
 
 
 
 


__._,_.___


[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

__,_._,___

[ALOCHONA] Get Tough on Pakistan



Get Tough on Pakistan



__._,_.___


[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

__,_._,___

[ALOCHONA] Can Pakistan Produce One Arundhati Roy To Speak Truth?



Can Pakistan Produce One Arundhati Roy To Speak Truth?

By Dr Shabir Choudhry

Arundhati Roy, a famous Indian writer and human rights activist has, once again, made headlines and won minds and hearts of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. She said what she believed – Kashmir is not legally part of India. Kashmir is not part of Pakistan either, although both countries control State of Jammu and Kashmir and have no desire to relinquish their control over these areas.

There is demand in some parts of India that Arundhati Roy should be charged for 'sedition'. But there are many rational people who support her. Alok Tiwari, a prominent Indian journalist wrote in her defence that what she said was 'definitely against the government line on Kashmir. It was also against the popular opinion. Mercifully, there is no law that obligates us to toe the government or popular line. Going against it is dissent, not sedition; and democracies thrive on dissent. They do not shun it.'

India claims to be the biggest democracy on earth, and that democracy is alive and kicking, at least, in India, if not in Jammu and Kashmir. Demand of a genuine democracy is that people must be allowed to express their views without fear or intimidation; and Arundhati Roy is an Indian citizen, and at least, she should be entitled to enjoy fruits of democracy. Alok Tiwari further writes:

'Freedom in a society is tested by its tolerance of what most of its members consider offensive. Freedom to say goody-goody thing is actually no freedom. If we assert before the world that Kashmiris in India are living in freedom, it means even those Kashmiris who would rather not be part of India. They have as much right to air their opinion as the rest of us have to assert Kashmir is an integral part of India. If we find Geelani's ideas offensive then let us come up with better ideas to counter them.'

It is best for government of India to resolve the Kashmir dispute rather than charge all those who express their disagreement on Kashmir policy of government of India. The Kashmir dispute is real. It will not go away by closing eyes; or by using force.

In Kashmir there is a strong resentment against what Indian government do there; and that anger and sense of alienation will not go away by continuation of the present policies. The government of India has to come out with a new policy and new approach and satisfy demands of the people, as policy of gun and bullet cannot win minds and hearts of the people.

Arundhati Roy is brave and honest in her assertions on Kashmir. She had courage to say that India's claim on Kashmir is not correct; and is against popular will of the people of Kashmir. She said all that even though Jammu and Kashmir 'provisionally' acceded to India; and India's claim on Kashmir rests on that 'accession'.

That 'provisional accession' had to be ratified by the people of Jammu and Kashmir; and due to Pakistan's refusal to withdraw troops from Kashmiri territory, as demanded by the UN Resolutions, conditions for a plebiscite could not be created to hold a referendum to test will of the people, hence the present forced division and suffering of the people on both sides of the LOC.

Despite India's claim on Kashmir and its claim to democratic ideals, people like Arundhati Roy speak against India's Kashmir policy. They tell government of India that hearts and minds of people could not be won with use of force. They tell the government that you cannot make people Indian by pulling their finger nails.

On the other hand Pakistan also occupies two parts of State of Jammu and Kashmir, namely Azad Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan, from which Pakistan generously gave away around 2200 sq miles to China in 1963 to improve bilateral relations.

Pakistan has military strength to control the Kashmiri territory under its occupation, but has no legal cover to justify this occupation. It has no legal mandate to be in control of the Kashmiri territory, but still has managed to divert attention away from areas under its control and call them 'azad' meaning free; and many Kashmiri collaborators happily advance the cause of Pakistan.

Many in Pakistan, especially writers and scholars know shallowness of Pakistan's stand on Kashmir. They also know that people of so called Azad Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan are not happy with what Pakistan and its secret agencies do to the people of these areas; and yet they decide to remain quiet. Their conscience does not trouble them, and they follow the government policy on issue of Kashmir. They happily promote government's version on Kashmir, knowing well that it is based on lies.

