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REASSESSMENT OF OPTIONS NEEDED
Gripped by crises, Govt. must exercise great caution
M. Shahidul Islam
The Awami League-led regime came to power with a promise to change things. But it must change itself sooner to ensure survival as the ruling party.
Whether by choice or default, the regime has crept into some of the most intractable crises within and without. Not only serious fault lines have emerged within the party hierarchy due to recent resignations of the party Secretary General, M.A. Jalil - and the State Minister for Home, Tanjim Sohel Taj -- some recent changes in the regional and global dynamics are exacerbating further the predicaments of the nearly seven-month- old regime.
Added to the fast deteriorating law and order situation and the unexplainable spiralling prices of the essentials, the coming months could prove to be the most dangerous and the decisive ones, testing the skill, tact and prudence of the regime to the point of extremity as it will juggle desperately to survive in the most dangerous ambiance created by a number of changed variables within and without.
Strained Indo-Bangla ties
From the exterior, the AL and India may seem like a Siamese Twin. Yet, contrary to conventional public perceptions, Indo-Bangladesh relations have also begun to be jolted by severe strains and stresses, according to reliable sources.
Sources say the Government is under intense pressure to change its docile stance vis-à-vis India due to a number of reasons; foremost among them is the Indian intransigence in going ahead with the construction of the Tipaimukh dam and the continuation of killings by BSF of innocent Bangladeshis at various bordering areas.
The latest bone of contention, however, sprang from Delhi's incessant pressure to handover suspected leaders of the ULFA and of various India-based Islamic outfits, despite there being no extradition treaty between the two countries.
Sources also confirmed that some of the recent demands made by India in the DG-level meeting in Dhaka of the two border forces have created intense uproars within the country's intelligence outfits.
One source even hinted of a serious shuffling (or unceremonious removal) of some key officials of the two vital intelligence organs soon, although, the concerned officials have barely passed months in their current assignments.
Added to the seemingly endless undiplomatic postures of the Indian High Commissioner, Pinak Ranjan Chakrobarty, the embarrassment for the Government had multiplied further in recent days. There is not a single month when the overly zealous Indian envoy ceases from making insulting comments about Bangladesh and its people.
Last week, he has hurled insults at most of the visa applicants queuing before the Indian High Commission by casting them as 'fraud and dishonest.'
Foreign policy dilemmas
Meanwhile, the signing on July 20 of a new US-India defence pact in New Deli between visiting US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, and Indian Minister of External Affairs, S. M. Krishna, has added further worries in Dhaka in so far as the Government's foreign policy stances and priorities are concerned.
It remains doubtful whether the expertise with which the current Foreign Minister is equipped is sufficient enough to sail through this emerging foreign policy turbulence, say observers. For, unlike Pakistan - which is locked in a strategic stalemate with India in nuclear capabilities - Bangladesh's dilemma is mirrored by a different set of non-military delicate issues.
India now constitutes an integral segment of a global strategic club along with the US and Israel, and, ideologically, stands opposed to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in which China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan intend to counterbalance the bellicose military postures of the US in the region of Asia.
By being with Delhi in this changing geopolitical climate, Dhaka risks to be seen as an ally of Israel, with which it neither has diplomatic ties, nor can afford to be seen as a partner in global politics by antagonizing dozens of Islamic nations in which Bangladeshi expatriates are employed in vast numbers and which are prime destinations of our exports.
National interest
The intrinsic national interest-based priorities of the country do not make any such alliance making with Delhi easier either, under the changed ambiance.
For example, Bangladesh's main preoccupation is to obtain technology for power generation, something neither the US, nor any other Western powers, agreed to offer despite frantic efforts from Dhaka since the early 1980s.
If Dhaka now chooses to be in alliance with the Indo-US club, it stands to incur the wrath of the two main SCO members -- China and Russia -- which have agreed to provide Bangladesh with nuclear cooperation for power generation and there are important deals ready to be inked sooner.
After years of diplomacy, Bangladesh and China had signed an agreement on peaceful use of nuclear energy in 2005 while representatives of the Russia's State Nuclear Corporation, Rosatom, and the Bangladesh government, has already been signed on May 13, 2009 a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the transfer of nuclear technology for power generation.
As final agreements on the construction of two nuclear power plants are expected to be signed sooner both with China and Russia -- this is not the time to play poker with the Chinese and Russian sentiments by choosing to stay glued with India.
Dangerous arms race
Nor Bangladesh can afford to be seen as a party to an inexorably moving arms race that is destined to escalate tension in the region.
The Indo-US defence pact has an inbuilt inertia to spark arms race due to India spending more than $30 billion over the next five years on upgrading and replacing its largely Soviet-made arsenal. One-third of such procurements will involve buying 126 multi-role fighters from the USA.
While that happens, China and Pakistan will not sit idle by to allow the regional balance of power to tilt irretrievably against them. Globally too, rift and commotion will emerge when two US companies in particular -- Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Corporation -- compete with Russia's MiG-35, France's Dassault Rafale, Sweden's Saab JAS-39 Gripen, and the Eurofighter Typhoon -- made by a consortium of British, German, Italian and Spanish firms.
Doctrinal asymmetry
Besides, Bangladesh and India stand on the diametrically opposite sides of a post- 9/11 doctrinal ambiguity regarding how the global peace and stability should be preserved.
