Untold Facts

India Tightens its Stranglehold on Bangladesh

The colonization by India of Bangladesh is now in its final phase as the Indian puppet Prime Minister - Hasina Wazed – is complying with India’s orders unafraid of the military or the judiciary

The colonization by India of Bangladesh is now in its final phase as the Indian puppet Prime Minister Hasina Wazed – is complying with India’s orders unafraid of the military or the judiciary. The military has been restrained in performing its statutory role to safeguard the national interest as RAW demonstrated its hold on the country in the Peelkhana massacre of Army officers and rapes of their wives by BDR personnel in which Awami League ministers were complicit; the Prime Minister herself gave the rebels three days of time to surrender – time enough for murderers and rapists to escape and some of them even to go abroad while the government spokesmen were creating a smoke screen blaming the Islamists for the massacre. No wonder the senior officers of the military are afraid they might be dismissed or murdered by RAW agents if they are suspected to be patriots unafraid of India.

The judiciary of Bangladesh has shown that it will also obey India’s wishes as a Supreme Court Bench, which had two Hindu members, upheld the death sentences awarded to the patriotic young officers who over-threw the government of Sheikh Mujib on 15 August 1975. (Sheikh Mujib is seen as a traitor worse than Mir Jaffer who also became the ruler of Bengal as reward for cooperating with the enemy – the British). The courts ignored the fact that these officers had acted as commanders of their units and should have been tried by a court martial. They also ignored the law of ‘double jeopardy’ as the case of these officers had been considered and they had been given pardon and immunity from prosecution by a constitutional amendment. Hasina Administration has shown its obsequiousness to Indian interests also by handing over ULFA leaders to India even though there is no extradition treaty between India and Bangladesh.

With the Armed Forces and the Judiciary so intimidated ‘new realities’ are being created quick and fast to prevent any future government of Bangladesh to be able to say ‘no’ to anything that India asks. The construction of Tipaimukh Dam is one; more agreements and contracts to tie Bangladesh to India are in the pipeline. It is once again time that the armed forces rise to guard national interests: 1) hold an impartial inquiry into Peelkhana massacre and the role of RAW and the Awami League in it; 2) declare the trial of the officers who carried out the coup d’état in Bangladesh on 15 August 1975 to be unlawful being in violation of the principle of ‘double jeopardy’: 3) hold the Awami League Government to account for handing over ULFA leaders to India: 4) take the case of Tipaimukh Dam to the UN and the ICJ.

Unlike the past wars, which were fought with tanks and guns, war today is carried out by subversion and imposition of puppet rulers. Bangladesh is one country created entirely by clandestine operations by RAW with military force being used in the final stages in 1971. When the people of Bangladesh realised that their alleged redeemer – Sheikh Mujib – had been an Indian agent, they rose in rebellion against him. He was gunned down in a popular coup d’état carried out by young officers, none above the rank of Major, on 15 August 1975. Sadly for Bangladesh, India saw the popular coup d’etat as its defeat and it has been engaged in reversing it impact ever since. There was counter coup d’état led by Major General Khalid Musharraf in November the same year. The troops believed India was behind the new coup. They reacted spontaneously en masse, lynched Khalid Musharraf, and restored General Zia ur Rehman (who had been removed by Khalid Mushharaf) as the COAS. Zia ruled Bangladesh effectively for a decade – some of the time as a dictator and most of the time as an elected President – until he was himself assassinated by military officers in Chittagong. Today, the daughter of one slain President Sheikh Mujib – Hasina Wazed – is the leader of the ruling Awami League and Begum Khaleda Zia, wife of the other slain President Zia ur Rehman, is the leader of the opposition.
Both ladies have won elections twice and served as Prime Ministers but neither has been able to shake off the legacy of blood that hangs over Bangladesh. Support or intervention by the military is still the only means by which a government secures legitimacy. Bangladesh was liberated by a ‘liberation war’ fought primarily by deserters from the Pakistan Army. East Pakistani soldiers killed their erstwhile comrades from West Pakistan; there was no mutiny. just murders. Yet this is called ‘War of Liberation. It was fratricide cleverly conceived by India to make the secession of Bangladesh irreversible. The officers’ who carried out the coup d’état on 15 August 1975 were all ‘freedom fighters’ who had served in the Pakistan Army with distinction. They were led to believe that it was right for them to fight their erstwhile comrades for they represented ‘oppressive rule of West Pakistan’. Imagine how they felt when they found that the self proclaimed father of the nation was in cahoots with Indian Intelligence to bring about the defeat of Pakistan’s armed forces and destruction of their country the movement for which was started by the Muslims of Bengal. They, not the politicians who collaborated with the enemy and were in Calcutta or West Pakistan for the duration of the war, were the liberators of Bangladesh. If it was right for them to fight allegedly oppressive rule by West Pakistan they had much more reason and duty to rid the country of a traitor masquerading as a leader under the shadow of Indian guns. If ever there was a coup d’état that was for the good of the state this was one.

