Indian dominance in South Asia

Kathmandu: India and Bangladesh have set the ball rolling in the South Asian region.

Why sovereign Pakistan was attacked in the “war of liberation” by the entire Indian regime’s combined strength is taking a formal shape, if Nepali observers are correct in their assessment and have understood the Indian “motive” behind the scene in the creation of Bangladesh by splitting Pakistan in the seventies. The Indian war on Pakistan was given a decorative cover of “war of liberation” which was not for those who are accustomed to the Indian trickery.

Nationalist Bangladeshi people take it as a “freedom struggle” and they fought as “freedom fighters”.

The Indian idea was to have an “obedient” nation next door to India wherein India preferred men or women shall be told to rule the newly emerged nation. Beginning Sheikh Mujibur Rehman now to Sheikh Hasina were the only ones who ruled for long though Sheikh Mujib’s stay in power was very short.

The strong Bangladesh nationalist party led by the widow of Zia-urRehman, Begum Khaleda Zia comes to power but some “recognized” forces overthrow the nationalist regime for “several obvious” incompatible reasons. General Zia and Nepal King Birendra are taken as the founding fathers of the SAARC regional body. India was jealous of these two South Asian stalwarts. The Indian PM Mrs Gandhi disliked these personalities and took them as “anti-India men”. General Ershad too ruled B’desh for some time. The Bangladeshi people are strong nationalists but their hands are tied in that they can’t oust the government preferred by Delhi’s South Block. Sheikh Hasina is the Prime Minister in Bangladesh perhaps as long as she wishes to remain in power which, media sources claim, enjoys the uninterrupted “blessings” from the Indian regime.

The same practice is in Nepal as only India elevated and trusted Nepali leaders having Indian souls are eligible for the PM's post.

Sher Bahadur Deuba, the incapable politician of Nepal, has just fifth sitting as Nepal PM thanks to Indian machinations.

Deuba will remain Nepal's PM as long as he awards the “natural resources” to his master regime in Delhi. Deuba’s clinging to power in Nepal is inviting Sikkimisation closer.

For the split of Pakistan and the emergence of Bangladesh, let’s admit that some shortcomings from the Pakistani side also contributed to the “meticulously planned” attack on Pakistan by rival India.

During this time, India was almost the stooge of the former USSR, now the Soviet Union, and by extension, Pakistan remained a Cold War ally of the US.

The security pact between the USSR and India meant for the USSR an ally in Afghanistan wherein the Soviets had invaded. It was this link that India “enjoyed” in Afghanistan for several decades.

With Ashraf Ghani’s escapade, Kabul is free from Indian armtwisting. And here was Pakistan clinging to the US resulting in the colossal influx of Afghan refugees in its territories which could even be seen as of now.

The net gift for Pakistan from the US was that, reportedly, sitting Prime Minister Imran Khan was ousted with the tacit arrangement of the US and the domestic forces that were “close” to the US in Khan’s exit scheme. Imran Khan after his ouster is more popular among the masses.

While the USSR stood at India’s back at the time of the creation of Bangladesh, the US almost ignored the friendship with Pakistan thus facilitating the emergence of Bangladesh as a new South Asian nation in Nepal’s immediate neighbourhood.

The fact is that the Indian military men under the name of Mukti Bahini flooded East Pakistan and created a new country which in terms of ground reality never enjoyed the excitement of a new and sovereign country, the scholars in Dhaka express their inner pain in a subdued voice. Interestingly, Madame Gandhi also ordered the Nepali Congress leaders then sheltered in India to extend their full support for her “inner designs crafted by the RAW spy agency” or else they will be chased away from India. Nepali leaders equipped the Dhaka “Freedom Fighters” with arms and explosives from the porous border with India.

Scholar Zainal Abedin, a political analyst in Dhaka, could explain what meant Bangladesh for India given the RAW penetration in Dhaka’s politics.

Many scholars in Dhaka opine in a compliant voice that India brought Bangladesh to the political map of South Asia in the early seventies only to weaken Pakistan, the declared rival of India and to “milk” the new country Bangladesh. We will take three points only to substantiate the Indian malicious design against Bangladesh. Sharp comments against A. K. Momen:

“The request that foreign minister AK Abdul Momen has made to India during a visit to that country to back the ruling Awami League so that it can stay on in power was a breach of diplomatic norms and there is no scope to regard the request as his personal opinion, former diplomats and an academic said reports the New Age, B’desh (August 21).

A retired foreign secretary of B’desh Md. Touhid talking to New Age said, ‘He is the foreign minister of Bangladesh. He has no right to make such a statement in public while on an official visit. This is also a violation of diplomatic norms.”

Even sharp was the reaction of Ambassador M. Humayun Kabir who lambasted the Foreign Minister saying that what the foreign minister said was not honourable for the people of an independent country. Ambassador Kabir was B’desh Ambassador to Nepal, to recall. When in Kathmandu, Ambassador Kabir had a distinct and visible tilt for Delhi. It appears he is a changed diplomat now.