They know, as it has been confirmed by many impartial surveys that people of Jammu and Kashmir DONOT want to join Pakistan; and yet they broadcast lies that people of Jammu and Kashmir are desperate to join Pakistan. They are reluctant to speak about plight and exploitation of the people living under Pakistani occupation; and will only focus on events taking place on other side of the LOC.

Can Pakistani society produce one prominent writer, scholar and human rights champion who has guts to challenge Pakistan's Kashmir policy; and tell the world that Pakistan's control of Kashmiri territory is not legal? Someone who could tell the world people of Jammu and Kashmir State living on this side of the LOC are also deprived of their fundamental human rights. Or is this too much to ask, and Pakistani writers, intellectuals and scholars will continue to follow the out of date policy of Islamabad?

Writer is Head Diplomatic Committee of Kashmir National Party, political analyst and author of many books and booklets. Also he is Director Institute of Kashmir Affairs.Email:drshabirchoudhry@gmail.com He blogs at www.drshabirchoudhry.blogspot.com




__._,_.___


[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

__,_._,___

Saturday, October 30, 2010

[ALOCHONA] All powerful CBAs in banks



All powerful CBAs in banks
 
 
 
 



__._,_.___


[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

__,_._,___

[ALOCHONA] Russians join American troops in Afghanistan drug raid



I had no idea, Russia has also sent troops to Afghanistan. This means, troops of 57 nations are in Afghanistan and 58th is going to be Bangladesh. It would be the 7th Moslim Nation to join after UAE, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kirghistan and Tajikistan. Exact number of Troops arriving from Bangladesh is not known so far. May be India would be the next.
----------

 

Russia has criticized US anti-drug efforts in Afghanistan

Russian and US forces raided four drug laboratories in Afghanistan in their first joint anti-drug operation. More than a dent in trafficking, the raid represents growing cooperation between Russia and the West.

Russian and American forces conducted their first joint anti-narcotics raid in Afghanistan early on Thursday, signaling closer cooperation between the two countries in the battle to control drug cultivation in the war-torn country, the world's largest producer of opium.
Russian anti-drug chief Viktor Ivanov told a news conference on Friday that the raid took place near the Pakistani border, and that Russian and US forces were supported by helicopters and Afghan police.
"Four laboratories were found and destroyed - three for heroin and one for morphine," Ivanov said. "As a result, 932 kilograms (2,055 pounds) of very highly concentrated heroin and 156 kilograms of opium were destroyed."
 
[...]



__._,_.___


[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

__,_._,___

[ALOCHONA] Why India's Rise is Business As Usual



                 I am reposting a W. Dalrymple article that Rebecca had posted back in 2007.  No source URL is Rebecca's fault, not mine. 
 
                     In addition to what Dalrymple says here I would like to point out that unlike Columbus in the Caribbean islands and Spanish Conquistadors in South America, the Portugese were not able to engage in outright acts of genocide in India.  Standing in the way of turning savage heathens into civilized Christians were the Indian (Indo-Muslim) civilization.  Recent study of a Portugese language scholar from Brazil reveals how the Portugese royalties and Goan administrators were watching events in Agra's Mughal Court for an opportune moment to grab for the holy purpose of Christianization.  East India Company's paid factotums like John Stuart Mill and T. B. Macaulay hid their evangelicalistic desires under the cloak of European Enlightenment brought through an education system and an Indian Penal Code.
 
                Hindus of India should thank the Mughal India for providing a civilizational cover against the missionary European colonial zealots.
 
                        Farida Majid
............................................................................
 
