On numerous occasions, India has failed to seize opportunities to mend relations with its neighbors, largely due to the inability of the political leadership to stand up to domestic political pressure. One clear example was India’s inability to convert the personal rapport between Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
More recently, Bangladeshi Premier Sheikh Hasina has been attempting to cement a cordial relationship with India, and has at times annoyed hardliners in her own country who accuse her of selling out to Indian demands. However, India hasn’t been able to reciprocate. Indeed, there was an embarrassing moment for New Delhi when West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee refused to accompany Singh on his Bangladesh visit last year.
As a consequence of these failures by the government, Indian non-state actors are beginning to play a growing role in forging ties with the outside world. India’s economic prowess and increasing cultural reach have enhanced the confidence of its business community. In the context of India’s neighborhood relations, it isn’t only business groups, NGOs and peace groups that have made valuable contributions toward more harmonious relations. In 2010, the Times Group began “Aman Ki Asha” – a collaborative project between the two largest newspapers in India and Pakistan, The Times of India and Jang respectively.
“Aman Ki Asha” was conceived more as a means of complementing the dialogue begun by the Indian government in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks. But it should be said that the project has played a role in facilitating dialogue between politicians and economists from both sides.
More recently, the Times Group, in collaboration with Bangladesh daily Pratham Alo, has launched “Maitree Bandhan,” which means “lasting bond of friendship,” to promote friendly ties with Bangladesh. The project aims to enhance person-to-person contacts and ultimately business ties between both countries. It has started with a cultural festival that features well-known Bangladeshi and Indian artists sharing a stage in Kolkata, Delhi and Mumbai. Like Aman Ki Asha, it will facilitate meetings between business leaders from both countries. Maitree Bandhan will also attempt to develop opportunities such as student exchange programs and strategic summits to allow greater interaction between the two countries.
This project is especially important because it has been launched at a time when the bilateral relationship between the two countries is threatening to lose the momentum it had last year. Many Bangladeshis believe that while Bangladesh has gone out of its way to build a cordial relationship with India, the latter hasn’t shown similar enthusiasm. In addition, there’s a feeling among many Bangladeshis that while Bollywood movies are popular in Bangladesh, India doesn’t give similar opportunities to Bangladeshi artists and films.
The growing realization in India, at least outside the government, is that engagement shouldn’t be merely state or personality driven. India’s government should take note of this, and ease visa restrictions on citizens from neighboring countries. It’s time to showcase India’s soft power, rather than relying on the External Affairs Ministry.
Tridivesh Singh Maini is an Associate Fellow with The Observer Research Foundation.
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MBI Munshi
The cup of friendship from India has often proven to be a poisoned chalice for Bangladesh. India does not desire friendship or partnership but instead prefers subservience and unquestioned obedience from its neighbors.
Kristal
@Munshi,
This only shows that you’re still stuck in the stone age. Today globalization has brought every country closer & inter-dependant on each other. While everyone is talking of improving contacts, you’re recommending your flawed prophecy that Bangladesh turns itself away from the only country it borders. In the past many Bengalis have realised that frowning at India is to their own disadvantage. india has extended nearly USD $1 billion as a line-of-credit to Bangladesh & is assisting her in several welfare projects. Besides, Bengali traders are able to tap into the vast demands of a fast growing neighbour to their own advantage. Bengali migrants work in the hundreds of thousands in the border regions of India. I don’t what more canbe done to sweeten the “chalice?”
>>Perhaps you should take a lesson on Gratitude. If India didn’t intervene, you’d be slaughtered like those in Balochistan by the Pakistanis!
MBI Munshi
Your understanding of history is extremely partial and distorted. The actual history of 1971 is yet to be written bu I suggest you start with Sarmila Bose’s Dead Reckoning and my book The India Doctrine (1947-2007).
As for the benefits derived from liberalized trade relations with India the picture has hardly been good for Bangladesh. It is India that has arm twisted Bangladesh to accept conditions that are detrimental to our own economy. While pretending to offer friendship India has literally cheated Bangladesh on Teesta water sharing, enclave exchanges and continued murder and torture of Bangladesh nationals on the border between the two countries. India remains a hegemonic and domineering power that interferes in the internal affairs of its neighbors which in turn breeds resentment.
