Interplay of harmony and discord
Shahid Alam studies an assessment of India-Bangladesh relations
Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh, in a moment of pique, had once famously declared, in reference to Bangladesh, that "we can choose our friends, but we cannot choose our neighbours." How true! Bangladesh can, of course, turn the lament around, and that will quite faithfully reflect the roller coaster ride that the state of bilateral relations between Dhaka and New Delhi has undergone since the substantially smaller neighbour emerged as a sovereign independent country. Hemayetuddin, a retired foreign secretary of Bangladesh, and currently working as a director general at OIC, did two tours of duty on his country's behalf to its very large neighbour, first as a junior diplomat, and then as High Commissioner. A Neighbourly Affair: Assignment India is Hemayetuddin's account of his, as much as the Bangladesh government's, diplomatic engagement with India, a country that obviously fascinates him. There is a liberal dose of personal anecdotes with diverse personalities, but there is also a good deal of bilateral foreign policy issues that serve to highlight the seesaw nature of relations between Dhaka and New Delhi. From the Indian perspective, the author finds, an irritant has been that Bangladesh "never fully acknowledged the debt we owed to them for their active moral and military support in our war of liberation. This view was shared by most Indians, including their leaders." While acknowledging that "we do indeed owe India a debt of eternal gratitude for standing by us when we needed a friend more than ever," Hemayetuddin also proposes a tantalizing "what if": "A longer struggle (for Bangladesh's independence) without India's intervention in fact could have contributed to better later day relationship between the two countries in which the element of gratitude would not have featured that prominently in our bilateral relations." The author had a taste of another aggravation that India is bugged by regarding Bangladesh from the highly influential National Security Advisor and Principal Secretary to then Indian premier Atal Behari Vajpayee, Brajesh Mishra, who bluntly told him that "there were very strong "anti-Indian" sentiments in Bangladesh and added that this had prevailed irrespective of whichever political party was in power in Bangladesh." Unless any substantial reconfiguration of territorial boundaries occurs in the future, India will hang as an eternal Sword of Damocles over Bangladesh, and the smaller state will have to endure living in the shadow of a big neighbour with whom relations will not always be smooth. There will be demands made by India in its own national interest that Bangladesh may or may not find palatable, or even feasible, for political or economic reasons. Mishra had, in his official meeting with Hemayetuddin, broadly hinted at confidence building measures (in favour of India, naturally) that Bangladesh could take, like handing over the jailed ULFA leader Anup Chetia, signing a bilateral FTA, export of gas to India, and allowing overland transit facilities. A theme that is discernible in the book, one that often rankles the general Bangladeshi, is the implied, as well as overt, big brotherly attitude of Indian officialdom towards the smaller neighbour. Hemayetuddin recounts how he was formally told by the Indian External Affairs Ministry that he would not get, nor should he pursue, any meeting with the Indian prime minister, while the Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka seemed to have easy access to the Bangladeshi premier. That says as much about Indian attitude as about the self-imposed indignity of the high level Bangladeshi leadership. Hemayetuddin believes (correctly, in my view) that the major impediment towards improving bilateral relations is the issue of security. New Delhi is particularly bothered about Dhaka allegedly sheltering Indian militants and insurgents and infiltration from Bangladesh, while Dhaka's concern centers around the armed insurgency of the Shanti Bahini operating from safe havens in Tripura, the separatist Swadheen Bangabhumi Andolon based in India, sanctuary of criminals and anti-Bangladeshi elements in that country, and smuggling of large quantities of drugs into Bangladesh.These, and other, issues work against the establishment of good neighbourly relations, and downplay the fact that Bangladesh is the largest market for Indian exports in South Asia, or that it has the largest number of tourists visiting that country, or that Bangladeshis spend a huge amount of money in Indian shopping malls, hospitals, or educational institutions. For its part, the author notes, Bangladeshi paranoia regarding India has not helped in boosting trust and confidence, while the country actually loses out on potentially beneficial ventures. He cites the instance of Dhaka's decision not to sign the Asian Highway Agreement that was partly "motivated by concerns of transit facilities to India although it had little to do with it." In his view, "it was a setback as it not only isolated Bangladesh from the mainstream of the transnational road communication network of the present and of the future, but also because the very reasons cited for not signing the Agreement could be resolved only on becoming a signatory." Regarding the unresolved issue of the un-demarcated 6.5 km boundary between the two countries, Hemayetuddin ruefully concludes that "it is a lingering ulcer in bilateral relations…and looks as though it would never be resolved." He also dwells on the thorny issue of water-sharing and India's planned river linking project. While he mentions the efforts of Bangladesh Paribesh Andolon and other organizations in voicing the concerns of Dhaka, evidence suggests that individuals and organizations within India played an earlier and more crucial role in making the Indian government place on hold the river linking project. A prominent Indian environmentalist, Sudhirindar Sharma, exemplifies the thoughts and travails of fellow-Indian travelers when he writes about the river linking proposition: "The politicization of water through this mega-project will have far-reaching consequences on the access to water and the price people will pay for getting it. In a dangerous trend, narrow political interests have brought inter-basin transfer of waters from the technical domain into the political arena." Hemayetuddin, who, refreshingly, often pulls no punches when stating his position, even if his views could be challenged, has a couple of astute observations that the reader might find disturbing. One is the media, the author's designated "villain": "The media in both the countries would never allow an incident or development involving bilateral relations to go unreported…. My regret…was that I found that even the most reputed newspapers that claimed objectivity would frequently give a twist that would make the report opinionated and a misrepresentation of the facts." Another is that "the Track II diplomacy for improving relations between Bangladesh and India was not going to lead anywhere because of the emotions and deep mistrust between the two sides." And an amusing one: "I wanted to get out of Bangkok as I was quite fed up attending our Ministers and lesser VIPs who would not miss an opportunity to transit in Bangkok for pleasure, medical treatment or personal business…." A Neighbourly Affair is, by the author's admission, "not a work of research but a rambling narration…of events and description of persons that came in and contributed…to the course of the affair." It is generally as he claims, but there are issues of vital importance to the bilateral relations between New Delhi and Dhaka that he brings up and discusses from the point of view of his own personal involvement and other factors that have had significant impact on them. In the end, one would be inclined to lend support to his bewilderment as to "why our two countries could not invest in the tremendous goodwill that came out of the bloody war of Liberation that we fought together and many opportunities that came in the way thereafter to cash (in) on that goodwill."
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