Why India's Rise is Business As Usual

By WILLIAM DALRYMPLE 


 
The idea that India is a poor country is a relatively recent one. Historically, South Asia was always famous as the richest region of the globe. Ever since Alexander the Great first penetrated the Hindu Kush , Europeans fantasized about the wealth of these lands where the Greek geographers said that gold was dug by up by gigantic ants and guarded by griffins, and where precious jewels were said to lie scattered on the ground like dust.

At their heights during the 17th century, the subcontinent's fabled Mughal emperors were rivaled only by their Ming counterparts in China . For their contemporaries in distant Europe , they were potent symbols of power and wealth. In Milton 's Paradise Lost, for example, the great Mughal cities of Agra and Lahore are revealed to Adam after the Fall as future wonders of God's creation. This was hardly an overstatement. By the 17th century, Lahore had grown even larger and richer than Constantinople and, with its two million inhabitants, dwarfed both London and Paris .

What changed was the advent of European colonialism. Following Vasco da Gama's discovery of the sea route to the East in 1498, European colonial traders — first the Portuguese, then the Dutch and finally the British — slowly wrecked the old trading network and imposed with their cannons and caravels a Western imperial system of command economics. It was only at the very end of the 18th century, after the East India Company began to cash in on the Mughal Empire's riches that Europe had for the first time in history a favorable balance of trade with Asia . The era of Indian economic decline had begun, and it was precipitous. In 1600, when the East India Company was founded, Britain was generating 1.8% of the world's GDP, while India was producing 22.5%. By 1870, at the peak of the Raj , Britain was generating 9.1%, while India had been reduced for the first time to the epitome of a Third World nation, a symbol across the globe of famine, poverty and deprivation.

In hindsight, what is happening today with the rise of India and China is not some miraculous novelty — as it is usually depicted in the Western press — so much as a return to the traditional pattern of global trade in the medieval and ancient world, where gold drained from West to East in payment for silks and spices and all manner of luxuries undreamed of in the relatively primitive capitals of Europe.

It is worth remembering this as India aspires to superpower status. Economic futurologists all agree that China and India during the 21st century will come to dominate the global economy. Various intelligence agencies estimate that China will overtake the U.S. between 2030 and 2040 and India will overtake the U.S. by roughly 2050, as measured in dollar terms. Measured by purchasing-power parity, India is already on the verge of overtaking Japan to become the third largest economy in the world.

Looking back at the role Europeans have played in South Asia until their departure in August 1947, there is certainly much that the West can be said to have contributed to Indian life: the Portuguese brought the chili pepper, while the British brought that other essential staple, tea — as well as the arguably more important innovations including democracy and the rule of law, railways, cricket and the English language. All contributed to India 's economic resurrection. But the British should keep their nostalgia and self-satisfaction surrounding the colonial period within strict limits. For all the irrigation projects, the great engineering achievements and the famous imperviousness to bribes of the officers of the Indian Civil Service, the Raj nevertheless presided over the destruction of India 's political, cultural and artistic self-confidence as well as the impoverishment of the Indian economy.

Today, things are slowly returning to historical norms. Last year the richest man in the U.K. was for the first time an ethnic Indian, Lakshmi Mittal, and Britain 's largest steel manufacturer, Corus, has been bought by an Indian company, Tata. Extraordinary as it is, the rise of India and China is nothing more than a return to the ancient equilibrium of world trade, with Europeans no longer appearing as gun-toting, gunboat-riding colonial masters but instead reverting to their traditional role: that of eager consumers of the much celebrated manufactures, luxuries and services of the East.

William Dalrymple's latest book, The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi 1857, has just been awarded the Duff Cooper Prize for History and Biography 
 
 
 




__._,_.___


[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

__,_._,___

[ALOCHONA] Re: Trade gap with Delhi increases to $2.91b

Dear Alochoks,

The trade gap between India and BD has continued to widen and the current government has done nothing about this matter. India is choking the BD economy by exporting huge quantities of goods that local industry can not compete with.