After 9/11 terror attacks in the USA, India actively supported Bush's war on terror and offered military cooperation. And, when George W. Bush announced his new missile defence plan in May 2001, many in the international community opposed it, except India.
Since then military collaborations intensified between Delhi and Washington amidst very frequent exchanges of high-level military leaders between Washington and New Deli.
Since 2007, U.S. Secretary of Defence, Robert Gates, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Michael Mullen, heads of the CIA and FBI, and many other top U.S. generals visited Delhi to increase military cooperation.
And, since the two militaries signing of a defence cooperation framework in 2005, U.S. arms sale to India has increased phenomenally, with more and more advanced weaponry shipped to New Delhi; including F-16 and F-18 fighter jets, Austin-class amphibious transport ship and C-130 cargo planes.
Finally, in May 2009, the Obama administration approved the sale to India of 8 P-8I maritime patrol aircraft worth US$2.1 billion, the largest U.S. arms transfer to India so far.
Cobweb of insurgencies
All these arms are reaching a region infested with a cobweb of insurgencies and territorial rivalries between neighbours, heightening fear of accidental war breaking. The historic Pakistani claim over Kashmir and Bangladesh's claim of sovereignty over the Talpatti island aside, the Chinese Government had lodged a formal complaint recently with the Government of India against the visit of the Indian President to Arunachal Pradesh (and Tawang district in particular) over which Beijing claims its full sovereignty.
Yet, since the fall of 2007, soldiers from the US and India had routinely engaged in joint military manoeuvres in adjacent Mizoram and West Bengal to expose the US Special Forces to tactics used by the Indian Army in low-intensity conflicts, while, in the south, US warships have routinely conducted maritime exercises with the Indian navy in the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean.
No one needs reminding that the impact on Bangladesh of the ongoing insurgencies in various Indian North-Eastern states has already proved calamitous.
Despite Delhi's persistent accusations of Bangladesh sheltering insurgent leaders from the Northeast -- including once again during the recently concluded BDR-BSF meeting in Dhaka -- most of the Indian insurgents enter Bangladesh surreptitiously to avoid hot pursuits by Indian forces. Dhaka's helplessness is multiplied when many of them, like ULFA leader Anup Chatiya and his colleagues, claim asylum in Bangladesh under the Geneva Convention.
Further to the East, Indo-US military postures are having rippling impacts on friendly countries of Bangladesh who are seeking to control inherent sea-lanes and strategically important Straits by avoiding external interference of these kinds.
Malacca Strait
Earlier in 2007, then US Pacific Commander, Admiral Timothy Keating, raised a few hackle when he said it would be in the mutual interest of India and the US to look after the security of the 850 km Malacca Strait, located between Malaysia and Sumatra. Sixty percent of the world's energy is transported through this Strait, at a time when China's energy-thirst increases by the day.
Besides, as some U.S. officials have likened the Indo-US strategic partnership with an Asian version of the NATO, Dhaka must exercise great caution in becoming a party to such an alliance even by default.
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CONSPIRACY AGAINST BNP
AL to say goodbye to its old guards
Faisal Rahim
Going beyond the party politics to relegate and marginalise major opposition parties like BNP, Jamaat and other Islamist groups, Awami League (AL) this time has turned its hand to downgrade the opposition from within the AL camp. As things appear, the party chief is moving to get rid of 'reformists' from the party mainstream through the forthcoming national council to be held on July 24. In the process, a new formation is going to emerge to identify it as an opposition block within the party framework, analysts say wondering whether it may sustain the challenges to stay the course or may disappear over time, as the loyalists camp to Sheikh Hasina predicts.
Thus the AL politics is in the crossroads to bid goodbye to old guards and reformists and consolidate Sheikh Hasina's leadership among the young new generation leaders and workers, analysts say suggesting the present cabinet made of new faces is indicative of the move towards creating the new leadership to sidestep the party seniors and of course the descendents.
The resignation of Tanzim Ahmed Suhel Taj, State Minister for Home and political heir to the country's first Prime Minister Tajuddin Ahmed who also led the Liberation War in absence of Sheikh Mijibur Rahman, signalled yet another widening rift in the party platform. It may have a deepening ramification to party politics in the time to come.
Conspiracy against BNP
The party's sudden decision to hold national council on July 24 instead of early next year may have two objectives. In that decision AL may have wanted not only to take on the major opposition BNP and schemed to knock it out from the registration process but also take the party descendents in surprise.
The registration time-limit of political parties expires on July 25, and any extension of time would require passage of new ordinance by the Government. AL plans to submit its party constitution to Election Commission (EC) on that day to remain on the track.
Analysts believe, the AL decided to hold the council in short notice and deal with the EC to make BNP at its mercy to pass a new ordinance to bail it out or keep it hanging.
Deputy leader of the House and party senior presidium member Sajeda Chowdhury has exactly hit on the point recently when she said "time extension (by EC) without any ordinance will be illegal."
People wonder why the ruling party is creating all such impediments on the way of the major opposition to reorganise it after the last election debacle. People wonder if this mentality and policy approach of AL will be conducive to democracy or may rather make the democratic process more fragile making the ruling party more despotic.
