The instant inspiration for writing this article is the timely proposed resolution introduced in the US House of Representatives on March 16, 2021 commemorating the 50th anniversary of Bangladesh’s independence. I appreciate the US’s latest initiative, which according to my understanding, has far-reaching consequences.
It is an irony of fate that Bangladesh borders with such a hawkish country, that outwardly claims it as a so-called ‘blood-bond friend’, but clandestinely a dangerous foe. India frustrated us because India used us as tools for its self-interest.
India divided and ruled us, breaching the solid unity of the freedom fighters to put pressure on the exile government in India, to compel it to sign a subservient treaty to keep Bangladesh under its occupation when it would be liberated.
The people of Bangladesh went on a bloody war to achieve their independence to enjoy democracy and end foreign domination and exploitation.
But India appeared before us as a cruel and worse betrayer and exploiter, one which superseded the British imperialists in all fields and paled the Pakistani exploitation of 23 years just within less than a year in 1971.
During the liberation war, India misappropriated the lion’s share of the assistance, foods, medicines, housing materials, daily necessaries, even arms and explosives donated by foreign countries and international agencies, including the UN.
India, since 1971, has been exposing its ugly face and emerged as a foe. It shattered the hopes and aspirations of Bangladeshis through varieties of cunning designs.
India was always scared of Sheikh Mujib for its territorial integrity. Such a popular leader might have emerged as a threat to India and its longstanding design of implementing Akhand Bharat. So, Indian policymakers opted to weaken the newly installed government so that it could gradually dominate it to implement its long-term hidden intrigues. It deterred the new government from taking independent external and internal policies defying India’s clandestine long-term agenda centering on Bangladesh.
India divided Mujib’s followers and within a year, floated a counterparty that was a heavy blow on his administration. India printed fake paper currency for Bangladesh to create inflation, let loose smuggled goods from and to Bangladesh, created clandestine armed groups to destabilize social life and destroyed the economy setting fire to mills and factories, removed the academic atmosphere from educational institutions, and instigated Mujib to govern Bangladesh under a one-party rule. All these antics were ruinous for a highly popular leader and isolated him from the common people who broke Pakistan to empower him as their Prime Minister. He also lost his international credibility and acceptability. India transformed a hero to a villain.
Still, to destabilize Bangladesh, India enjoyed the support of its mentor the defunct Soviet Union, and staged a military coup to kill him, but cunningly blamed the western democracies, including Pakistan, for such gruesome and evil deeds.
Later, staging coup after coup, Indira Gandhi killed President Ziaur Rahman, the last patriotic and popular leader, who had also acceptability around the world. His assassination eased the way for India to expand its paws into Bangladesh to wither away democracy, creating an anarchic, bloody situation and installed Sheikh Hasina to power in 2009.
India destroyed democracy in Bangladesh and turned it into a showy mockery and drama among the pro-India elements, who are less than 20 percent of the total population. RAW agents are now all over Bangladesh. They supervise and control everything, from urban to remote villages. They frame the educational syllabus and control examinations.
India is using its government and its agencies to launch a proxy war against the political parties and patriotic young generation of Bangladesh who are desperate to protect their country from Indian paws.
These groups of people are baselessly branded as Islamic militants who demand democratic rights and end one-party rule. Many of them were killed, kidnapped, missed, tortured, and jailed. Custodial deaths and deaths in jails occur frequently in Bangladesh. If an international investigation is conducted to find out the extent of extrajudicial and deliberate killings since 2009, it will expose horrible stories. India is solely responsible for such mass killings, as it wants only those who are submissive to it and those who welcome the one-party, one-man rule imposed by it to finally merge Bangladesh with it.
India has already used Sheikh Hasina to sign many pacts, agreements, treaties or MoUs (Memorandums of Understanding) that, according to analysts and observers, if India is not bridled, Bangladesh will become like defunct Sikkim.
The Sheikh Hasina government, for its continuation and reelection, depends not on the people, but rather on India. Availing such isolation, India compelled Hasina to sign numerous monopolized, controversial treaties that are entirely advantageous to India at the cost of Bangladesh, violating even her father, Sheikh Mujib’s foreign policy.
Bangladeshis feel that the American friendship with India is a curse for its separate existence, sovereignty, and independence. This is because the US encourages India to establish itself as the master of smaller countries in the South Asian region.
Bangladeshis strongly believe India dares to impose autocracy on Bangladesh and to turn it into its satellite using American friendship. So, America should stop this and rather play a vital role in restoring democracy in Bangladesh that will help preserve human rights, freedom of speech and press, dignity of women and end religious persecution and all other violence.
Being frustrated, Bangladeshis, who are inherently and psychologically inclined to America, now consider China as a more reliable power to secure their independence and save their country from the clutches of India. I believe that the Biden administration is proceeding in that direction, which was seen in the historical resolutions.