An article on the Daily Star states that BD could earn $2.3Bn over 30 years if she allows trasit facility to India and other countries! This is a paultry (peanuts) figure compare to how much India will benefit in terms of export revenues! BD earns more in exporting garments and other goods in a single year!

If India is allowed to export their goods and services via BD it will make their goods (such as garments, leather and electronics good) more competetive compare to BD and most of the industries in BD will disappear overnight.

A relative of mine works in an air freight company. One day I asked him why most of the garment manufacturer are located around Dhaka and Chittagong? He stated that if we had garment factories in places like Rangpur or Dinajpur - then the transit cost of finished products makes it less competetive to sell to the foreign buyers. Northern towns like Rangpur and Dinajpur are only 150 miles way from the Capital!

Whereas cities like Delhi, Mumbai in India are thousand miles away from the ports of Chittagong. By transiting their goods through BD they will save significant amount of hard cash in exporting their goods. They will be more competetive and our industries in BD will not be able to compete with Indian industries.

Does our politicians care about this at all? Does the civil society of BD - those babu sahibs living in luxury apartments in cities of BD give a damn about this? Well, I live in the UK and I could say to myself it does not affect me, so why should I bother writing this from thousands of miles away from BD? It appears that some of us living thousands of miles way from home cares more about the home than those who are living in it!

Salam.
-----------------


--- In alochona@yahoogroups.com, "ezajur" <Ezajur@...> wrote:
>
> An hour of Faruk's valuable time at the Indian ministry should soon solve the problem.
>
> Also, with a bit of luck we could sell enough fish and gadha marka batteries at the border haats to really close the trade gap.
>
>
>


------------------------------------

[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.comYahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/alochona/

<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional

<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/alochona/join
(Yahoo! ID required)

<*> To change settings via email:
alochona-digest@yahoogroups.com
alochona-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
alochona-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

[ALOCHONA] Leave the Army Alone



Leave the Army Alone

 

Recent unfortunate incidents at Rupganj have raised concerns. The bottom line is that the patriotic armed forces of the country must be above all controversy. If the Rupganj incident is taken as an example, it is clear that they had done nothing without government clearance. The project was a government-approved decision and so the army should not have had to bear the brunt of criticism. Such confrontational incidents go against the interests of the nation. As we see one institution toppling after the other, we cannot help but feel alarm where the armed forces our concern. The government should avoid using the army beyond their "terms of reference", for things like traffic control, dal bhaat projects and so on. This institution cannot be allowed to succumb to intentional or unintentional controversy. The army must be let alone. Maj Gen (Retd) Syed Muhammad Ibrahim, Bir Protik analyses the Rupganj incident for PROBE

by Maj Gen (Retd) Syed Muhammad Ibrahim, Bir Protik

India became independent on 15 August 1947 but only on 15 January 1950 did the first Indian officer (Lt. Gen. K.M. Cariappa) took over as the first Chief of Army Staff. Early in his tenure, Cariappa was told by Prime Minister Nehru to convert the psyche of the Indian Army from being an instrument of power-display of the British colonial government to an instrument of commitment and love towards the common men of sovereign India. This, of course, was a two way process. People had to be told in a language and manner which they understood, about the army's role and the way the people could help the army to play that role. Simultaneously, all ranks of the army, particularly the officers had to master the art and norms of dealing with civilians of all types in a working democracy. General Cariappa accomplished this task very well during his four year long tenure. In deed, India honored Cariappa by appointing him a Field Marshal in April 1986 in consideration of his invaluable contribution to the army in the initial years after independence.  

Bangladesh Army was born through blood and sweat, as it inched forward during the 266 days long War of Liberation in 1971. The guns and the bullets whatever few there were in the hands of the freedom fighters, were but an essential asset. However, the greatest strength of the freedom fighters and the most valuable asset the freedom fighters possessed was the love and commitment of the people. The 9 month long war was for the most part, a guerilla war. The freedom fighter-guerillas were like fish in water. True, the generation of active participants of the war is no more in service; thus the legendary bondage between the army and the people seems to have developed fault-lines. I say so because, 39 years after independence of the country, the army suddenly came to a face to face stand off with common men in a part of the country: Rupganj thana in the district of Narayanganj. Let me go a little back in our history.

