Comments upset agenda for coming tour, jeopardise goodwill buildup
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s comments on Bangladesh to a group of media editors here last week have created such a storm of protest in Dhaka that they threaten the trips scheduled there later this month of both external affairs minister S M Krishna and Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Krishna is scheduled to make his first visit to Bangladesh on July 6-8. Gandhi is to go a visit there from July 25.
Several analysts have said the PM’s comments betray a lack of understanding in Delhi about its eastern neighbour. Considering it was Bangladesh PM Hasina’s party, the Awami League, which was assisted by Indira Gandhi in the formation of Bangladesh in 1971, the remarks have stunned the establishment, as well as the opposition, both here and in Dhaka.
A senior Congress leader, with a long history of dealing with Bangladesh, was said to be distressed by the “off-the-record” comments, which inexplicably found their way to the websites of the Prime Minister’s Office and the ministry of external affairs (MEA). They were quickly deleted yesterday, in an effort to staunch the rising outcry.
Before his comments were deleted, the PM had accepted, in his interaction with the editors that “with Bangladesh, our relations are quite good”.
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Then he went on to add: “But we must reckon that at least 25 per cent of the population of Bangladesh swear by the Jamaat-e-Islami and they are very anti-Indian, and they are in the clutches, many times, of the ISI (of Pakistan.) So, the political landscape in Bangladesh can change at any time. We do not know what these terrorist elements, who have a hold on the Jamaat-i-Islami elements in Bangladesh, can be up to.”
Reaction & reality
The damage control has hardly pacified matters in Bangladesh. The Daily Star, a top Bangladeshi newspaper, lambasted the PM and India in a hard-hitting editorial today.
Saying: “Dr Manmohan Singh's comments show a lack of understanding of Bangladesh. These also demonstrate a lack of confidence in the government and the stability of our political system. These have now been termed as off-the-record comments and not meant to be judgmental. Notwithstanding the deliberate damage control, we have to point out that there exists a serious lack of understanding on India's part about the reality in Bangladesh. There is a lot to learn from the Indian PM's remarks, even it were off-the-record; perhaps more so because they were off-the-record.”
Deb Mukherjee, a former high commissioner to Bangladesh from 1995-2000, pointed out that the PM’s comments were both “factually inaccurate and insensitive”. On the point about 25 per cent of Bangladeshis being influenced by the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami, Mukherjee said the Jamaat had never won more than nine per cent of the vote in any election there since 1971.
In 1996, the party had won just over eight per cent, its highest showing since Independence. In the 1986, 2001 and 2009 elections, it won about four per cent of the vote; in 1991, it won just about one per cent of the vote.
“The Jamaat-i-Islami must be laughing in Bangladesh today,” said Mukherjee sorrowfully. “Considering several of their leaders are in jail today because of their role in the assassination of Mujibur Rahman in 1975, the PM’s comments are truly ironic.”
He noted that on the question of insurgency and terrorism, Hasina’s government had arrested and handed back several terrorists, such as Arabinda Rajkhowa, who had been striking inside India from their bases in Bangladesh for several years. Even Paresh Barua, the dreaded military wing head of the United Liberation Front of Asom, who had disappeared inside Bangladesh for at least 15 years, had now been issued a summons.
Unlike Pakistan in the west, India’s eastern neighbour has moved quickly and far ahead in honouring its promises on terrorism, analysts said.
Sonia & Hasina
Under the circumstances, Sonia Gandhi would have to set the record straight and reassure Hasina that India was deeply privileged to have a steadfast friend like herself and remained committed to a long-term relationship with a friendly country like Bangladesh.
Sonia Gandhi arrives in Dhaka on July 25 to attend a conference on physically challenged and autistic children, and is expected to meet both Hasina and foreign minister Dipu Moni.
The chemistry between Sonia and Hasina was palpable during Hasina’s visit to Delhi in January 2010, when she was honoured with the Indira Gandhi Peace award. Hasina had brought her son, Joy, as well, to introduce him to Rahul Gandhi, in the obvious hope that the relationship between the two families would extend into the third generation.
In Dhaka, Hasina is to honour Gandhi with a citation which speaks of the critical role Indira Gandhi played during the 1971 war, which resulted in the creation of Bangladesh.
Task ahead
Analysts said they hoped Sonia Gandhi’s visit would mitigate the damage done by the PM’s comments last week, settle ruffled feathers and allow both sides to move on. But the analysts also mote that beneath the eloquent rhetoric the MEA puts out periodically is a history of broken promises on India’s part.
For example, when a cyclone devastated Bangladesh three years earlier, India promised to build a model village. That still had to see the light of day. When a severe food shortage afflicted Bangladesh a year before, Delhi promised 500,000 tonnes of rice. That consignment was still stuck in a series of tenders and other procurement issues.
Krishna’s visit, government sources said, will aim to be a historic one, especially as it paves the way for a visit by the PM later this year. But with the ground so charged today by the PM’s comments, the Hasina government will have to face the Opposition’s growing criticism on “selling out” to India. Krishna is likely to sign some pathbreaking initiatives that promote trade and connectivity, such as the sale of 250 Mw of electricity from the eastern Indian grid at a special price, as well as signal the opening of borders between Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. Delhi had not been keen to allow goods and people to move between these countries through India, but had recently come to terms with it.
There is also talk of a joint survey soon to resolve the problem of the people living in enclaves — 126 on the Indian side and 96 on the Bangladeshi side — and adverse possessions in each other’s countries. And, finally demarcate the 4,095-km, of which only 6.5 km remain to be done since the 1974 land boundary agreement between Indira Gandhi and Mujibur Rehman.