DIPU MONI'S 102 TRIPS
Diplomacy in limbo
Foreign minister Dr Dipu Moni is an exceptionally busy person flying more or less most capitals of the world more or less every week. Just recently, she finished her 102th foreign trip in course of her 34-month stay in the ministry wearing the rare centurion's feather in her diplomatic cap. She spent over 17 months abroad during this time, a news report said.
But the reality is, as critics say, most of these trips have nothing to do with protecting the country's vital national interests and at many places rather harming it by her untutored diplomatic skill and way of handling things. She attends seminars, intellectual conferences and such meetings to which the country's foreign policy has hardly any relevance.
Who runs it?
Not surprisingly, observers wonder as to who runs the country's Foreign Ministry. It has surfaced as a big question in recent time, they say pointing to growing erosions at every diplomatic windows, the latest being Delhi's move to build the Tipaimuch dam keeping Bangladesh in total darkness.Bangladesh diplomacy was hovering round Delhi's skyline ever since the present .Awami League-led grand coalition came to power. Dhaka seemed to see nothing of significance beyond the Indian horizon to prove it as an honest partner in Indian hegemony in the domestic politics of Bangladesh.
Struck with surprise
But when the news broke out that the Union government of India has signed an agreement with the Monipur state government and a national conglomerate to build the Tipaimukh dam, even Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was struck with utter surprise.
Dr Monmohan Sing has broken his promise keeping Dhaka in the dark and going beyond his pledge that Delhi will not do anything which would harm Bangladesh, he inked the agreement.
Just three weeks after that signing, Foreign Minister Dr. Dipu Moni met Indian External Relations Minister S M Krishna in the Indian city of Banglore on November 17 but her Indian counterpart did not bother to tell her of the agreement.
"Unanimous on all issues"
Informed sources said, emerging from the meeting with Krishna in Banglore, Dipu Moni told the press that they were "unanimous on all issues". The impression that she left behind is that she has not the guts even to disagree, a Dhaka daily said recently in a report on her meeting with Krishna. But the question agitating the mind of the critics is that India signed the Tipaimukh dam agreement on October 22 and Dipu Moni met the Krishna on November 17. And why Krishna kept the news from her or why could not Dipu Moni get it?
Delhi spoke on the issue only when it came in the media in Bangladesh, and the Indian external ministry officials 'reassured' Bangladesh again that India will not do anything harmful to it. But the question is how Delhi is dealing with an ally in power in Bangladesh, if not a friendly country on the most dangerous border in the world. Moreover, who will explain Delhi's breaking of all norms and international agreements dealing with common rivers.
Dipu Moni told the press on Wednesday that the government will strive to sort out the issue through bilateral discussion and will demand information on the agreement Monipur state to open discussion.
Desertification in Surma valley
Experts say, once this dam will be put in place it will set in motion desertification of greater Sylhet region in the downstream of the dam to be built at upstream inside 100km in the Indian state of Monipur. The entire Surma valley including part of Assam will be affected by it, they said.
Critics wonder what style of diplomacy Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni is pursuing and what the broader objectives of her foreign policy are as far as it stands to protect Bangladesh interests, its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The ruling Awami League government is allowing even duty-free transit to India and yet keeping shy about contentious issues like Tipaimukh to the Indian authorities. Why is she not protesting in the first place to bring confidence to the nation that she is going to fight the Indian government on legitimate national interest?
In fact the protest should have come from the Prime Minister but the government is rather mute on this life-and-death question for Bangladesh.
Khaleda's protest
However, BNP chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia has already sent a letter to the Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh protesting the move and demanding a joint survey to identify what ecological impacts it may create on both sides of the border.
The Bangladesh Protidhin in a news item last week portrayed Dr Dipu Moni as working in the role of the Indian External Minister instead of promoting her own country's cause and questioned a number of her actions in some other fronts which have rather severely undermined the country's interest abroad.
News reports said Dipu Moni did not receive UN secretary General Ban Ki Moon when he arrived in the city breaking diplomatic precedence. If she were present, Prime Minister's daughter Saima Wajid would not have received him since she has no diplomatic status.
Left Ban Ki Moon
Moreover, she left Ban Ki Moon in the middle of a dinner she had hosted in honour of the visiting dignitary. She did it in a hurry to catch a Banglore-bound plane to attend a conference where other participants were mostly state ministers and deputy ministers of the SAARC countries.
And her host even did not bother to tell her the news of the Tipaimukh dam on the occasion. Critics have also questioned her handling of the relations with Japan when the Sunami and nuclear accident worst hit that nation.
When other nations sent their ministers to show solidarity with the Japanese people, Bangladesh was the only country which had shut down its embassy fearing the fall out of the nuclear accident. It was an unkind move to a nation which has always stood by the side of Bangladesh whenever it was hit by a disaster.
She visited China several times but has so far failed to produce an agreement with Chinese participation to the proposed deep sea port in the Bay of Bengal. Contrary to it her UN representative Dr A Momen reportedly irritated the Chinese by meeting representatives of Dalai Lama when visiting Tibet. Moreover, she took more than two years to fix a meeting with US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton whose visit to Bangladesh is still a distant dream for the government.
The European Union has also remained largely critical on many issues, especially on human rights violation, crossfire incidents of RAB and dealing with political opposition. She made enough promises to them only to break them once back home, sources alleged.
Even when Bangladesh has surrendered almost everything to the Indian hegemony, the country's foreign policy failed to protect the innocent civilians from killing at border by Indian Border Security forces.The foreign policy failure is also more pronounced at the middle-east and other Muslim nations. Especially it has failed in the country's manpower export to these countries.
Several Muslim countries are skeptical about how the government is dealing with Islamic political groups. Critics wonder why the government is not evaluating the performance of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the job of the minister herself. The nation is spending huge amount of money but at what benefits. Let there be a cross checking on all issues, they suggest.
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