On 02-03 January 1993, there was trouble between Bangladesh Navy in 'BNS Isa Khan' and the neighboring people of Bandar Tilla in Halishahar in southern part of Chittagong city. Mistakes had been first made by sailors, indeed they were making it for quiet sometime without any effort of correction. Local people reacted but while doing so they also made mistakes. However, the mistake made by both parties equally, on the days of trouble was to encourage rumors and not act on proper information in time. Timely intervention by political leaders of both major parties helped resolve conflict. Two senior officers of the Navy were considered to have fallen short in their ability to command during the crisis, thus they were given early retirement. The public did not have commanders to be punished!

In 2008, army camp in the gymnasium of Dhaka University came under fire from unarmed students and teachers of the university. The turmoil surfaced on a particular afternoon but discontent had been simmering for quite sometime. Parts of Dhaka city were ablaze for two days. Did not any one high up in the command on the armed forces made query about the unfeasibility of maintaining an army camp in the heart of the university?

In 2007 and 2008 during caretaker government, Operation Dal-Bhat created shortage of man power in the border, it created shortage of trust and confidence in the mind of the soldiers about the officers and it created an opportunity for the men to discover the negative loopholes in consumer-commodity business. Finally it left deep scars in the BDR which became gangrenous. Ultimately the worst carnage took place on the 25-26 February 2009. Was it a must to have employed the BDR in the said operation and invite the gangrene? The gangrene was not cured because no medicine was given, on the other hand it spread because outsides provided virus-food to the gangrene. The mutiny at Pilkhana on 25 February took place under the flood light of television cameras and spot light of the government machinery. The highest military command of the country stood deaf and dumb-founded, motionless while 57 bright officers got killed. Media brothers and sisters intended no harm, but harm came without telling them. Early in 2010 an army Sergeant in Baghaichori of the district of Khagrachhari in Chittagong Hill Tracts was assaulted by local hill men. After Pilkhana and after Khagrachhari, army-bashing on the talk-shows became a fashion till somehow the reins were pulled.  

Rupganj is a 'thana' in the district of Narayanganj, astride river Sitalakhya. Upazilla Headquarters is located at Murapara on the Eastern bank of the  river. Crow-fly distance from Dhaka cantonment to the upazilla headquarters is about 11 kilometers due east. There is a major road on the eastern side of Dhaka city called Progoti Sarani. From the American Embassy (located on the Progoti Sarani) in Baridhara diplomatic zone, Murapara is about 8 kilometers due east. The land on the eastern side of Dhaka city and on the western side of Sitalakhya, is low lying.

Basundhara Residential Area now lying in north-east corner of Dhaka city is very well known and pieces of land are very costly there. The creators of Basundhara were excellent entrepreneurs. It has added more than seventy thousand apartments to Dhaka city, it has provided space for a very large convention center, an internationally reputed hospital and international quality school. It has also shown the way how to fill-up low lying lands and create residential areas. To the businessman in real estate or housing sector, it has shown the path of making money. As a result, north-east of Dhaka city, east of Dhaka city, south of Dhaka city and south-east of Dhaka city has seen blossoming of numerous housing companies or real estate companies. Some companies are big while most are small. Few only have sufficient land to organize a housing area. All of them have they ability to influence news paper reading and TV watching members of the public. Government organization called RAJUK has created Purbachal 10 km. north-east of Uttara Model Town and 6 km. north-west of Murapara.