The shadow of India has loomed large during the rule of both ladies. When RAW has control over the levers of power, the Awami League wins; when RAW sees Indian rule to be widely resented, it allows the BNP to win. The military has been the power behind the throne under both the ladies. The military officers, because of their role and statutory obligations, are patriotic and look at India with mixture of fear, disdain and apprehension. That disturbs India because its civilian puppet is always uneasy in power and not able to deliver. What India wants is Hindus or its collaborators in key places. India has now set about doing just that.

Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) are civil armed forces – organised and equipped like the infantry, commanded by military officers on secondment from the Army, but paid by the scales of the police because their role is that of border police. There is a relationship of tension between the BDR and the Army. BDR is in closer contact with civil administration as it is deployed and used to reinforce the police without reference to the Army HQ. Credit should be given to India that it created and exploited the situation for soldiers to murder their own officers thus sowing such fear and suspicion that the entire edifice of discipline crumbled. Today the officers in the armed forces officers court the favour of India for their promotions and appointments even survival. Bangladesh pays the salaries of the members of the armed forces but it is India that controls it. The organisation that is the symbol as well as the custodian of the sovereignty of the state does not work for the state but its hostile neighbour. Even the states inside India enjoy more autonomy than Bangladesh. That country is controlled from Delhi but has no representative there. The Indian High Commissioner is the viceroy of India in its colony Bangladesh.

The judiciary is the custodian of peoples’ rights – life, liberty and livelihood. Until recently, it had a good record. But it has been under pressure to execute the death sentences awarded by a kangaroo court that was especially composed to ensure it would over-ride all legitimate objections. The universal ‘law of double jeopardy’ that disallows any one to be tried for the same offence more than once has been blatantly ignored. These officers had been given pardon which was authenticated by a constitutional amendment. It was the right for the parliament to do because these officers had not acted for any personal reason or benefit but in the interest of the state. The high judiciary withheld the go ahead on executions for good reasons of public good. After the BDR massacre, the Awami League felt confident that it could get away with the executions as the public feels so unprotected by the institutions of the state that the government can literally get away with murder.

India’s plan for the construction of the Tipaimukh Dam has been made public as the puppet rulers of Bangladesh are expected to stay mute in the face of such diabolical Indian excesses. Built on River Barak, the dam is part of its most dangerous scheme against the economy of Bangladesh. Those who felt that having an Indian puppet as a ruler provided some protection against the worst excesses of India have been disabused of the illogical belief. India started it bloodless war against Bangladesh when it constructed the Farakka Barrage on the Indian side of the Ganges River to stop flow of water to Bangladesh. Despite the protest of Dhaka, Indian rulers used various delaying tactics to avoid resolving the issue. Indo-Bangladesh Joint Rivers Commission (JRC) met many a times to settle the issue, but could not produce any positive results. In April 1975, India assured that it would not operate feeder canal until a final agreement was reached between New Delhi and Dhaka on sharing of Ganges water. Bangladesh was assured of 40,000 cusecs during the dry season.

After the assassination of Sheik Mujib’s, India exploited the situation and diverted all of the 40,000 cusecs of water. The matter was brought to the attention of UN General Assembly, which on November 26, 1976 adopted a resolution directing the parties to arrive at a fair and expeditious settlement. On November 5, 1977 the Ganges Waters Agreement was signed, assuring 34,500 cusecs for Bangladesh. But the JRC statistics shows that Bangladesh did not get her due share. After Sheikh Hasina was first elected Prime Minister, she visited India and signed a treaty with her counterpart Deve Gowda on December 12, 1996. The treaty stipulated that below a certain flow rate, India and Bangladesh will each share half of the water. But New Delhi has continued to violate the treaty by using more than its share of the water of the river. The JRC report of March 9, 2009 revealed that from 1999 to 2009, India intermittently reduced the water flow to Bangladesh.

A study conducted in the US by Bridge and Husain, identified Farakka as the root cause behind arsenic poisoning of groundwater in Bangladesh. While cries of anguish over Farakka Barrage remained unheeded, the proposed construction of Tipaimukh Dam in the neighbouring Manipur state is another Indian water-bomb. The Tipaimukh multipurpose hydel project on Barak River is located about 200 km upstream of the border of Bangladesh. A Bangladesh delegation led by Abdur Razzaq, chairman of the standing committee of the parliament on water resources, held a meeting with Indian Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde. He was told that the “Tipaimukh project is not an irrigation project or a water diversion scheme; it is a hydel project and in no way will harm Bangladesh’s interest.” In fact, just as in the case of Farakka, India is lying in trying to satisfy Dhaka by false assurances.

Tipaimukh Dam would affect the already precarious livelihood of millions making them internally displaced persons. In the light of New Delhi’s record over agreements on Farakka Barrage, Bangladesh cannot trust any new promise. If India wants to meet energy needs of its people, it can better do so through nuclear power plants. But India appears determined to build the Tipaimukh Dam as part of its effort to tighten its stranglehold over Bangladesh. Tempers are rising in Bangladesh as India does not appear to care that its lackeys (Awami League) is the ruling party in Bangladesh. It is evident that role of lackeys is not to obtain concessions from India but to give in to every thing India seeks without even a whimper in protest and suppressing public protests instead.

Author: Sajjad Shaukat and Usman Khalid
Source: Lisa Journal, UK