Moreover, this practice of using laws to serve narrow party politics will not only destroy political institutions but also undermine the process of developing good governance. Critics say this will hinder the nation's democratic future referring to the creation of a one-party rule like the BAKSAL and subsequent political turmoil in the country.
Hasina's anger
Furthermore, as things appear, analysts say AL is moving further this time to take on reformists within the party. And in doing so it is violating its own constitution by keeping its former general secretary Abdul Jalil at arm's length from the process of holding the national council and other manoeuvrings targeting the party reformists. Jalil resigned from the post last week having been totally overrun. In fact, he invited the wrath of the party chief by making a statement to Joint Task Force Intelligence Cell describing Sheikh Hasina as a despotic ruler, in addition to exposing some of her 'corruption and irregularities.'
Although he retracted from the statement later on saying he was forced to make such statement in the custody, Hasina never pardoned him and did not allow him to resume the job of the party secretary on his return from treatment in Singapore later last year.
Moreover, she waited until election to take on the broader reformist group to sail through the election process. But once, the party won the landslide victory in a shrouded election climate, she showed her anger to party seniors for the first time while picking up the new cabinet. People like Tofail Ahmed, AbdurRazzak, Amir Hossain Amu, Suranjit Sen Gupta, Saber Hossain Chowdhury or Obaidul Qader were left out of the cabinet to signal the new-fangled course of developing a new leadership on the top.
The forthcoming national council may thus create more 'surprises' by way of dropping most of the old guards from the party presidium or central working committee, as many insiders suggest. The party chief said election to new leadership in the party council will be held through transparent ballot box suggesting credible election.
The indication of massive changes in party leadership is already in the air. Sheikh Hasina recently said she wanted an elected presidium unlike consensus selection held in the past. Moreover, she has even ruled out distribution of nomination papers to any one who has not cleared monthly contribution to party fund.
Under the existing arrangement each presidium member has to pay Tk 3,000 per month and central members to pay Tk 2,000 and information suggest most of the presidium members and central leaders are defaulters now having the choice to pay arrears or stand knocked out from the race.
Open insult to seniors
Analysts say it is an open insult to many senior party leaders on the presidium or central working committee and many of them appeared to have lost interest to buy nominations sensing the party chief's attitude to them. They apprehend their defeat may be secured through under hand machinations. At least the preparatory work of the council and the people who dominate it are suggestive of it.
They apprehend a real power struggle is becoming open in AL this time to determine the course of future events within the party and the entire nation. Referring to Suhel Taj's resignation, they say Tajuddin Ahmed was also forced to resign as Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was not 'accommodative' of his popularity as a leader who led the nation through the Liberation War. His widow Zohra Tajuddin also remained ignored in the party basically for her family tradition. Tajuddin's brother Afsaruddin had to quit the post of state minister during the previous AL government of Sheikh Hasina for lack of 'accommodative spirit'. This time Suhel Taj resigned blaming lack of 'dignity' due to frequent interventions of the members of the PM's family.
As the family discord is only widening, new factors and persons on top party leadership are also likely to join the row to give a more formal shape to the divide within the party. Analysts wonder how new developments are going to reshape the party and influence national politics after the council.
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POLITICAL CONSENSUS IN DHAKA?
Tipaimukh dam 500 times larger than optimum size
Sadeq Khan
Discerning citizens of Bangladesh were gratified by newspaper reports last Sunday carrying a rare signal of consensus-building inclination over Tipaimukh issue in national interest between the two main political parties, the ruling Awami League and the Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist party. In a seminar at the Sheraton Hotel on Saturday afternoon, BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia urged Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to abandon the controversial Tipaimukh dam project to make good his assurance that India would do nothing that could cause harm to Bangladeshi people: "I urge the Indian prime minister to formally announce cancellation of the project.
"Like the people downstream in Bangladesh, Indian environmentalists have rained their voice against the project. Only scrapping of the project would bring relief for the peoples in both countries, reduce tension in the region and pave the way for better neighbourly relations.
"I had written to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and he already assured that India would not do anything harmful for Bangladesh. I appreciate his statement."
Asking the government not to bow to any pressure on the Tipaimukh issue, she assured Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina that her party will take the government's side if it upholds national interest:
"Act boldly to protect the country's interests. There is no need to bow down. You are not alone. We will be with you if you uphold national interests. Let us, face the crucial issue in a united manner putting our merit, labour and initiatives together."
At the same time, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, also the Awami League president, made the call at a meeting of the party's national council preparatory committee in her Dhanmondi office the same evening.
"Tipaimukh issue is a national problem. The nation should not be divided for political reasons. We will be unable to protect our national interests if we are divided. Unity will strengthen our bargaining capacity.'
"We will not allow anything that will cause the slightest harm to the country," she was quoted as saying by the Awami League spokesperson and LGRD minister Syed Ashraful Islam. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also informed the party meeting that at the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Egypt, "The Indian prime minister [Manmohan Singh] assured me that they would not do anything harmful to Bangladesh and that next steps would be taken on the basis of an understanding between the two countries."