There are two ways of developing an area for housing. If the land or area is low lying then it has to be filled up by sand or earth; where as, if the land or area is high ground then it has to be leveled. Purbachal is a mixer of high ground and low lying ground. Private sector housing companies found the low lying areas around Dhaka a heaven, because profit margin is better.  The authorities of the army housing scheme or society seems to have followed the foot steps of Purbachal and Basundhara, if not other real estate companies operating in the same area. They did not passively realize that putting your step on the mark of your predecessor's foot is also difficult; modification is needed. Fighting a war needs courage, intelligence and reasonable resources. Conducting in the business of buying and selling land requires intelligence, patience and the decision to be semi-truthful. Readers of Bangladeshi newspapers between 24 and 26 October and the viewers of Bangladeshi TV channels can make their own interpretation. Listeners of BBC Bangla Service have heard the Brigadier General In charge of the Army Housing Society (AHS) Project and myself together between 6:30 and 7:30 am on Tuesday 26 October. 

From the good old days of British Army, residential areas were developed, within or in the outskirts of major cities like Delhi or Karachi,   only for defense personnel. The tradition was followed by the Indian Army and Pakistan Army with minor modifications to suit changing times. Bangladesh Army also followed the same legacy and style. There are four (Banani, Mohakhali, Baridhara and Mirpur) Defense Officers Housing Societies in Dhaka city; and one in Chittagong city next to the cantonment. Such land belonging to the Ministry of Defense and spare-able for housing societies has become scarce now. But the necessity of creating accommodation for retired army officers remains as strong as it was one or two or three decades ago. Only as an example, about four hundred plus retired army or navy or air force officers were given plots in the DOHS Mohakhali. Another one hundred plus officers were given one plot per four officers. Five hundred plots or five hundred buildings are now sheltering more than four thousand families.

Junior Commissioned Officers (JCO) of the armed forces also deserve attention in respect of giving them accommodation in retired life. By the time they go on retirement, they are close to 50 years of age or little more. Those who lose land and homestead due to river erosion, remain particularly worried about post-retirement life. Their savings are not enough to enable them for buying land in prime locations of major cities. In 39 years of independent Bangladesh this matter drew attention, but not enough concrete effort towards mitigating the problem. In this column also I am not delving into the problem any more. 

To meet the unavoidable requirement of housing for armed forces officers without any land being available in the Ministry of Defense, many alternatives were thought of. The best was possibly chosen. AHS was organized in the style of a limited company but limited companies are not run in a military manner; they are run according to the Companies Act 1994. Only law does not make a company walk or run; men make the difference. The task that AHS took upon itself was cumbersome, and in the context of land selling / land buying culture, tricky. To drive this point home and to conclude that the trouble at Rupganj was unavoidable, I am quoting couple of sentences from page 101 and 102 of the book 'Bangladesh: Reflections on the water' by James J. Novak.

"… Bangladesh's middle and upper classes are rife with vicious rumors and are staggering under the weight of fear and insecurity that paralyzes thought and creates hysteria unknown in the West or modern Japan. This undercurrent discourages experimentation, creates skepticism about new courses of action, and plays into the culture's traditional value system, which is based on shunning those who seek wealth or disrupt societal values rooted in rule of elders, as in the villages. Even more, it kindles a corrosive suspicion of other people's motives, a suspicion that runs deep within those who lead the country. … Such attitudes discourage entrepreneurial activities and make success something to hide behind false humility. … Such corrosives hate also is expressed in litigation, where land-lords sue one another over petty slights or worse, fabricate criminal charges and bribe judges or even opposing lawyers. …". To make the readers understand what he wrote thus far, James Novak quoted a devilishly cruel description of the Bengali character given by an English historian by the name of Macaulay (sometime in the first half of the nineteenth century); it reads: "What the horns are to the buffalo, what the sting is to the bee, what beauty according to the Greek song is to women, deceit is to the Bengalee. Large promises, smooth excuses, elaborate tissues of circumstantial falsehood, chicanery, perjury, forgery are the weapons, offensive and defensive, of the people of the Lower Ganges. …" .

