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Bangladesh - India Relation |
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India
helped our liberation war for India’s interest. |
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Mohammad Zainal Abedin
What language, Pinak Ranjan Chokrabartee, the Indian
High
Commission in Bangladesh, who has already been branded
by some
analysts as Indian Governor in Bangladesh, for his naked
and direct
dictation to Bangladesh, should use condemning Indian
plunder in
Bangladesh in 1971? He said Bangladesh could not get its
independence so early lest India militarily involved
itself in our
war of liberation. Through its participation in our war
of
liberation India, in the truest sense of the term, as
if, restarted
the Maratha cavalry attacks of 18th century Bengal.
India now
repeats the same in Bangladesh. It only changed the
version and
technique of plundering Bangladesh. Maratha cavalry
attacked Bengal
in broad daylight and looted, but modern Indian bandits
loot
Bangladesh under the cover of friendship. Pinak claimed
that
without Indian military involvement Bangladesh
liberation war could
be prolonged. I fully agreed with his comment. But
Indian policies
and activities over the last 37 years uncovered the
truth that
India militarily involved in our war of liberation not
for our
sake, but entirely for the sake of India’s hegemonic and
economic
interest. The events and incidents that occurred since
1972 prove
that it could be better for Bangladesh if we could
liberate our
country ourselves. India did not allow us to be
liberated without
Indian assistance.
Indians do not have any legal and moral rights to claim
that it
liberated Bangladesh. When we were on the verge of
victory and
liberated about 99 per cent portion of Bangladesh,
except some
pockets of urban areas, India declared war against
Pakistan. When
we, the freedom fighters, made the defeat of the
Pakistan forces
inevitable, India, for a number of ulterior reasons,
directly
involved in this war under the disguise of so-called
allied forces.
India earlier fought twice with Pakistan, but suffered
shameful
defeat. In 1971 India though claimed its victory over
Pakistan in
Bangladesh, its forces could not capture even a district
in West
Pakistan, rather hundreds of thousands of Indian
soldiers were
captured by Pakistani troops and many Indian soldiers
surrendered
to Pakistan. So the so-called victory of Indian army in
Bangladesh
against Pakistan was possible due to the Bangladeshis in
general
and the freedom fighters in particular. Pinak directly
admitted
that the freedom fighter could liberate the country,
however, later
on. Yes, we the freedom fighters desired so. We never
wanted
India’s direct military involvement in our war of
liberation. Our
leaders failed to foresee the ultimate outcome of Indian
friendship
would be so sour, bitter and suicidal. If they could
anticipate in
what treacherous way India, in the name of friendship,
would behave
with us they would prefer to die, rather agreeing to
take India’s
military assistance. It is now known to all that India
compelled
the then revolutionary government of Bangladesh, exiled
in India,
to sign in an uneven agreement that paved the way for
India to
invade Bangladesh under the cover of allied forces. Our
fake
friends now through their overt and covert designs and
hegemonic
policies dream to make us their slaves. We are going to
lose our
independence to India. During Pakistan period we could
raise
slogans against Pakistani exploitation and we could
demand to stop
such exploitation. Now India not only exploits us more
nakedly, but
also ruins our country applying many-fold designs. Our
leaders
could not imagine that after the dismemberment of
Pakistan, India
would pose to become our master under the cover of
friendship and
conspire to annex our country to India.
If we were allowed to liberate our country ourselves,
India would
not get the chance to loot our country after 16th
December that
included machineries and accessories of jute mills,
textile mills,
sugar mills, steel mills and their raw materials stored
in the
godowns, food, banks, markets, schools, colleges,
universities,
even residential houses and offices, even toilet
materials of worth
Tk. 90,000 crores. On the other hand, India
misappropriated cash
money and relief materials like food, baby food,
clothes, blankets,
medicines, etc., that were donated by several
international
agencies and groups for the Bangladeshi refugees
sheltered in India
in 1971. India took away all the arms and ammunitions,
equipment
and military-related materials to India which, were
later
distributed among the three branches of Indian armed
forces. Poor
India boomed within years with the money that the Indian
army
looted after 16th December. India arrested all the
93,000 soldiers
of Pakistan to India and used them as tool to release
the Indian
soldiers arrested in Pakistan in 1971. Besides, India
compelled
Pakistan to sign uneven treaty in exchange of releasing
Pakistani
troops from Indian jails. It is difficult to calculate
how many
billions of dollars India looted from Bangladesh through
monopoly
business since 1972. Through the independence war of
Bangladesh
India was immensely benefited economically, militarily,
strategically, and internationally. So India involved in
our war
of liberation was for Indian interest, not for us.
India now keeps Bangladesh economically poor and shaky
and
politically disunited and disturbed. India undertook
many criminal
policies in order to make Bangladesh initially a
subservient
country and finally a part of India. It is never
possible to
present statistics and the extent of property worth of
how many
billions dollars were damaged by India’s overt and
covert
subversive activities in Bangladesh. None has the actual
records
how many billions of dollars Bangladesh lost in its
agriculture,
fishery, communication, industry, health and housing
sectors due to
India’s blockade of water during the dry season and
flooding it
during the rainy season. It is equally difficult to
enumerate how
much amount of money Bangladesh lost over the years due
to Indian
sabotage and subversive activities. All these might not
be
possible, if we did not take Indian help in 1971. Pinak
Ranjan or
Jacob or all other Indians should remain grateful to us
as it was
our liberation war that paved way for India to emerge
economically
solvent, militarily strong and regionally and
strategically
powerful.* (Mohammad Zainal Abedin is a Bangladeshi
journalist &
freedom fighters.) |
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