Jamil Chughtai
In the past, nations used to interfere into internal affairs of neighboring states for the sake of securing their national interests, which were usually limited to expansion or protection of their own physical and geographical boundaries. However, over a period of time the dynamics of nation-versus-nation interventions have entirely changed, whereby the states now merely concentrate on protecting their respective economic, strategic and political stakes in neighboring countries through statesmanship, brinkmanship and partnerships. For India nevertheless, being a chronic trespasser, the concept of national interest is still stuck at physical interventions, and that too, at all costs.
The state of India’s relations with almost all the countries that it shares boundary with are always pitiable. India’s unabated tension with China due to border/ water issues and with Pakistan owing to her own oppressive occupation of Jammu & Kashmir are understandable even to the naive followers of international relations. Similarly, the world’s so-called biggest democracy has been successful in creating bitter hostility with other South Asian neighbors like Sri Lanka, Nepal and Myanmar on one pretext or another. It did not even bother to hide its frequent hatred for Bangladesh which is in fact a proud creation of India’s own conspiracy against Pakistan in 1971.
Actually, when it comes to seeking its vested interests or executing heinous national designs against Pakistan, India seems ready to hang around even countries that it usually does not consider worthy of bilateral terms. This time it is Bangladesh; and India has vowed to help Bangladesh upgrade its ‘Liberation War Museum’. For the purpose, government of India is in process of handing over 1971 war memorabilia to Bangladesh for placing them in Dhaka Museum besides the promise to jointly celebrate Bangladesh’s 50th Victory (against Pakistan) Day in 2021. We may rest assure that each and every object on 1971 Indo-Pak war would be nothing else but a mock recreation of fake testimonies to malign Pakistan and its armed forces at large. Taking cue from their new masters in India, Bangladesh PM Sheikh Haseena called upon her Generals to promote only those military leaders who are imbued with the spirit of the great Liberation War. All speaks volumes for the amount of India’s ill-will against Pakistan and how far it goes to infuse the same into a Muslim state versus another.
However, if the people of Bangladesh could recall, India has never been a reliable partner as its diplomatic romance has always proved fake and fleeting. It is not something from the remote past when India put into operation a shoot-to-kill policy for Bengali migrant workers and cattle traders along their borders. Astonishingly, India had propagated at that time that Bangladesh harboured India-hating terrorists. Those in Bangladesh, who do not view things with Indian glasses might understand well that India’s devotion for Bangladesh is merely aimed at executing her own nefarious plans of making the wedge between the two Muslim states deeper and wider. In fact India’s built-in animosity against Pakistan is due to its condemnation of Indian illegitimate occupation of Jammu & Kashmir and brutalities on the Kashmiri people besides India considering Pakistan as an obstacle in fulfillment of her hegemonic designs in the region. In retaliation, India had not only satiated her revenge by dividing Pakistan into two and making Bangladesh through Mukti Bahini but also kept inflicting more pain by funding, sponsoring and fanning terrorism and sectarianism in the country unremittingly.
As for as Pakistan is concerned, it has always tried sincerely to improve relations with Bangladesh without any preconditions. However, those at the helm of affairs in Bangladesh have kept looking through the prism of India, and thus avoided showing any inclination to reciprocate the selfless gesture of friendship by Pakistan. Nevertheless, the saner voices in Bangladesh (and those are in plenty) must come forward and enlighten their public about the real face of India. History of the last 70 odd years clearly expose India as an unprovoked trespasser and uninvited prowler for the countries in her contiguity. This becomes amply clear when we find India provoking Tamil insurgency in Sri Lanka for decades. Similarly Nepal has been the latest victim of this Indian idiosyncrasy in 2015 when India wanted them to make specific changes in their constitution that favor Indian interests. To coerce them do their bidding, India blockaded all imports to Nepal including petroleum, medicines, earthquake relief material and even food till the tiny neighbour finally acquiesced to their demands. Bangladesh must beware that India did all this despite the fact that Nepal is a Hindu state. The same were Indian idiosyncrasies in case of Sri Lanka who were also a close India ally once, yet India had clandestinely trained and funded Tamil militancy in Sri Lanka making things worst for them. And now India is doing the same in Pakistan both covertly and overtly.
In fact, history of India for the last 70 years amply manifests that it has never been a reliable friend and trustworthy neighbor. Indian hegemonic conspiracies in Nepal, Sri Lanka and Pakistan have now become an open secret. It is high time for Bangladesh to realize that their country is also going to be used by India for its very own vested interests against the countries of the region that India fosters grudge and malice for no plausible reasons. Watch out Bengal tigers!
