INDIA'S SIKKIM POLICY IN BANGLADESH
By Abid Bahar, Canada
It is interesting for Bangladeshis to learn and grow from many lessons
about India's policy in Sikkim and how Sikkim eventualy lost its
independence to India. If we look at the global Indian policy in South
Asia toward its neighbours, we see that eversince it became
independent, it occupied Goa, Hydrabad, Kashmir, even Monipur in 1949
and in 1975 it swallowed Sikkin. It is now trying to swallow Maldvip,
Nepal and Bhutan. Please read the recent developments in those
countries to see the eventual eclips of those countries.
India follows the old colonial British policy of swallowing the
smaller neighbourings nations. This is consistent with Neheru's India
Doctrine ( variously named as the "akhonda Bharota," "Ram Rajya,"
"connectivity").(1) Indian sucess in Bangladesh to make it a dependent
state, began with Mujib's 25 year Friendship Treaty with Indra Gandhi,
followed by Awami League's merger with the pro- Indian Moni Singh's
Bangladesher Communist Party and Mujib's subsequent policy of keeping
the Indian led Rakkhi Bahini in Bangladesh. Mujib's three year rule
ended Bangladesh into "a bottomless basket case". Please read similar
story of Indian policy in Sikkim.
http://sikhim.blogspot.ca/2009/08/indias-illegal-occupation-of.htmlI
India Doctrine is not a myth; it was born with a brain to make people
suffer for the sake of a chauvinistic nationalism called Brahmoism.
When one reads the history of Bromo imperialism in South Asia began
from Ram Mohan Roy, then from Nehru's ideas, it makes sense.(
Many observers believe that the 1975 coup in Bangladesh that removed
BKSAL from power was a great escape by Bangladesh to its reassertion
of independence. Frustrated to lose the Moina Pakhi ( India's dear
game bird Bangladesh) it now squeezes Bangladesh to its submittion, it
built dams in all most all the rivers flowing from the Himalayas
through Napal and India. India didn't build that number of dams in any
of its provinces. It is a case of open hostality toward Bangladesh.
Some people like Illias Ali and others who vigourously campaigned
against the Tipaimukh dam and its effects in Bangladesh were known to
have been abducted and killed by Indian trained cadres code named the
" 100 crusaders." Today like in Mujib's time, when over 30 thousand
people were abducted or killed (one of them was Siraj Sikder,)
opposition leaders are not safe fearing to be killed if stayed home or
outside the home fearing to be abducted( thus the popular phrase
recently came into use "Hasina's Ghoree thaklee Khoon bairai thaklee
goom). People who oppose Hasina's "khoon or goon policy are condemned
by the rough Awami cadres as the "enemies of the liberation war" and
are"razakars." with "a Pakistani agenda". In this category Awami
cadres even don't hasitate to include Ziaur Rahman.
It is widely claimed that Moin U supervised election in 2008 that
brought Hasina to a landslide victory was engineered by the Indian
RAW. Before the election, Hasina was found equally corrupt by the CTG
making money in bags that clients brought to her home. Moin U was
previously awarded 6 horses by India and there were reported secret
meetings held in Western cities in New York and Sanskatwan to hatch
the RAW Plan for installing Hasina. Experts agree that RAW offices to
impliment India's imperialist ambitions in Bangladesh have been
carried out from Calcutta and Agartala in its BD research centres.