Kristal
@Munshi,
Writing any book simply doesn’t make your arguments right. Infact i suggest you take a good look at the comments written below by “Observer_295.” His comments answer almost all your false accusations. i want to politely remind you that this is not a forum to make free advertisements for your books!
It takes time for benefits from trade to trickle through. You can’t start accusing India for all your leaders’ impotencies. Even India is running a trade deficit with many countries, including China – running into several billion dollars. That doesn’t mean we haven’t stopped trading or accused those countries of trade manipulation (which they are)??? India has allowed textile imports from Bangldesh with liberal concessions inspite of strong domestic opposition from Indian textile owners based in Tirupur, Tamilnadu. Comparatively cheaper imports from Bangladesh means Indian traders will lose their market in North East India. But did that stop the Indian government from giving such one-sided concessions to Bangladesh??? You must ask yourself why a so-called “hegemonic & domineering” power would chose to put its own tax-paying people at peril to benefit the nationals of another country??? There’s a term in Indian foreign policy echelon that says “Look East” & india has just started doing it.
India’s Operation Sukhoon & Operation Safe Homecoming to evacuate Indians & neighbouring nation citizens during the 2006 Libyan War & the 2011 Libyam conflict should not be overlooked. India assisted these countries because they lacked the military response systems to evacuate their nationals on their own. This was done as goodwill gesture. Does a “domineering, hegemonic” power does that in any other part of the world?
The teesta river water sharing agreement was wrecked by a disgruntled, illiterate CM who clearly is in power ecause of the anti-incumbency factor. What can the Central government do if that party is a major coatlition partner without whose support the entire government would collapse?? Mamta has stalled so many other reforms too. Bangladesh was the least on her list. But you are also comfortably forgetting that all the remaining stake-holders (4 oter CM’s) had gien their suppport & accompanied Dr.Singh. So that means that a great majority of the political parties & the people they represent in India support having improved cordial realtions with Bangladesh. Your countrymen don’t seem to be so generous if your arguments are any indication to go by.
India has opened Rohanpur-Singabad rail route for Nepalese cargo to transit through Indian territory into Bangladesh. “All three countries will benefit from this connectivity” said your PM Hasina. Why would an “hegemonic domineering” country allow Bangladeshi ports to benefit if it could arm-twist Nepal into using only its ports & profiting from that??? Besides india is not charging Nepal any transit fee like what the Russians or other CIS states are doing to NATO’s non-military shipments across their territory!
The problem you are suffering from is not cultural or economic nor physical. Its psychological. In sociology we describe it as “Relative deprivation.” You tend to demonise a country just because it is larger, stronger & richer than you & attribute all its intentions – without analysis – to something sinister. Here the envy turns into jealousy. A very few Indians do that Vs China. But it appears many more Bangladeshis would love doing that to India. Your suffering from inferiority Complex, suggest you go to a good doctor – soon!
Grant
It isn’t as though Pakistan has made it easy for India either. Even though it’s to their own detriment, domestic politics and history mean that the two nations are at best cold friends and often openly hostile.
observer_925
@Munshi: for all of India’s faults during the 70’s and 80’s there is hardly a domineering tendencies by India these days. In fact recent Economist article notes that India is finally paying attention to its neighbors such as trying to boost trade ties etc and belatedly counter Chinese influence. In fact India was criticized for not being more pro-active with the recent political turmoil in Maldives. I do not have access to your book about 1971 Bangladesh liberation war, would you please educate us with a summary? The way I see it because of India Bangladesh is now a free country even though India may have its self-interests in mind and Pakistani atrocities and genocide of Muslims opposed to Pakistan and Hindus made it easier. Although some would say having Pakistan in charge of East Pakistan may not have been too bad, as India could have used disgruntled East Pakistan to keep Pakistan busy as Pakistan has been trying in Kashmir. In recent times I think India has been trying to offer generous trade ties such as increased Bangladeshi garment imports or $1B soft loan to improve infrastructure. Teesta treaty debacle is a sad situation and it is Mamata Banerjee, CM of WB state is to blame for her short-sightedness (not much different than her Bangladeshi counterparts), but I believe eventually it will get signed (UPA govt is dependent on Mamata’s support to stay in power in Delhi). Heck, due to Mamata opposition Manmohan Singh recently abandoned FDI in retail which have been very good for India economy, again hopefully temporarily. We can look at the positives or we can focus on glass half empty and stay mired in age old hostilities. Or we can emulate ASEAN nations who in spite of their historical rivalries now cooperate on trade and connectivity. Bangladesh can provide India transit rights to NE India or to ASEAN nations and in return get favorable trade and water sharing deals. Or Bangladesh can stay focused on how to sabotage India like the BNP govt has been doing, but I don’t believe that will help Bangladeshi people very much in the long run. India has achieved whatever progress it could in spite of Pakistan and China, I think it can continue with or without Bangladeshi cooperation. Choice is simple – we cooperate and flourish, or we oppose each other and suffer. As an example I suggest you take a look at Sri Lanka even though arguably India had meddled in their affairs in the past but now the ties are cordial and beneficial for both countries.