But any real hope for consensus-building was dashed almost immediately by a veteran of her party leadership who heads the parliamentary standing committee on water resources. Awami League Presidium member and former Water Minister Abdur Razzak MP told newsmen on Sunday that the main opposition, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, has been trying to mislead the people by disseminating politically motivated and hypothetical information on the impacts of the proposed Tipaimukh dam on Bangladesh.
The reaction in the opposition camp, and also amongst well-known water experts who took part in the BNP organised seminar on Saturday, was that Abdur Razzak, M.P. was in effect taking the side of Ambassador Pinak Ranjan Chakraborty, the Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka, who expressly accused "so-called experts" of Bangladesh and their reservations about the Tipaimukh dam project as "politically motivated" and designed to "rupture the goodwill between the friendly peoples of India and Bangladesh."
500 times larger than optimum size
The reality remains, however, that the basin people of Barak-Surma-Kushiyara-Meghna complex in India and Bangladesh are united against the project for genuine geo-tectonic and ecological grounds, which were not taken into account in Flood Action Plan study (submitted in 1993) by SNC Lavalin International on possible flood-risk reduction by upstream dam, the study referred to by Abdur Razzak MP as the basis for his accusation against BNP. The fact also remains that by examining environmental impact assessment and socio-economic cost-benefit ratio of dam-building strategy in river basin management seven years after that study, the World Commissioner on Dams, 1998, (WCD) stipulated that a big dam which is more than 15 metres high and is designed to have reservoir capacity of more than 3 million cubic metres shall not be built without "people's acceptance" in the basin area. The data, including environmental impact assessment covering less than 30% of the basin area on the Indian side, as recently released on the website of North East Electric Power company of India dealing with Tipaimukh project, indicates that the dam as planned would be 11 times higher having 500 times larger capacity than the limit for safe dams as defined by WCD.
It is not very clear whether Abdur Razzak, M.P. is in tune with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on the issue. It is not clear either whether High Commissioner Pinak Ranjan Chakraborty has kept himself in tune with the ripples of change in Delhi's regional outlook. He seems to be still talking from a high pedestal, like former Indian Foreign Secretary Rajeev Sikri did, telling hopeless Bangladeshis to jump blindly on the Indian bandwagon for favours forgetting the barbed-wire fences and the trigger-happy guards at the border, for whatever such favours are worth or they will lose their chance. On July 20, the Indian High Commissioner simply spoiled the congenial atmosphere of a meaningful seminar on "Bangladesh-India Economic Relations" jointly organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI). Certain irate remarks of the Indian High Commissioner as guest speaker at the conference completely overshadowed media coverage of the very positive and useful comments and suggestion by FICCI delegates. Responding to demands by business leaders of both Bangladesh and India to ease the visa process for travelling to India and attributing the current visa regime to India's security concerns against the backdrop of incidents such as the terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
Ambassador Pinak Ranjan Chakraborty said: "Twenty-five thousand of the Bangladeshis who are going to India with legal visas [every year] are not returning to their country.
"Eighty per cent of the visa seekers are not genuine. Those [whom you see in the queue] are touts and brokers. The visa issuing process would be much easier if the Bangladesh government ensured that touts and brokers no longer queue for submitting visa applications."
The High Commissioner forgot that he was in effect compromising by his remarks the integrity of his own visa officers, since touts and brokers" could only operate if indulged by visa officials. It was not for Bangladesh governments, but the Indian authorities to take action against the corrupt visa officials of the Indian High Commission. Indeed, protesting the "disgraceful and objectionable" speech of Ambassador Pinak Chakraborty, Ashok Kumar Saha, General Secretary of Bangladesh Hindu Parishad alleged in a statement that a section of officials in the Indian mission in Dhaka had made the 'visa system complex to make money.'
Out of step
Some South Asian watchers in Dhaka suggest that Ambassador Pinak Chakraborty may be out of step with the subtle shift of foreign policy posture by the Manmohan Government under the exigencies of changing world order and strained world economy. They quote Ambassador MK Bhadrakumar, formerly of the Indian Foreign Service and now contributing to Asia Times Online as a geopolitical analyst, to suggest that Ambassador Chakroborty probably still contributes to the outdated Indian vision that the US recognised India's primacy as the number one military power in the Indian Ocean region and built it up as an Asian counterweight to China. The 'vision' had a dream run during the Bush era.
But Obama's priorities lie elsewhere. The America he inherited has different priorities. The world, too, has changed following the global downturn.
They point out that adjusting to new realities, Dr. Manmohan Singh, in the same NAM summit where he assured Sheikh Hasina that he would be mindful of Bangladesh's objections in relation to Tipaimukh, also issued a joint statement with Pakistan's Prime Minister Gilani delinking cross-border terrorist acts from India-Pakistan peace dialogue. And during her relaxed official visit to India, US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton "chose Mumbai for her first halt - a city that insolently mocks Delhi for its pretentious airs. ....
En route to Delhi, Clinton thoughtfully interacted with Indian corporate czars in Mumbai who keenly await the end-user deal to break into weapons production in collaboration with the US military-industrial complex."
And in Delhi, some 'visionary' strategists "were hoping to present Clinton with a list of convincing reasons why the US and India should collaborate as partners in pressuring Pakistan to amend its record of breeding international terrorism and proliferating nuclear technology. But Clinton made it clear that Washington is pretty pleased with Pakistan's performance in the 'war on terror' and that the Pakistani nuclear inventory was securely fastened, no matter Islamabad's past behaviour - and that's all that mattered today. .....