Pronob Mukherjee is directly responsible to coordinate the action.(2)
In the cultural and media front, Rabindranath Tagore as a Bengali poet
(who despite his great literary contributions was opposed to the
establishment of Dhaka University) has been seen as a bridge between
West Bengal and Bangladesh and the socalled secular cultural teams and
pro Indian newspapers like Prothom Alo established in 1993 and the
silly newspaper Jonokhonto and few othe in Dhaka, carries out the
Indian agenda in Bangladesh. (3)
It is true, "India would definitely go for merging more small
independent neighboring nations with [her smaller neighbours
like]Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives and Sri Lanka but at the same
time would also be at a very high risk of dissolution and collapse on
herself, yielding into 15 to 25 independent nations." (4)
A Sikkimese says: "India follows British legacy. their policies are
colonial and imperialistic. If us the sikkimese could get our heads
out of the sand and the pointless lepcha bhutia nepali arguments we
would have seen what india did to manipur in 1949, india's annexation
of kashmir, etc. the chogyal asking his people not to take up arms was
justified as the import of arms had been banned by a treaty signed
between sikkim and delhi. on another note the chogyal's hands were
tied as he was a buddhist king and his holiness the dalai lama had
been given sanctuary by india. it is up to modern, forward looking
sikkimese youth to bring forward a freedom movement!" (5)
Can India swallow Bangladesh? With limited knowledge about the RAW we
have no clue. But India has been sucessful in causing poverty in the
western, northern and in the eastern region of Bangladesh. Hasina and
her team of so-called Indra secularists has strong influence in the
grass root level in Bangladesh to help India make its connectivity
policy. Under the circumstances it is recommended that the regional
countries to defend themselves, should monitor RAW activities and go
for forming a commonwealth of South Asian Nations/ or form a
confederation of South Asian nations.Good luck Bangladesh!
References:
(1) MBI Munshi, INDIA DOCTRINE
(2) Joinal Abedin, RAW
(3) Abid Bahar, Tagore Exposed in Dalia
(4) The Illegal Occupation of Sikkim by India"
http://sikhim.blogspot.ca/2009/08/indias-illegal-occupation-of.html
http://www.sonarbangladesh.com/article.php?ID=7213
(5) Biraj Adhikari, Sikkim: The Wounds of History
http://www.bangladesh-web.com/view.php?hidRecord=381641
[ALOCHONA] Ghulam Azam: Anti-Bangladesh before & after '71
Anti-Bangladesh before & after '71
Ghulam Azam speaking at a Jamaat programme during Liberation War.Julfikar Ali Manik and Rizanuzzaman Laskar
Ghulam Azam's crusade to thwart the emergence of Bangladesh had continued even after the nine-month-long blood-spattered Liberation War in 1971, as he tried to revive East Pakistan and spread propaganda against Bangladesh for several years.
Just when Pakistan was on the verge of losing the war, Ghulam Azam went to Pakistan on November 22, 1971. He formed East Pakistan Retrieval Committee in Pakistan and campaigned until 1973 to build public opinion against Bangladesh and its recognition in the Islamic world.
While reading out the charges yesterday, Justice Md Nizamul Huq, chairman of the International Crimes Tribunal-1, gave a brief profile of accused Ghulam Azam.
He said Ghulam Azam went to London in 1973 and set up an office of East Pakistan Retrieval Committee there. He published a weekly, Shonar Bangla, in London, which was used as a propaganda tool against Bangladesh.
Bangladesh government cancelled his citizenship on April 18, 1973.
Ghulam Azam later visited Saudi Arabia in March, 1975. He met King Faisal and told him that Hindus have captured East Pakistan, the holy Quran has been burnt, mosques have been destroyed and converted into temples, and Muslims were killed.
He collected funds from the Middle East for rebuilding mosques and madrasas.
After the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Ghulam Azam returned to Bangladesh on August 11, 1978 with a Pakistani passport. He got back his citizenship and rejoined his post as the ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami. He served in the post until Motiur Rahman Nizami was elected ameer.
Ghulam Azam was born on November 7, 1922. He studied in a madrasa first and then obtained master's degree from Dhaka University in 1950. He was a teacher of Rangpur Carmichael College between 1950 and 1955.
He joined Jamaat-e-Islami in 1954 and served as its secretary from 1957 to 1960. He became the ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami in 1969. During the Liberation War, Jamaat and Islami Chhatra Sangha under his leadership opposed the Liberation War.
He played a pivotal role in forming Shanti (peace) Committee, Razakar, Al Badr, Al Shams (collaborator forces). He was an elected member of the national assembly from Tangail in the sham elections of 1971, Justice Nizamul Huq said.
