India is our neighbor and it is best to deal with them fairly while protecting our life lines (Water, trade etc).
Development of infrastructure is always right. There is nothing wrong in doing the feasibility study jointly with India.
>>>>>>>>>> Agree.
However there are some confusion IF India ever notified Bangladesh government about this tender. If this allegation is true, it is a direct insult/attack to our independence. As far as I know our government did not make any comment on it but people are talking about it.
India can be our "Friend" but it still have to seek our permission if any "Bangladeshi infrastructure" needs to be developed. We are NOT west Bengal, it is a whole DIFFERENT country.
Guess we have to wait a bit longer to get clarification before we say anything for sure.
Shalom!
From: Subimal Chakrabarty <subimal@yahoo.com>
To: mukto-mona <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sat, May 25, 2013 6:00 am
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] Re: [reform-bd] HASINA SELLING BANGLADESH. STOP HER!
Sent from my iPhone
>>>>>>>>>>> If you said this about BNP leaders, I would have agreed with you. But BAL leadership do NOT have India-phobia. SOME of their leaders became "Cheer leaders" for India, when India chose to start a new dam on Tipaimukh (Eastern India). They were criticized for it.
I have discussed this before but I'll just highlight our previous discussion. BD rejected India's proposal for several reasons. They are
1) Our roads and bridges are not capable of handling current BD traffic and it will collapse if we allow Indian goods to be transported without upgrading capacity of our highways.
2) People of several Eastern states are rebelling against Delhi and if we allow Delhi to transfer goods, arms etc, they may start attacking us as an accomplice of Delhi dictatorship over them.
3) Our companies enjoys a great marker in seven sisters states and business is gaining popularity very fast. By giving access to competition, we'll destroy our own export potentials in India.
4) India still have discriminatory laws against BD companies seeking to do business in India, until these bigoted laws are removed, it does not make sense to offer Indians red-carpet and destroy our trump card in future negotiations.
5) Both countries did not agree on a "Fair tariff" for transporting goods over BD.
6) Water sharing issues HAVE to be sorted out BEFORE we agree on a structural transit process.
These are major point and minor concerns can be sorted out easily.
Let me say, I strongly feel we have to work with India about this issue and India has to work with us to make our region a prosperous one. Once India can make a shift from "Zero SUM" negotiation to "Win win" negotiation philosophy, people of both country will win.
There was a time when India used to worry about the possibility of the greater Bengal. That's no longer a worry, after the independence of Bangladesh. So, there is no Bangla-phobia in India. What I see is - India is worried about Bangladesh, not afraid of Bangladesh. Worried because, Bangladesh is politically volatile country; it has no direction or ideology.
>>>>>>>> I respectfully disagree. This could have been a valid narrative if we were in the 80's. Today India runs a huge budget deficit and BD became a very lucrative market for India. Bullying Bangladesh will hurt India in a major way. India's economy is quite weak and it is aggressively seeking more share in BD markets. If India pushes too hard against BD, people of both countries will suffer.
As far as politics is concern, despite very weak form of democracy and unstable political condition, BD made consistent progress in economy and human development. In plain English, we are doing everything right except having stable, mature and skilled political leaders.
Despite ups and down common people of our country get along fine with India. We are NOT like Pakistan.
The problem with India is they ignore our friendly spirit among common people. They have imposed many policies they would not dared to try with other nations (Even Pakistan). From sharing our water sources, border issues, descriminatory air wave policies (We get Indian TV but BD TV is not allowed), tariff barriers etc.
Comparing USA and India is not a sound one. US can shift their focus once BD become irrelevant. But we are India's neighbor and it is in India's own interest to see a more stable and prosperous Banglaldesh.
Shalom!
From: Jiten Roy <jnrsr53@yahoo.com>
To: mukto-mona <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Fri, May 24, 2013 8:31 am
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] Re: [reform-bd] HASINA SELLING BANGLADESH. STOP HER!
From: QR <qrahman@netscape.net>
To: mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, May 23, 2013 12:51 PM
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] Re: [reform-bd] HASINA SELLING BANGLADESH. STOP HER!
As far as India-phobia is concern, it does exist. Similarly Indians also have "Bangla-phobia". It is clearly seen in many of their policies and practices. As I said before these two relatively friendly countries have ONE major issues. Which is how to share water.
Rest can be solved within six months. However India seems forever unwilling to take progressive steps to make it happen. We had high hope with India many times (last time after BAL was elected and government was working with Tista water issue) and India burst our hopes most of those times.
So while we should not be denying the fact that, India-phobia exists. At the same time, we should point out it is failed Indian policies which causes most of such feelings. It is good to remind all of us that, all of India's neighbors share this "Phobia". You can talk to people from Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Pakistan and you will get similar feedback.
As I said, once India realize it has to lead the region than bully the region, we can live harmoniously.
Shalom!
From: Jiten Roy <jnrsr53@yahoo.com>
To: mukto-mona <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thu, May 23, 2013 5:24 am
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] Re: [reform-bd] HASINA SELLI
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Saturday, May 25, 2013
Re: [mukto-mona] Re: [reform-bd] HASINA SELLING BANGLADESH. STOP HER!
Mutual respect is prerequisite to having a long lasting and effective relationship. Historical data will show that AL governments have shown greater sense of sovereignty than both BNP and JP. For example AL brought more water than BNP or JP. Zia was in favor of Tipaimukh. Either BNP or JP was in favor of exporting gas to India.
>>>>>>>> Well there is a great deal of debate about this. I don't agree with anyone who blindly puts a label of BAL or BNP. I think there are areas where BAL should be given credit and there are areas where BNP should get credit. Specially for dropping blind "Anti-Indian" politics.
-----Original Message-----
Mutual respect is prerequisite to having a long lasting and effective relationship. Historical data will show that AL governments have shown greater sense of sovereignty than both BNP and JP. For example AL brought more water than BNP or JP. Zia was in favor of Tipaimukh. Either BNP or JP was in favor of exporting gas to India.
Not only with respect to India, AL has been more sovereign than the other governments with respect to other countries as well.
Development of infrastructure is always right. There is nothing wrong in doing the feasibility study jointly with India. It would be a win-win game.
Is there any reaction from the Bangladesh government to the alleged tender floated by the Indian government on the feasibility study of inland container facility in Narayanganj? Was it fake or what?
And, what happened to that request? Bangladesh declined such a request, simply because of India-phobia.
-----Original Message-----
QR: "India has been requesting BD government to allow it to transport goods to eastern India."
And, what happened to that request? Bangladesh declined such a request, simply because of India-phobia.
Transit facility could be a win-win situation for both countries; it would improve friendship between these two countries, which could enhance trust level between these two countries, and put us in a better position while discussing issues relating to the Tipaimukh and Padma Barrages. Also, Bangladesh could earn huge economic benefit from the transit facility.
You said - India has Bangla-phobia. There was a time when India used to worry about the possibility of the greater Bengal. That's no longer a worry, after the independence of Bangladesh. So, there is no Bangla-phobia in India. What I see is - India is worried about Bangladesh, not afraid of Bangladesh. Worried because, Bangladesh is politically volatile country; it has no direction or ideology. Therefore, it is probably in the watch-list of India. Bangladesh was also in the watch-list of USA, until recently. In this condition, no firm political stand on Bangladesh can be formed.
Jiten Roy
There are times when India getting such contracts make sense. This is one of those cases. India has been requesting BD government to allow it to transport goods to eastern India. It seems this is part of that plan.
-----Original Message-----
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