The top items on Clinton's agenda are to secure an investment protection agreement and an end-use monitoring deal with Delhi that accords with US legislation making sure sales of military equipment are used for the purpose stated.
The US had also signed a technology safeguards agreement that is a requisite first step (pending negotiation of a commercial space launch agreement) towards allowing India to launch US satellites or third-country satellites that have US equipment on board. The US has a similar agreement with China."
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Khaleda asks India to scrap
Tipaimukh project
Holiday Report
Former Prime Minister and presently the Leader of the Opoisition in the jatiya Sangsad Begum Khaleda Zia urged Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to abandon the controversial Tipaimukh dam project as a manifestation of his assurance that India would do nothing that could cause harm to Bangladeshi people.
'I urge the Indian prime minister to formally announce cancellation of the project,' she told a seminar organised by BNP Saturday to make people aware of the possible disasters the planned Indian dam could spell for Bangladesh.
'I had written to Indian prime minster Manmohan Singh and he already assured that India would not do anything harmful for Bangladesh. I appreciate his statement,' Khaleda said.
"Cancellation of Tipaimukh project will mitigate the tensions between Bangladesh and Indian over this issue. It will bring accord in the region, and strengthen ties with our neighbour," said Khaleda.
India planned the dam at Tipaimukh in its Manipur state on the river Barak that feeds Bangladesh's Surma and Kushiyara rivers in the northeast, eventually flowing into the Meghna, one of the three main rivers in Bangladesh.
She added the government has a great role to protect the country and future generations as the experts already said the Tipaimukh dam would be another death trap like Farakka and her party was ready to extend cooperation to the government in all major issues including Tipaimukh Dam to protect the country's sovereignty and interest.
'I do not want to criticize their role at this moment. Rather we tell them, "Let us, face the crucial issue in a united manner putting our merit, labour and initiatives together",' she said to the government.
'The Tipaimukh dam will have serious impacts on Bangladesh. BNP will do whatever it needs to protect the country's interest,' the former prime minister said.
Khaleda said the BNP had organized the seminar to create a national consensus over the important national issues. 'It would be tough to face problem over Tipaimukh project without a consensus,' she said.
Asking the government not to bow to any pressure, she assured that her party will take the government's side if it upholds national interests. 'Act boldly to protect the country's interests. There is no need to bow down. You are not alone. We will be with you if you uphold national interests,' said Khaleda, leader of the opposition in parliament.
'We heard that the government is yet to get adequate information about the dam and as a responsible opposition BNP has collected some data and information with the help of noted experts. We believe the information would help the government in taking bold decision over the Tipaimukh dam,' she said.
Former secretary to power division ANH Akhtar Hossian made a power-point presentation on the adverse impacts of Tipaimukh. He said India is also planning to construct a barrage at Phulertal at about 100 kilometres downstream of Tipaimukh on the river Barak to transfer water for irrigation.
A panel of experts comprising BNP standing committee member Khandakar Mosharraf Hossian, former water resources minister M Hafizuddin Ahmed, former Dhaka University vice-chancellor Maniruzzman Miah, Dhaka University development studies teacher Mahbubullah, former director general of Bangladesh Water Development Board Sharif Rafiqul Islam joined the discussion. Dhaka University law teacher Asif Nazrul was also in the panel but he did not turn up.
They said the Tipaimukh and Phulertal multipurpose structures, if constructed, will result in Farakka-like catastrophe in the region including Bangladesh, reducing the flows in Surma and Kushiyara rivers.
Akhtar Hossain and Hafizuddin Ahmed said India had breached its commitment made while commissioning the Farakka barrage on the Ganges River.
'The Indian minister assured Bangladesh in written that they will not construct anything at Phulertal. But now, according to NEEPCO in Manipur and Indian high commissioner in Dhaka, they would construct a barrage at Phulertal,' Hafiz said.
Responding to a question he said though the government is satisfied with India's assurance over Tipaimukh dam, but his party would always oppose such projects on the trans-boundary rivers.
The former water resources minister said that government officials in Bangladesh had given their consent in 1972 to construction of the Tipaimukh dam, without fully understanding the possible impacts of the project.
Lawyer Rafique-ul Haq, Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury of Ganashasthya Kendra, professors Emajuddin Ahmed, Maniruzzaman Mia and Abu Ahmed, journalists Ataus Samad, Reazuddin Ahmed, Shaukat Mahmud and Amanullah Kabir, former FBCCI president Abdul Awal Minto, politicians Muhammad Kamaruzzaman and ATM Azharul Islam of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, Shafiul Alam Pradhan of JAGPA, Fazlul Huq Amini of IOJ were, among others, present there.
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Rise of Maoists worries Delhi
Shamsuddin Ahmed
The Indian Maoists in a statement issued last Monday threatened Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Home Minister P Chidambaram by saying: "They will face the fate of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi (who was assassinated).... If Chidambaram has the courage he should come to Jharkhand." The statement was issued by outlawed CPI (Maoist) central leader Anup-ji in Ranchi, Jharkhand.