Major General Ibrahim hates the statement of historian Macaulay but if there was any space where Macaulay could be accommodated, it was and is, in the vicious business of land buying and land selling. So quite naturally and totally unknowingly, bosses and executives of the AHS walked into the vicious arena in Rupganj. By courtesy of TV channels, daily newspapers and internet, whatever has become public knowledge about the AHS and problem with them in Rupganj indicates that the plan was over- ambitious and was being implemented in a military fashion. Area being anticipated to be purchased was too large. Seniors of the AHS antagonized others in the same business, they passed military style orders to pure civilian officials and they scared those who used to earn a good living by doing the middle-men's job in the business of land buying and land selling. Hostility towards the AHS ran across political boundaries. Rumors flew faster than imagination and could not be checked—particularly on 23 October. Given the circumstances including the rumors, the explosion of popular anger and instigated-violence at 'Tanmashari army camp' on the morning of 23 October 2010 was due.

The AHS was a project approved by the government, the deployment of soldiers was a known phenomena but the management of the project was not in proven hands. Efforts to avoid the explosion were made, but only at the eleventh hour. Efforts could not over power the conspirators. The project was not supported by adequate intelligence-cover. One of the final and finer comments is that man-management within the army is a direct command function, while managing men not in uniform by military commanders is a catalytic function.

The involvement of officers and men in uniform in paddy fields and play field of schools has been questioned not by us, the retired community, but by the larger civil society. I have no ready-made answer to all the queries of all the people, and I have full appreciation of the sensitivity of the situation being faced by the armed forces, nay the army. Lives of soldiers were saved, loss of civilian life was minimal. The army-command deserve and need our good-wishes.

Given the burden of service anywhere in the country and abroad, a military officer is bound not to find time and secure environment to invest in land. We want to discourage military officers from getting bogged down into land-related litigations. Therefore, the necessity of creating housing facilities for the retired community is beyond question. The AHS can go on, of course, under a different style of management, in Rupganj or better locations. The Government of the popular leader Sheikh Hasina will hopefully continue to support the AHS. With government blessings, RAJUK and Ministry of Public Works can offer a helping hand. 'Land Developers Association' and REHAB can offer business collaboration on mutually beneficial terms. The area proposed to be purchased can be reduced in size for the present and enlarged incrementally. Giving priority to serving officers of the armed forces, not army only, a modest beginning can be made.

Damage whatever had to be, to the honor, sentiments and image of the army, individually or collectively has been done. The explosion has injured the self respect of the junior, the expectations of the mid level and the confidence of the elders in the army. What has it done to the retired officers? They are saddened, I for one when called upon to comment in the media, I am left bewildered; how do I honor the ego and emotion of my former profession and my current environment? What is not welcome is politicization of the incidence. There are only two major political parties in the country; they can divide anything in the country between the two. We urge upon them not to lay political hands on the armed forces. The gains if any on the part of either will be very temporary. On the contrary the two major political parties can contribute towards restructuring the relationship between the armed forces and the public in the area of the explosion, as well as across the country.

The role of the military in a democratic environment has to be understood for the second time and fresh. The higher echelons of command and administration within the defense-world may give a thought to redefining two items, namely: (firstly:) parameters of civil military relations in Bangladesh and (secondly:) ways of executing welfare-projects of the armed forces. Being the founder chairman of a registered political party which profess 'Kallyan' meaning welfare, I can only pray for the best for everyone as I close the pen, seven minutes after sunset on the 26th October 2010. The army needs to be left alone.

Major General Ibrahim was a gallant freedom fighter, a brilliant student and a successful military commander. Having left the sword in 1996, he took up the pen—he has done very well in that. One of the leading security analysts in the country, he is currently a PhD Researcher in the University of Dhaka. He writes for Bangla Language dailies as well as for PROBE.


__._,_.___


[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

__,_._,___