Commemorating the 50th anniversary of Bangladesh’s independence, historical resolutions were introduced in the US House of Representative on March 16, 2021 that recognize “the region of Bengal in South Asia is home to an ancient civilization with a rich cultural and literary tradition”; “the 1947 partition of India created an East Bengal province,—-became East Pakistan”; “on March 26, 1971, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared Bangladesh’s independence from West Pakistan”.
This is inaccurate. The people of the then East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, on the following day, heard the voice of late President Ziaur Rahman, who declared the independence of Bangladesh. All international media, including Voice of America, BBC, etc. covered the same. If Sheikh Mujib did it from West Pakistan, it remained unknown and uncovered.
Another resolution says, “in December 1971, following a nine-month long war that resulted in millions of displaced people and deaths, the Pakistani Army surrendered to Indian and Bangladeshi allied forces.” This resolution is unique and totally denounces India’s falsity that the Bangladesh War of Liberation was a war between India and Pakistan. This resolution testifies that India’s claim is untrue.
India, without our invitation, voluntarily came to assist us when we, the freedom fighters, drove away the Pakistani forces out of the rural areas and small towns and compelled them to confine and take shelter inside the cantonments and major cities. India committed another falsity claiming that the Pakistan defense forces surrendered to Indian forces, which is not true. Proposed resolution confirmed that Pakistani forces surrendered to the allied forces that included forces of Bangladesh and India. This resolution also justifies that India has no logic to celebrate the 16th. of December as its victory day since people of East Pakistan went to war against West Pakistan. If the East Pakistanis didn’t go on war, India could never cede Pakistan. So, only Bangladesh, and not India, has the legal and sole right to celebrate the 16th. of December as its Victory Day.
Another most significant resolution honors and values our independence and interlinks it to that of America one. Quoting Edward F. Kendy, this resolution recollects, ‘on February 14, 1972, the late Senator Edward F. Kennedy at a speech at Dhaka University said, ‘‘The struggle of the people of Bangladesh . . . evokes the greatest memories of our past’’ and exemplifies a shared love of freedom with the American people.”
All the resolutions reaffirm and indicate that the United States will not allow India to swallow Bangladesh. These resolutions are very encouraging and inspirational for Bangladesh. It is hoped that the US will honor and akin to these resolutions in practice to make South Asia a zone of peace.
American policymakers, especially President Biden’s administration, for the sake of the US’s long-term geo-strategic interest should no longer allow India to misuse American friendship in expanding its hegemonic paws over the smaller countries of the South Asian region.
During the Cold War, India acted as the pawn of the defunct Soviet Union and still tilts to it, thus it stands against American policy. When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan or Russia invaded Ukraine, India sided with it. India even refrained from condemning the genocide in Arakan and the Myanmar military coup that toppled the Aung Sang Suu Kyi government.
When the US asked India not to buy Russian S-400 air defense systems, India just ignored it giving little value to the suggestion.
India’s former defense minister, Nirmala Sitharaman in 2018 arrogantly said that the US cannot stop the deal of buying the missile for which India already paid $8.5 million. India still goes ahead to collect 150 missile spending about $5 billion.
India has its own agenda of availing American friendship that contradicts US policy and vision. The US virtually has no room to trust India. Indian history proves that it can betray its allies anytime and even can stand against them.
Under such a situation the US, being the guardian of democracy and peace, has a moral responsibility to deter India from interfering in the internal and external affairs of its neighboring countries. It is alleged that India misuses American friendship to establish its own lordship over the South Asian countries. Such a policy will jeopardize the American long-term geo-strategic interest and may prompt these countries to lean towards China to deter India’s domination and expansion.
India’s hobnobbing with the US is directed to scare the neighboring countries and get more and more American investment to overcome its third world characteristics. It dreams of emerging as the guardian not of Asia, but also the whole world. It already objected against the American base in the Diego Garcia Island, situated 1,116 miles off India’s Southwest coast of Kanyakumari. In the nineties, I went through an article of Subramanian Swamy, an Indian politician, who predicted that a day would come when India would not allow the US to freely enter the Indian Ocean. India considers the whole of the Indian Ocean as its own lake, though 54 countries, including Bangladesh, share its coast.
Considering India’s aggressive hegemonic dreams and designs, the US should bridle India and allow other South Asian countries to survive, protecting their sovereignty and territorial integrity. If India is not halted, South Asia may face a nuclear confrontation, which will be disastrous for human civilization.
*The writer is a Bangladesh-origin American journalist and researcher.
March 22, 2021
The viewpoints expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect the opinions, viewpoints and editorial policies of Aequitas Review.