Siddharth
I agree with you!
We are ready to help the Bangladesh in their prosperity!
Regarding the exchange of enclaves, India has given more and taken less.
Indian public opinion is pro-Bangladesh and want a genuine democracy there so that there is more people-to-people contact.
I do not know why Bangladeshis still view India as a dominant power and have anti-India perception! It’s sad that Indian people’s sentiments have not been repulsed in a positive manner.
Its a love-hate relationship. Indians love Bangladeshis and Bangladeshis hate Indians!
Natasha
@Siddhartha, Hope u know the facts about Tista river treaty, Farraka, go to Bangladesh in dry season and kindly check it, and also try to know about the impact of Tipaimukh dam in future and last not the least, the cruelty of BSF. An don’t u think it is reverse, as u stated about love and hate relationship.In ur literature where history is manipulated and regionalism works more than the facts, where Bangladesh freedom fighting issue has been neglected in terms of India’ s chauvinism.
Kristal
@Natasha,
The problem of mismanagement of rivers is not a bangladesh-specific problem. China’s plans to divert part of the Brahmaputra river by building a dam across it, threatens to starve of millions of Indians. Poor early warning mechanisms on the Nepalese side of the Kosi river, causes it to flood the agriculture lands of the Indian state of bihar almost on an yearly basis. As a result many such farmers emigrate to other Indian cities causing other problems there. There are also problems witht the Indus river water sharing with the Pakistani side as well. The bottom line is, there are problems everywhere & with everyone. Please do not attribute a technical problem as part of a so-called Indian hegemonic design. So far, the hostile attitude of previous Bangladeshi governments had prevented the mutual resolution of this problems. Now that it is changing, we hope to acheive a win-win solution. I urge you to be optimistic. As “all” problems canbe solved by dialogue, and dialogue alone.
Regarding the issues with BSF, You must also try to rationally understand the reason why India needs to maintain a large contigent of BSF. Its because a large amounts of smuggling occurs in the border area. Livestock, food items and drugs are smuggled from India into Bangladesh. Illegal immigrants from Bangladesh cross into India to find jobs and that deprives the indegeneous labour from getting those jobs. Also, the Election Commission of india notes that potentially hundreds of thousands of “illegal” Bangladeshi immigrants who’ve settled in India have upset the geographic & political setup of the North-Eastern states.
BSF’s mandate is to arrest any furthur flooding of immigrants into India. They’ve tried arrrests, but after those people are released in a few weeks, they attempt to cross over again. Deportations are draining BSF’s coffers & also poses logistical nigtmares. These people just keep coming back. So India is presently constructing the Indo-Bangladeshi barrier, a 4,000 kilometer fence of barbed wire and concrete just under 3 metres high, to prevent illegal immigration and the smuggling of weapons and narcotics. Flood lights are also being installed in the West Bengal sector. The project was sanctioned for 2881 crore rupees ($600 million USD). As of November 2007, 2529 km of border fencing was completed. All this is an unnecessary drain on India’s resources when such funds could have well served the interests of the people of those states in a better way.
Under the former government of Khaleda Zia, Bangladesh troops clashed with the Indian Border Security Force in an attempt to prevent the fencing. Some indigenous Assamese fear that they, as a people, will be reduced to a minority in Assam if unabated infiltration from Bangladesh continues. So tell me, if the Bangladeshi Border Guards arn’t doing their jobs, then someone has to fill in their shoes right? doesn’t that sound logical?