This, needless to say, has worried New Delhi. Maoist spheres and influence are rising rapidly in India. Chidambaram, according to Zee News on July 15, has admitted failure in tackling the Maoists who are holding a large swathe of land - nearly 390 square miles in West Bengal state for more than six months. Deployment of paramilitary force and Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (COBRA) hasn't reportedly made any difference in the Maoist infested areas.
In the neighbouring state of Chhattisgarh, the epicentre of the Maoists, a Police Super and 29 cops were killed and about two dozens wounded on July 12 while 13 policemen remained missing. In March 2007, 55 police were killed in a single attack by the Maoists in Batsar district of the state. Two years ago they broke a prison and freed 300 of their comrades.
Security forces are baffled at the 'meticulously' planned attacks of the Maoist rebel forces estimated at between 10,000 and 20,000. Junior Home Minister recently informed in parliament that at least 455 people, mostly law enforcers, were killed by the Maoists during the first six months of this year, 148 alone in Chhattisgarh.
Sify News of India reports, "Maoists wield considerable influence in more than 150 of India's 602 districts, where the civil administration is either present nominally, or not at all."
The Maoist 'red corridor' in India extends from the Terai region of Nepal through West Bengal, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, borders of Tamil Nadu to the under developed areas of Maharashtra. The corridor snakes through the more impoverished areas of the states, which are fertile ground for the Maoists. The corridor through West Bengal passes close to Assam in Siliguri, runs along Bangladesh borders, and goes deep into the belly of India.
Maoist high command issued a circular last month asking the cadres to expanding the guerrilla war and party influence to new areas. It labels the Congress and BJP as parties of crorepatis and criminals, and cautioned the cadres not to cause damage to people's property or cause inconvenience to common people. 'We must apologize promptly to residents for our mistakes', it said.
Maoist politburo member Kotesshwar Rao alias Kishenji in charge of operation in West Bengal, Orissa and Jharkhand told BBC on July 2 that they have 1,100 villages with them in the movement in West Bengal state. Lalgarh is the first major guerrilla zone in the state. "We will expand influence in the state, as far as Kolkata; we will have an armed movement going to Kolkata by 2011, that's for sure."
He revealed in a recent interview with an Indian daily that they have joined with the separatist forces in northeast India like ULFA, National Social Council of Nagaland and People's Liberation Army of Manipur and others. What strikes the Indian leadership more is that the Maoists did not support the November 26 attack on Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji railway terminus because most of the victims were Muslims. Kishenji said they are not opposed to the Islamic upsurge as it was basically anti-US and anti-imperialism in nature.
He denied link with the Maoists of Nepal saying CPN (Maoist) leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal (Prachanda) has treaded the wrong path of parliamentary politics.
The Communist Party of India (Maoist) was formed in September 2004 merging three parties - CPI (ML), People's War Group and Maoist Communist Centre of India. Last year it reformed the Arm Wing, PGA, to intensify the movement.
Gour Chakraborty, another Maoist leader, told Rediff News on June 18: "The attacks that we plan are carried out by People's Guerrilla Army (PGA). The members act clandestinely. They launch surprise attacks on our enemies. Once their skill reach the optimum level, the group is promoted as the People's Liberation Army and is considered capable of taking on the enemies head on."
'The rapid rise of Maoist influence in India is attributed to deprivation of landless peasants, tribal and 250 million low caste Hindus (untouchables). In large areas of 15 out of 29 Indian states, there is virtually no governance. These areas are inhabited by poorest of the poor who have been bypassed by the 'Shining India', wrote economist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta.
Ajai Sahani, a former director of India's Institute of Conflict Management wrote, 77 percent of Indian population live on less than IRs 20 (50 cents) a day. US secretary of state Hillary Clinton in her just concluded visit to India shared concerns for growing number of Indian poor committing suicide.
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Move afoot to control Govt. advertisements again?
Shahriar Noori
A move is on at the Ministry of Information (MoI) to again control the government advertisement through the Department of Films and Publication (DFP) within a few weeks.
Apparently it aims to provide advertisements from a single window for the print media to ease time-consuming efforts for collecting advertisement from different government offices across the country and also to save money, said the sources.
For this a study paper is being prepared by the MoI officials to materialise the political desire of the present government, said the sources.
The government feels in the last six months a handful of newspapers have critically analysed the decisions of the ruling Awami League (AL) and the ideals of the liberation war, they added.
The news and views related to the BDR carnage, the role of General (retd) Moeen, the military-backed Caretaker Government, trial of war criminals, India's diplomatic overtures and its envoy's offensive utterances, appointment of Baitul Mukarram Mosque's Khatib, the Hijab issues, price spirals, Abdul Jalil and Sohel Taj issues were covered in such a way that has 'violated all journalistic ethics and code of conduct', said the sources.
But one of the sources seemed to be in a state of bewilderment when he was asked by the Holiday as to why he was speaking about media ethics when the Government intends to unburden the newspapers from the hassles of colleting ads from govt. offices across the country.
The source then requested the Holiday not to divulge his name and position anyway.
Meanwhile, according to the sources the survey was started following a verbal commitment made by the present information minister with two powerful and pro- establishment English daily editors last month that the government won't proceed to scuttle the present decentralised system of distribution of advertisement.
The centralised system was made inoperative by the BNP government in 2005.
