Three Bangladeshi street children walk along a street with bags full of goods salvaged from garbage in Dhaka, 30 October 2007.by Mohammad Zainal Abedin, in Dhaka, to Sri Lanka Guardian
(December, 23, Dhaka, Sri Lanka Guardian) Indian efforts to maintain permanent military presence in Bangladesh, above all, turn it to a subservient vassal State outright after our war of liberation though were partially stumbled, Indian policymakers did not retreated from their original blueprint. They comprehended that it was not an easy task to swallow Bangladesh by muscle power—the traditional way of occupying a country, which was neither appropriate nor practicable in the changed international scenario. So they chalked out fresh strategies and intrigues to cripple Bangladesh politically, economically, psychologically, and culturally, which India and its intelligence agencies ably implement till date through their local tentacles.
The pro-India tilt of the helmsmen of our statecraft utterly failed to strengthen our sovereignty and ensure economic prosperity, by frustrating Indian designs. Rather they to assume and remain in power did not hesitate to hand over our vital and strategic interests to India one after another. Their outward and verbal sources of power are Bangladeshi people prior to election, but India becomes their inward power and inspiration as soon as they assume any responsible position to run the country.
Bangladesh in its 37-year of existence failed to stand on its own feet due to the multi-pronged problems one after another that India imposes on us due to the pro-India tilt of our leaders. No governments right from Sheikh Mujb to Fakharuddin Ahmed could rule the country facing no hazards manipulated by India -- from street and campus violence, and from arson and burn the industrial and business installations to political feuds.
To make Bangladesh totally dependent on and subservient to India, Indian expansionists ruined our education, culture, social value, economy, agriculture, industries. To frustrate national unity and irk chaos, if possible civil war, India fuels controversies that include Bangali versus Bangladeshi, freedom fighters versus razakars, secularists versus fundamentalists, anti-liberation versus pro-liberation forces, so on and so forth. These are being done to pull Bangladesh from behind its back. India designs to throw Bangladesh to such an awkward position so that it becomes dysfunctional and failed State goes beyond our ability to salvage it by ourselves so that Bangladeshis beg India to merge Bangladesh with India.
We the people, particularly the bureaucrats, students, teachers, intellectuals, journalists, business community, politicians, above all the Armed Forces, who directly and indirectly run and influence the country, should genuinely comprehend the danger that looms on us. Our time to solidify national unity and reconciliation and consensus sharply passes by. We have no room to allow our foes to use us. We should restudy the history why the Muslims sought for separate homelands through Lahore Resolutions. Our new generation should know under what circumstances, our forefathers opted to side with those Muslims who were unknown to and differed from them geographically, culturally, socially. It is not only our religion (Islam) that prompted the Bengalee Muslims to massively side with the Muslims of Northwestern regions of the British-India (today's Pakistan). Our forefathers finding no other way to get rid of the master-like misbehaviour, torture, exploitation and subjugation of their neighbouring Hindus were compelled to massively vote for single Pakistan. Their decision was so genuine that enabled us to secede from Pakistan and form another Muslim country, our great achievement—Bangladesh.
If our forefathers by being bewildered with the sweet words of the Hindu leaders like Gandhi, Nehru, Patel or even Moulana Abul Kalam Azad or Olama-e-Hind, we would never be able to struggle for our linguistic and separate political identities that led to the creation of independent Bangladesh. Our neighbouring Bengali-speaking Hindus of West Bengal have already lost their language, identity and even prosperity. Our all the ethnic nations living under Indian domination in Meghalaya, Assam, Tripura, and Mizoram just on the other sides of our border, now feel the bite of the mistake of their forefathers who trusting on the sweet assurances of the Indian leaders merged with India. They cannot get out of Indian claws and yokes despite their long armed struggle and sheding tears and bloods for six decades. We should also get lessons from the sufferings of the India's minority religious communities, particularly the Muslims. The fate of the Bengali speaking Muslims would have become far worse than their Kashmiri counterparts if our forefathers would have merged with India.
Indian leadership throughout the 60-year of partition of the subcontinent, remains busy in creating undesirable and unexpected situation inside Pakistan. After the creation of Bangladesh India gets encouraged to reverse our glorious history and achievements to pre-partition era in order to encage us under Indian fold. We are to remain vigil of Indian game. We have no room to handover our anymore strategically essential keys to India like transits, fort facilities, gas or coal-based investment, joint patrol in the bordering areas, open border trade, detour Asian Highway via Assam etc.
We must understand this bitter reality that whatever facilities India designs to get from us are directed to minimise and jeopardise our independence, as in the map of dreamy 'Awkhand Bharat' there is no existence of Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Nepal and even Bhutan. Chronologies and analysis of India's rude behaviour from looting Bangladesh to water blockading, from unilateral withdrawal of the waters of the international rivers to killing our people living in the bordering areas and from surfacing and fueling so-call Islamic extremism to sponsoring and imposing secession war, unequivocally justifies that India helped us not to keep us independent, rather to grab our country today or tomorrow. Like all other expansionist bullies India deliberately creates and imposes problems one after another on Bangladesh and keeps us busy to tackle them so that we cannot give attention to face and frustrate Indian design and uplift our position.
To deter and frustrate India's expansionist zeal and dream we should shun all types of internal debates and controversies and rivalries to gain personal petty interest and strengthen our national unity. We, in our lifetime, should build a prosperous and solid independent country for our future generation for which we fought. We must not forget that we left Pakistan to end foreign domination and exploitation, but not to become the slaves of India and allow her to dominate and exploit us. We must not forget what inhuman sorrows and sufferings and tortures our forefathers had to bear that were caused by our Hindu neighbours who kept them under their feet during the entire British period. The British were their (Muslims) rulers but the Hindus were their local masters.
This is for the first time in our known history that we the real sons of this soil rule ourselves. If we are not alert and cautious and accordingly work, we or our next generation will become the victims of Indian domination that will again make us or them the slaves of the Hindus. On August 20, 2004, Hindu leaders at a meeting of the Dhaka City Puja Celebration Committee held at Dhakershari Mandir expressed their anti-Muslim anguish saying, no Muslim is available to work in the house of the Hindus as servant. They said, "It is very pity that the Muslims do not come to work in the houses of the Hindus. This sorrowful situation started since 1947 (when a separate Muslim homeland came into being)." I think this open anguish of the Hindus is enough to imagine and comprehend the hidden reason why India disturbs and frustrates us in all fronts and the reason is very clear and clean that India does not believe in our separate independent existence and works to make us their slaves merging Bangladesh with India.
We cannot allow India anymore to dictate us and frustrate our independence. The more we will engage in quarrel and debate, the more chance India will get to undermine and undo our independence and sovereignty and enslave us. Let us comprehend and face Indian game and keep us from her domination and subjugation and build a prosperous Bangladesh for which we fought and sacrificed a lot. We should not allow others to become our mentors and shun policy of mortgaging our nation to grab power or remain in power.
Concluded
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