The Daily Star went through historic documents and is able to shed more light on Ghulam Azam's records.
According to records on the Liberation War, Ghulam Azam began playing an active role in helping the Pakistani occupation forces even as the nation joined the armed struggle to free Bangladesh soon after the launch of a massacre by the Pakistani military on the night of March 25, 1971.
He was ameer of the East Pakistan Jamaat-e-Islami before the Liberation War. As the ameer, he campaigned across Bangladesh and even in Pakistan (then West Pakistan) in an attempt to foil the liberation movement.
"Pakistan is the house of Islam for the world's Muslims. Therefore, Jamaat activists don't justify staying alive if Pakistan disintegrates," said Ghulam Azam in a speech to mobilise his party men and followers against Bangladesh and help the occupation forces. (Source: Jamaat's mouthpiece the daily Sangram, 1971).
Ghulam Azam is one of the front men who actively helped the Pakistani forces' attempts to foil the birth of Bangladesh. He was hyperactive against the Liberation War and became a symbol of war crimes in Bangladesh.
He met Pakistani General Tikka Khan, who was known as the "Butcher of Baluchistan", 10 days after the war started and earned the same title "butcher" as an architect of the genocide launched on the night of March 25, 1971 in Dhaka.
During the nine-month-long bloody war, Ghulam Azam and his party Jamaat-e-Islami, its student wing Islami Chhatra Sangha (later renamed Islami Chhatra Shibir) played a key role along with their other political partners to foil Bangladesh's independence struggle.
According to newspapers, including the daily Sangram, and books and documents on 1971, Jamaat and its student wing played a key role in forming the Peace Committees and some other collaborator forces like Razakar, Al-Badr and Al-Shams.
Throughout the nine-month war, Jamaat, its student wing and the collaborator forces actively helped the Pakistani military in mass killing, rape and atrocities.
The Pakistani forces and their Bangladeshi collaborators committed genocide and war crimes that left three million people dead and around a quarter million women violated, besides the planned elimination of some of the best of Bengali brains on December 14, 1971.
War records show that Jamaat formed Razakar and Al-Badr forces to counter the freedom fighters. Razakar force was established by former secretary general of Jamaat Moulana Abul Kalam Mohammad Yousuf, and Al Badr included the Islami Chhatra Sangha activists.
Anticipating defeat, the occupation forces and their collaborators--mostly leaders of Jamaat and its student front--picked up leading Bengali intellectuals and professionals on December 14 and killed them en masse with a view to intellectually crippling the emerging independent nation.
Though Ghulam Azam was the brain behind Jamaat's anti-liberation efforts, incumbent Jamaat Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami, president of Islami Chhatra Sangha in 1971, played a vital role in collaborating with the Pakistani junta in committing genocide.
Nizami, who is also behind bars on charges of war crimes, had said, "Every one of us should assume the role of a Muslim soldier of an Islamic state and through cooperation with the oppressed and by winning their confidence we must kill those who are hatching a conspiracy against Pakistan and Islam." (Daily Sangram quoted Nizami on September 15, 1971)
Ghulam Azam and his party men and anti-liberation elements used to call the freedom fighters "miscreants", "Indian agents", "malaun" (an offensive word used against the Hindus), and "infiltrators".
On April 8, 1971, Ghulam Azam issued a joint statement with other Jamaat leaders. A book containing an account of the killers and collaborators titled "Genocide '71" quotes from that statement: "India is interfering in the internal affairs of East Pakistan. Wherever patriotic Pakistanis see Indian agents or anti-Pakistan elements and infiltrators, they will destroy them."
Genocide '71 also reads: "On June 18, on arriving at Lahore airport, Ghulam Azam spoke to journalists, stating that, in order to further improve the conditions in East Pakistan, he was going to provide some additional advice to the president [General Yahya Khan].