The Government now distributes advertisement bills amounting to Taka 55 crore for 600 dailies and periodicals in the country annully. Some big advertisement companies are supporting the government to give print media advertisement from a centralised organisation.
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Bangladesh's viceroy?
Hafiz Shamseer
Who is this guy called Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty? Is he the Viceroy of Bangladesh, or a diplomat from India?
Lot of people here in this country tend to believe that he is actually the High Commissioner for India to Bangladesh. But the problem is that the so-called (we are using this term because it seems the phrase is very darling to him) High Commissioner does not behave the way a diplomat should. He has thrown the book of diplomacy in to the wind, sent Vienna convention or whatever it is called into a shredder, and used at will such contemptuous words as "so-called experts" and "touts and tricksters" against the people of this country.
If these are the words of a diplomat whose primary, and most onerous, task is to build friendship and amity among nations by papering over bilateral problems in an atmosphere of cordiality and warmth, may God help the international diplomacy. These are the best utterances to send the relations among countries in tatters. Why is so-called Pinak up to it? Any axes to grind? Any ulterior motives to pursue? He should know better.
But the High Commissioner must ask himself if India would as well allow a Bangladeshi, or even an American, diplomat based in New Delhi to speak in that phrase on the people of India. Would his government mind if our High Commissioner in New Delhi termed the people queuing up for visa there as "touts and tricksters"? Would India not see it as infringement of Vienna Convention protocol? One would like to hear from him on this point.
We have had many Indian High Commissioners come and gone since the birth of this country 38 years ago. Though a couple of them left with some question marks behind them, the rest of them were decent, gentle and astutely professional. None of them had ever had problems with the people of this country. None of them had ever used language that could offend the people.
We have also envoys from many countries based in Dhaka. Some of them did meddle in politics in the past. But not all of them. Most importantly, none of them had ever used offensive words like those of Pinak.
Then why does the Indian High Commissioner go out of his diplomatic way to take on the people of this country? The reasons could be a couple. First, with a subservient government installed in Dhaka, New Delhi may have asked Pinak to pull all stops to go against those who may not see eye to eye with India's interest in Bangladesh. He has virtually been given the role of a Viceroy of Bangladesh where the government would only act at his behest just as the administration in a colony does. Second, India is not at all keen on fostering good relations with the people here. It wants only a limited number of people to have good and working relationship with India. That would help pursue its hegemonic role in economic, political and socio-cultural fields.
India doesn't have good relations with any of its neighbours. Bangladesh could have been different because of India's help in securing the independence of this country from Pakistan. But Pinak and his masters in New Delhi do not seem to be interested. Perhaps friendly relations are anathema to hegemonism.
The people will see.
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GLIMPSES OF THE GREAT
Charles Darwin
K. Z. Islam
Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882) was an English naturalist who realized and presented compelling evidence that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors, through the process he called natural selection.
Darwin studied theology in Cambridge. But at that time doubts were in the air which went to the very heart of orthodox teaching and Darwin inevitably become involved with them. On the one hand was the accepted belief in the literal truth of the Old Testament, including the story in Genesis of how God created the world in six days with every living thing in it, and man 'from the dust to the ground'. It was even said that the work had begun at 9 a.m. on Sunday, 23 October 4004 BC and this date was printed in bibles.
But at this stage Darwin was highly gregarious young man when he came under the influence of a young professor of Botany, J.S. Henslow, with whom he became close friend. It was Henslow who in 1831 had a hand in an unusual proposition inviting him to become unpaid naturalist on board HMS Beagle a ship shortly to sail to conduct a survey of the South American Coast. After some hesitation Darwin sailed on the Beagle on 27 December 1831 when he was only 22 years old.
We have the advantage of Darwin's most readable book The Voyage of the Beagle to tell us what happened. There are two main threads in the narrative; one his inexhaustible delight in the vast panorama of nature opening before his eyes, his zeal in climbing mountains, collecting specimens, studying rocks, plants; and second the particular observations which eventually led to his most famous work, that bombshell in the Victorian world, The Origin of Species.
In the five year voyage the Beagle circumnavigated the globe. At many of the places Darwin visited he was able to make long excursion ashore and in an almost overwhelming mass of material to discover, piece by piece, strong pointers to a new world conflicting with the biblical once for all six day creation account, for instance, was the evidence of granite rocks along the coast of Brazil. Granite, it was believed, was made from materials heated under pressure.
Then there were the effects of an earthquake which he observed on the Chilean coast. The level of the land had been raised, in many places with sea shells still clinging to the rocks, and at Valparaiso they were found, due to previous upheavals, at a height even of thirteen hundred feet. Here clearly was evidence of constant change in the earth's surface.
He had already found more dramatic proof of the process in the animal kingdom. At Punta Alta in the Argentine he came on the bones of gigantic land animals embedded in mud and gravel, a giant sloth, a monster like a hippopotamus, the giant armadillo, a wild lama as big as a camel - nine creature in all which, strange though they were, had their equivalents in modern, smaller ones. Here again was evidence of change, and though biblical scholars might say the death of these animals was also evidence of the Flood, the Noah's Ark story did not tally. The present-day species were not the same as the old but had descended from them. There had been 'descent with modification', as it is called, and Darwin was bent on discovering how that arose. This was to be the theme of The Origin of Species.
