Strangers once we part
Blessed by mother nature with one of the most fertile, arable lands in the world, nature’s fickle nature is never so obvious as when its vagaries cause Bangladesh misfortune on almost a regular basis year after year. A large delta region washed regularly by the water (and soil) of the Himalayas, its biggest handicap is the ever-increasing mass of population that crowds into its sparse acreage. As if the natural vise was not enough, Bangladesh is hemmed in by the animosity of an hegemonistic and unforgiving neighbour. Once described as an “international basket case” by Henry Kissinger and called “Sonar (Golden) Bangla” by its population, the nation has been doing well enough by just keeping afloat in the rising red ink of indebtedness. From 1975 onwards, Bangladesh has made good progress but because of the rapid increase of its population, the overall impression has been of standing still, given Bangladesh’s continuing capacity of being prone to disasters, it has been a tremendous achievement.
With India contributing to the pressure on Bangladesh by open interference in its internal affairs, support of cross-border terrorism, officially inspired smuggling, control of the headwaters causing drought and floods in turn, etc, the late President Gen Ziaur Rahman initiated a move that would draw India and its neighbours into a forum for continuing dialogue on a multi-lateral basis and take the heat off from Bangladesh. He proposed an association of South Asian countries in 1979 called the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), a regular forum for inter-action, in political, social and economic fields on the pattern of the European Economic Community (EEC) and Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), eschewing confrontation on a bilateral basis among its members in the larger context of cooperation for all the peoples in the Club. India’s immediate perception of this proposal was that it was a forum where all its surrounding neighbours would come together (gang up) against India. Since all of them had problems with India, she delayed its assent till such time that the Charter would accept that unanimity rather than majority would evolve a consensus. In effect it gave India veto powers (which was theoretically available to all others also) knowing fully well that the others would not exercise their right as much as India would if it felt its vital national interests at risk. It also gave greater weightage to the economic portion of the relationship, something that almost none of the other States was prepared to accept as it would give the Indian economic powerhouse, itself protected by trade barriers, virtual economic domination over the region.
Gen Ziaur Rahman, the husband of Bangladesh’s present Prime Minister, Begum Khaleda Zia and one of the most honest Third World leaders to grace the face of the Earth, did not live to see his Army colleague and successor, President Ershad convene the first SAARC conference of leaders in Dhaka in 1985. Eight years and a couple of delayed annual conferences later, we came back to Dhaka for the Seventh Summit Conference. While SAARC continues to progress as a entity, its raison d’etre has been effectively sabotaged by the avarice and obduracy of India. One cannot discount the fact that at the functional level it has been useful but none of the major security concerns of India’s neighbours have been addressed in any manner whatsoever. Given the cover of SAARC against international recriminations of its hegemonistic designs, India has played havoc with each of its neighbours. While maintaining the facade of camaraderie and dialogue for international consumption that SAARC gives to her, India has increasingly violated the sanctity and sovereignty of each of its neighbours, in effect SAARC has been an open licence to India to go berserk in the pursuance of its grand design in South Asia and neighbouring regions. No other country in the world other than Nazi Germany pre-World War II and Israel have had so many problems with its neighbours.
Within its limitations the host country did its best for the smooth functioning of the Seventh Summit. The organisation was upto international standards and the charming PM of Bangladesh made for an effective Chairperson. The obvious security concerns imposed on all other considerations. While all the delegations except for the Indians seemed to mix well with each other, the whole point of visiting the host country was to display togetherness, this was lost behind overlapping security cordons. While a lot of goodwill was generated in the rhetoric on display, the undercurrent of tension was quite visible. Narasimha Rao’s cold initial handshake and dismissively turning away from a beaming Nawaz Sharif underscored the ice forming at the edges, in all fairness it could be tiredness at the futility of it all. The lack-lustre nature of the Indian PM’s proforma speech highlighted the low esteem that India held SAARC in. Rao brightened up a little bit at the mention of the proposed South Asian Preferential Trade Agreement (SAPTA) mainly because it militates in India’s favour as the dominant trade partner in the region. Premadasa started beautifully in Sinhalese and continued in Bangladeshi much to the approval (and amusement) of the Bangladeshi in the audience, however when he continued in English beyond 10-15 minutes he seemed to belabour every point and lost the respect of the restive audience.