Yet another sharp comment emanated from the Dhaka University international relations Professor Amena Mohsin who said that the statement of the foreign minister was "quite unacceptable and shameful for the country’s people”. To recall, A. K. Momen talking to the PRINT, on 27 March, 2021, said, “B’desh has immense trust in the Indian Prime Minister. “We believe in him (Modi). We trust him. He is our confidante”. This explains Momen’s unparalleled love for India and also explains the India bend. Momen apparently spoke Hasina’s inner mind. Strong rumours have it that Bangladesh and the Indian establishment have some “secret” plans to make the entire South Asian nation Bangladesh an inalienable part of Greater India which is nothing but a sheer imagination of the Indian Hindutva hawks seated in the former seat of the Mughal emperors beginning Zahiruddin Babar and his descendants who ruled vast “expanse” of South Asia.

At that time there was no India on the world map. India to be frank and modest, came into existence when the British India Company left South Asia and coined the landmass, they ruled for centuries as “The Independent Republic of India in 1947. Yes, instead Greater Nepal existed for sure.

Madam Sheikh Hasina Wajed during her fresh Delhi sojourn beamingly admitted while meeting Priyanka Gandhi, Badra, Dr Sangram Patil Tweeted on September 8, “we had nowhere to go at that time. Our government didn’t allow us to return to our homeland. It was Indira Gandhi who gave us shelter. We took political asylum and stayed in Delhi for six years. She was truly like our mother".

The Prime Minister of Bangladesh submits that she has had “intimate” ties with Mrs India Gandhi.

India considers Bangladesh as an inferior country as the sitting Indian Home Minister Amit Sah some two years ago gave a new name to the Bangladeshi nationals who make their way inside India for better livelihoods.

For Amit Sah, Bangladeshi illegal immigrants are no less than “termites”.

The use of the word termites for his nationals was not a big deal for India’s men A. K. Momen or else he should have given a fitting response to Amit Sah’s demeaning accusations.

All that FM Momen said of Amit Sah’s filthy comments is: “We are not termites", Momen told the Print‘s Strategic Affairs editor, Jyoti Malhotra, in an exclusive interview on 27 March 2021.

The perception that a lot of B’deshi are moving to India is not true”, added Momen. Notably, Amit Sah has not taken back his words which means that for Indian Home Minister the neighbouring B’deshi nationals are termites who have swelled India. The starving Indian nationals from adjoining Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are no less than termites for Nepal who constitute almost half the Nepali population today and yet await citizenship cards. A rough estimate has it that three million Indian beggars are in Nepal scattered all over the country. Eight million Indians have captured the vegetable and plumbing market and the “collecting waste material-KABADI” and are already in queue to become genuine Nepali citizens. Three million are barbers only from India.

The real Nepali people with Nepali blood, never ask for alms. In addition, Indian experts in Childlifting have of late terrified Nepal as some ugly but starving Indians have been nabbed by Nepal police across the country in recent days. The stolen child is either raised for prostitution or used for kidney transplantation.

Much to the displeasure of the nationals of Bangladesh, some brazen news has emanated from the Indian soil that is sure to irritate the Dhaka nationalists.

Look, what emanated from Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sharma from Indian soil on September 7?

“India is intact. We are one nation. Congress disintegrated India in 1947. If Rahul Gandhi regrets that his grandfather made a mistake, there is no use for Bharat Jodo Yatra in India. Try to integrate Pakistan, and Bangladesh with India.

This objectionable comment has created ripples in the entire South Asian region. Pakistan was the first to react sharply to the Assam CM’s horrible assertions. Which came while the Bangladesh Prime Minister was herself in Delhi. This is meant as no comments so far have emanated from Dhaka against the CM’s erratic assertions. Swedish Professor Ashok Swain says, “When B’desh Prime Minister is in India, the CM of Assam and a senior BJP leader calling for integrating B’desh and Pakistan with India”.

As if it were not enough, India's Modi elevated Foreign Minister J Shankar said on 08 September which, I am sure, will enrage nationalists in Dhaka.

He said, “India, Bangladesh “bond forged in blood” at an event that saw B’desh PM Hasina honoring the descendants of while Indian soldiers who fought in the 1971

War.

The mention of “soldiers” in the earlier paragraph should be read as “Mukti Bahini” who were Indian Army men fighting Pakistani soldiers during the war.

Let’s weave the entire threads together and arrive at a conclusion.

Beginning Momen’s appeal to Indian PM for stability in his country and terming PM Modi as a “confidante” of Dhaka; then comes the ugly use of the world termite for B’deshi people; add to this how PM Hasina expressed her gratitude for her “meaning loaded shelter” in Delhi and her attachment to the Indian PM Mrs Gandhi whom she calls as “a true mother” and finally the stoic silence acquired by Dhaka on Assam’s leaders’ desire to assimilate B’desh into the Indian Union. That’s all.