India's dealings with Bangladesh
Photo: banglawire.com
Interactions over time in myriad sectors show clearly how a mighty neighbour like India treats a smaller country like Bangladesh. Whatever little we export to India is always impeded by visible or hidden tariffs. On the other hand, India's huge export to Bangladesh ranging from pin to piano, so to speak, gobbles up our hard earned foreign exchange. As a lower riparian country Bangladesh has the right under international law to have a fair share of water downstream -- with 54 rivers originating from India crisscross Bangladesh before they pour into the Bay of Bengal. India perennially flouts such obligation and has a field day diverting waters building dam after dam without caring a fig. Examples are galore -- from Farakka to Tipaimukh to Teesta. What a horrific future lies in wait for an agrarian country like Bangladesh whose lifeline is water, one shudders to think. Bangladesh merrily ceded sovereignty over enclaves of Berubari and Angorpota in the early seventies pinning on India's commitment to cede Tin Bigha Corridor to marooned Bangladeshis of Dahogram. About wanton killing of innocent Bangladeshis along the common border by Indian border security forces -- the least said the better. India is a vast country and an emerging world power, economically and militarily. But it should not make a mistake about our independent spirit. Let nobody bully us indefinitely lest the sacrifices made by her in our War of Liberation might be misconstrued by our posterity.
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