There were a number of posters all over Dhaka showing late Zia as the “Dreamer of SAARC”. Fourteen years later, Zia’s dream may have become an organization in body, in its soul it has tended to become a nightmare for the people living in the South Asian region. One does not doubt for an instant that the population of the nationalities comprising India want to live in peace and tranquility, unfortunately the power elite do not share their views on harmony and togetherness, their interest lies in imposing pure hegemony on all the races and religions in the region. To carry out their deadly purpose, India gave birth in the 60s to a terrorist organisation called Research and Analytical Wing (RAW). Ostensibly created for foreign intelligence, in short order RAW has become one of the most bloody and violent government organisations ever created by mankind. Nowhere is its bloody hand more visible than in Sri Lanka. Once a haven for peace and tranquillity, this island heaven on earth has been transformed into a total battleground. The biggest bomb explosions in history have taken place in Sri Lanka and have been the handiwork of RAW. Prabhakaran, Srinavasaran etc are all RAW trained operatives, like Bhindranwala before them they eventually became monsters that went out of the control of RAW and as monsters are apt to do, they turned eventually on India bringing home to roost the terrorism India were exporting in the first place. During the 80s, RAW collaborated closely with KHAD, the forerunner of Afghan intelligence agency WAD, in terror bombings in Pakistan. Pakistan seem to have been divided geographically into two regions, Balochistan and NWFP being looked after by KHAD while Punjab mostly and Sindh formed the area of operations of RAW. RAW is responsible for exploding thousands of bombs in Sindh and a few hundreds in Punjab in the last decade, thousands having been killed or maimed because of this terror campaign. On a smaller scale the campaign still continues unabated, scaled down mainly due to the overwhelming presence of the Pakistan Army because of Operation Clean Up in Sindh.
One does not see India curtailing the capacity of RAW to create mayhem at will. A stage has been probably reached where RAW has become a State within a State having a life and command structure of its own. As long as organisations like RAW are free to spread disaster and confusion, there is no point in having organisations like SAARC. Associations are formed out of goodwill for each other, where is the goodwill in India for its neighbours? A stage has come where India has virtually forced Bhutan, Nepal and Maldives into line and is browbeating Bangladesh and Sri Lanka at will. From a position of fearing that the other nations would “gang up” against her, India has turned this into a forum for ganging up against Pakistan. With due respects to the leaders of other nations, even their rhetoric has started to contain key phrases conducive to Indian policy. It is an edifying sight to see a royal blood like King Wangchuk resort to behaving like a puppet on a string while talking about “terrorism sweeping across the region” in his inaugural speech. One could almost feel Narasimha Rao smirk at the thrust of India’s present campaign against Pakistan being annunciated by a surrogate. The “consensus” rule for adaptation of any resolution that Pakistan has been trying to overturn in favour of a majority vote has in fact come to Pakistan’s rescue. Can you imagine how it would look internationally to have a resolution passed by a regional body like SAARC condemning Pakistan for terrorism in other countries? On the other hand, the other nations are forced to eat crow and not even mention the machinations of RAW in their own countries, what to talk about Pakistan.
In the printed programme of bilateral talks between the PMs, India had not included Pakistan on the second and Concluding day of the Conference. Both All India Radio (AIR) and AIR’s representative serving in BBC, Mark Tully, duly reported the “snub”. In fact Rao did meet with Nawaz Sharif for 40 minutes before going to the Concluding Session, the reported “snub” was a patent falsehood which the Indian news media had to scramble to correct later, even begging PTV cameramen and crew for their tapes of the event. The AIR and BBC report had jumped the gun, it seems a “snub’ had been planned for but for some reason did not materialize.
It is time to put SAARC on hold. Pakistan should have the deepest possible bilateral relationship with Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, to a lesser degree with Nepal and the Maldives. We should forget Bhutan, it has no real meaning for us except to act as India’s mouthpiece. It was quite apparent that the present charter of SAARC makes it increasingly an instrument of India to register its dominance of the region. Our future is with ECO and we should concentrate on it, putting our major resources into the effort to augment its strength. Taking nothing away from the efforts of the Bangladesh Government to hold a successful conference, the fact that the Conference was held at all was a success in itself. One must conclude pragmatically that the whole exercise was an exercise in futility, in the face of Indian obduracy SAARC is an unnecessary waste of time. The strong perception that comes from SAARC was that we are not strangers when we meet but we are certainly strangers once we part.
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