Here Darwin saw the clue to the variations he had observed in living creatures and their course of development. He called it natural selection and allied it to the concept of the survival of the fittest. In brief this meant that in the plant and animal kingdoms the strong, those well adapted to their environment, would survive and multiply while the weak died out, thus producing ever more hardly species through a process of blind, but continuous, evolution.
Are the writings of Charles Darwin prediction of shape of things to come with the after affects of global warming?
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ALL POLITICAL LEADERS MUST UNITE
Regional cooperation needed to solve trans-boundary water sharing disputes
Abdur Rahman Khan
The political leadership of Bangladesh must unite with the spirit of Liberation War to attain her right on the common rivers originating outside the boundary. A regional cooperation is also needed to resolve the disputes on sharing trans-boundary river waters, said Atiqur Rahman Salu, Chairman of International Farakka Committee (IFC).
Stressing water and rivers as the lifeline for the survival of Bangladesh, Salu said that it was the responsibility of the political leaders to unite the people at this critical stage of national crisis.
Bhashani's Farakka march
During the War of Liberation, an all-party coordination committee was formed with Maulana Abdul Hamid Khana Bhashani when Awami League Chief and the majority party leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had been imprisoned in Pakistan, Salu recalled and said that the same Maulana Bhashani took the responsibility of leading the historic long march against Farakka Barrage when Ziaur Rahaman was the president of the country.
"Now, it is a rare chance for Sheikh Hasina's government to take the leadership in resolving the common river water crisis and ensure due share on the common rivers by involving the regional powers", Salu, a former student leaders and freedom fighter, told in an exclusive interview with The Holiday. He came to Dhaka to organize an IFC conference on Tipaimukh Dam.
Salu, a close associate of Maulana Bhashani --- whom he admires as the dreamer of the independence of Bangladesh --- is now residing in the United States and carrying forward a global campaign for Bangladesh's water problem and her rights on common rivers.
Glorious role
Recalling the glorious role played by the progressive forces in the war of liberation, Salu proudly mentioned that it was the progressive political forces who formally made the declaration for a "People's Democratic East Bengal" at the Paltan Maidan on February 22, 1970. Atiqur Rahman Salu read out the historic declaration at the rally attended by the students, workers and the citizens' groups.
"Presently, I am not associated with politics since I failed to adjust with the changed political situation in the post-independent Bangladesh. However, it does not disqualify me to serve the nation by other means and I can not disown my responsibility to serve my country", said Atiqur Rahman Salu, a central leader of the then East Pakistan Students Union (EPSU) and active organiser of the Liberation War of 1971.
Farakka seminar
In the United States, Salu, as the President of Bangladesh-American Public Affairs Forum (BAPAF), an all-party forum of Bangladeshi community, first organized a seminar on Farakka at the Columbia University (CU) on October 10, 1993. Representatives from the United Nations, the US Congressmen and water experts from different countries attended the seminar. It was effective in projecting the Farakka issue in the international forum and thus expose Indian design against Bangladesh, he continued.
IFC in NY
After the formation of IFC in New York (NY), the organizers continued to attend the seminars, symposia and environmental programmes in the USA and European countries to project the Bangladesh view points about sharing of trans-boundary rivers.
In 1998, IFC in cooperation with the Institution of Engineers, organised the Water Conference in Dhaka with the then Water resources Minister Abdur Razzak as the Chief guest. US Congressman Herb Klien attended the conference in Dhaka.
Again in January 2004, IFC was successful in pursuing the Co-chairman of Bangladesh caucus Joseph Crowly and Congressman Gregory Meeks to lobby for Bangladesh's water problems.
Long march to Chilmari
On March 4, 2005, IFC organised a long march to Chilmari in Kurigram protesting Indian initiative for diverting waters from common rivers by implementing its river linking project.
Immediately after the long march, and prior to Bangladesh visit of Chinese Prime Minister in 1995, the IFC leaders, Chairman Atiqur Rahman Salu and Secretary General Syed Tipu Sultan visited China and met the officials of Chinese Foreign Ministry and the Water Ministry to lobby for Bangladesh water issue.
"It is on record that during that visit, China for the first time signed a memorandum of understanding with Bangladesh to extend cooperation in the water sector and recognised Bangladesh's right to waters of upper riparian rivers", Salu said with emotion while narrating the role of IFC in promoting the causes of Bangladesh, particularly in water sharing issue.
He explained that Bangladesh must follow the examples of water sharing in the Danube River or the Mekong river to solve its problem with India.
Salu also referred to the dispute of the Colorado between USA and Mexico, and the dispute of the Columbia River between Canada and the USA.
Free electricity
The USA had to raise objections to Canada's initiative for producing hydro-electricity by constructing dam on the river Columbia, which is also flowing to USA. The dispute ended after Canada agreed to share electricity with the neighbour. The USA is now getting electricity from Colombia project free of cost.
Similarly, after a long dispute with Mexico, the USA agreed to provide clean water by setting up treatment plant on the Colorado River that the USA had continued to pollute by releasing waste chemicals.
"These examples of sharing should be followed in case of dispute regarding Bangladesh's common rivers with India," said Atiqur Rahman Salu.
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