"However, he refused to elaborate any further on what sort of advice he was going to give. Regarding the situation in East Pakistan, he said: 'The miscreants are still engaged in destructive activities. Their main aim is to create terror and turbulence. These miscreants are being directed by Naxalites and left-wing forces.'"
On June 19, before Tikka Khan left for Dhaka, Ghulam Azam met then Pakistan president Yahya Khan. After his meeting with Yahya, he addressed a press conference in Lahore. He told journalists, "The miscreants are still active in East Pakistan. People must be provided with arms to destroy them."
Addressing Jamaat workers prior to the press conference, Ghulam Azam said, "In order to prevent the disintegration of Pakistan, the armed forces had to be deployed."
He further noted, "The recent tumult in East Pakistan is 10 times greater than the 1857 Revolution in Bengal."
Speaking at a press conference in Peshawar on August 26, he said, "The armed forces have saved us from the treachery of our enemies and from the evil designs of India. The people of East Pakistan are lending full support to the armed forces in destroying miscreants and infiltrators."
On November 23, Yahya Khan declared a state of national emergency.
Ghulam Azam welcomed this announcement. He told the press in Lahore, "The best way to defend ourselves is striking at our enemies." He said in order to restore peace in East Pakistan, each patriotic citizen, each member of the Peace Committees, Razakar, Al-Badr, and Al-Shams must be armed with modern automatic weapons.
At a meeting in Rawalpindi on November 29, he said, "There is no example in the history of a nation at war surviving without retaliation. Aggression is the best form of defence."
On December 3, he in Karachi said, "An East Pakistani should be in charge of the foreign office because it is only an East Pakistani who can cope with the Bangladesh tamasha [the Bangladesh farce]."
Immediately after victory on December 16, 1971, Ghulam Azam and many others like him fled to Pakistan and returned only after the brutal assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most of his family members in 1975.
After victory the first issues of newspapers of the new nation carried the government's decision to ban five communal parties, including Jamaat-e-Islami, on December 18 with immediate effect.
The banned parties were given the green light to resume politics during the regime of late president Ziaur Rahman.
Genocide '71 said soon after Ghulam Azam with a few of his followers went to Saudi Arabia, an advertisement, in the name of a fake organisation, appeared in several Middle Eastern papers. The ad proclaimed, "mosques are being burnt in East Pakistan, Hindus are killing Muslims and destroying their properties." On the plea that Islam had to be saved, the ad appealed for contributions.
It also said Ghulam Azam, in order to collect funds and to continue his campaign against Bangladesh, visited several countries of the region, including Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, and Beirut. After completing his tour of these areas, he left for London in April, 1973.
Even though he came to Dhaka on a three-month visa during the rule of president Ziaur Rahman in 1978, he never left Bangladesh. He became Jamaat's undeclared ameer taking over from alleged war criminal late Abbas Ali Khan who was the acting ameer.
In the early 90's, Ghulam Azam was officially declared ameer of Jamaat, while Shaheed Janani Jahanara Imam launched a unique mass movement demanding trial of war criminals.
She held an unprecedented People's Court as a symbolic trial of Ghulam Azam where thousands of people gathered and the court pronounced a verdict to the effect that offences committed by him during the Liberation War deserve capital punishment.
Ghulam Azam's citizenship issue came into focus when he came to Bangladesh as a Pakistani national.
In 1991, the BNP formed government with support from Jamaat and in 1992 Ghulam Azam filed a case with the High Court to get Bangladeshi citizenship. The government of the day arrested him and put him in jail.
However, after Ghulam Azam acquired Bangladeshi citizenship through a court order in 1994, the government released him from prison.
In 1998, BNP and Jamaat formed the four-party alliance and Ghulam Azam appeared at a grand public meeting with BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia.
Ghulam Azam left the party's top post in 2000 and was succeeded by Nizami.Ghulam Azam stayed out of focus since then but he is back into the spotlight after yesterday's court order.
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=234068
[Disclaimer: ALOCHONA Management is not liable for information contained in this message. The author takes full responsibility.]
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