Our neighbour to the East - Bangladesh

It is in our interest to strengthen trade and cultural ties with Bangladesh

In our continuing preoccupation with Pakistan, we tend to forget our strategic neighbour to the east, viz. Bangladesh, which is almost taken for granted.

Yet the potential benefits of lasting cooperation with Bangladesh are far greater. To understand the distinction between Pakistan and Bangladesh, it is worthwhile to recall the history of the last few decades.

The root cause of resentment between Muslims and Hindus in undivided Bengal was not so much due to religion but due to social and economic disparities.

When the British dispossessed Muslim nawabs and handed over their estates in Bengal to Hindu zamindars, they chose to live in feudal style in Calcutta while Muslim tenant farmers worked on their land in East Bengal.

This was the root cause of the alienation of Muslims in Bengal and their demand for a separate Muslim state. So Bengali Muslims were thrilled when Pakistan was created in 1947.

However their disillusionment with the rulers of Pakistan started very soon thereafter, in 1948, when Jinnah declared Urdu as the national language of Pakistan.

For any Bengali (whether Hindu or Muslim), his language is as sacrosanct as his religion. Jinnah's declaration about Urdu hurt Bengali pride. By 1952 it became clear to the East Pakistanis that West Pakistan's Punjabis had replaced the British as their rulers.

Resentment built up and in 1966 it found a champion in Mujib-ur Rehman. Initially, he demanded only greater autonomy for East Pakistan under a federal structure. But the huge cyclone and tidal wave in 1970 changed the course of events.

While thousands perished in East Pakistan, the West Pakistani authorities did nothing for them. In the same year, there were elections to the Federal Parliament. Mujib's Awami League won the majority of seats.

But the Punjabi elite, which ruled Pakistan, hesitated to hand over power to him. That provoked the movement for independence. But even at that stage Mujib was not considering an independent state.

Pakistan's response was to jump the gun, imprison Mujib and crack down on the people. The repression unleashed under Yahya Khan led to the birth of Bangladesh in December 1971, with the help of India.

But once Mujib was in power, things began to deteriorate. People who earlier collaborated with Pakistan surrounded Mujib. He declared general amnesty for all crimes committed under Yahya Khan. Awami League people and army personnel indulged in smuggling with immunity, Mujib's own son was found to be involved.

Finally in August 1975, Mujib-ur Rehman was betrayed by his army and shot in his own house, along with members of his family. Only his daughter Hasina was abroad and therefore survived. Yet Awami League MPs passed a motion indemnifying Mujib's killers!

More coups and counter-coups followed before a democratic change of guard became the norm. Thus Bangladesh has had a traumatic history.

It is an irony of history that liberators are often hated by the liberated. Twice during the last century, the Americans liberated France from German occupation and the threat of destruction.

But today, the French are friendlier with the Germans who occupied them, than with the Americans! Bangladesh's suspicion and fear of India as a bigger power is somewhat similar.

It is also not uncommon for countries to blame their larger neighbours for their own setbacks. Like Canadians blaming the US for everything that goes wrong in their country, Bangladeshis tend to blame India for most of their problems.

Most Bangladeshis of the older generation conveniently forget history and blame India even for the floods and the droughts that occur alternately in their country!

But the younger generation of Bangladeshis sees India making great strides and wants to collaborate and move ahead with India. Some of the specific areas of cooperation can be identified as follows :

Power generation: Instead of piping gas from Bangladesh to India, companies from India like Reliance and Tata Power can invest in generating power, using Bangladesh gas, and transmit the power to power deficit regions of India.

The new Electricity Act in India facilitates this. This would be cheaper than importing gas. More importantly, it will be more politically acceptable in Bangladesh.

Manufacture of consumer products: With a population of 130 million, there is a huge market in Bangladesh for consumer durables like TV sets, refrigerators, motorbikes, small cars, etc. At present, 40 per cent of TV sets in Bangladesh are imported from China. Indian companies can easily replace China in this market.

Already the smaller taxis in Dhaka are Maruti 800s. Why shouldn't Indian companies make motorbikes and cars in Bangladesh, to export into India and other countries? The successful experience of Marico, an Indian company making Parachute hair oil in Bangladesh, has shown the way.

Collaboration in water management: Between India and Bangladesh, there is enough water in the Ganga and the Brahmaputra to irrigate the whole of North India and Bangladesh. Yet both countries alternate between flood and famine, despite having fertile soils.

An India-Bangladesh Water Authority could be formed to construct dams, irrigation canals and hydel projects. These could bring prosperity to almost 500 million inhabitants. India has the technical talent and experience as well as the financial credibility.

In Suresh Prabhu we also have a competent professional who already heads the river linking project. The economic benefits to Bangladesh will be tremendous.

The benefit to India will also be substantial, but most importantly India will have on its eastern flank a more prosperous Bangladesh from where there will be no need for people to migrate clandestinely into our country. It can lead to a common market, which will benefit consumers and investors on both sides.

Mr Vajpayee should take the initiative to set up such an India-Bangladesh Water Authority.

Improve the balance of trade: India exports goods worth $ 2 billion to Bangladesh, whereas Bangladesh is able to export only about $ 100 million worth of goods to India. To sustain a long-term trade relationship, it is necessary to redress this imbalance by India importing more goods and services from Bangladesh.

To achieve this, Indian companies have to be encouraged to invest in Bangladesh. One obvious area is of textiles. Whereas India has cotton and a sophisticated textile industry, Bangladesh has a thriving garment industry that is exporting to the US and Europe.

Even after the abolition of quotas in 2005, Bangladesh may get preferential treatment. They have a large number of well trained young garment workers whose wages are much lower than the ones in India, giving them a competitive advantage.

It should not be difficult for the government to give a special tax treatment for investments in Bangladesh by Indian companies, it will create the necessary incentive for this kind of collaborative projects to take off.

If India does not take the initiative and adopt some of the above recommendations or similar ones, there is a danger that Bangladesh will be compelled to look further east, to Malaysia and China. The former may strengthen Islamic tendencies and the latter may encourage the latent phobia towards a bigger neighbour.

Both will be against India's interests. Therefore, we must change our approach to Bangladesh. About 12 per cent of its population is Hindu, almost the same as the proportion of Muslims in India. While they are not prominent in government or military service, many of them are very successful in the professions.

Indian press and media should take greater note of the progress that country has made. In 1971 they had 80 per cent of their population below the poverty line, now it is only 40 per cent.

The literacy level was 25 per cent, now it is 60 per cent. Population growth rate was 3.3 per cent, now it may be under 2 per cent. Bangladesh is no more a basket case. It is on the move. We have to think of what Bangladesh can be in the future "" not of what it was in the past or even what it is now.