Why are Indians ready for a deal with Dhaka but wary of Islamabad?

[tested]

They invaded the sultanates that voted to go with Pakistan, they invaded the French islands off their coast, despite not being part of the British Raj, and they famously invaded Goa in the 60s.

Indians will always be governed by themselves, whether its British colonizers or French or Martians doesn't matter.

You know the best part - We'd do it all over again if we could

 

[SamantK]

Cause BD does not welcome our PM and then backstabs it later.

BD does not start wars with India for a piece of a land which never was theirs.

 

[tested]

Great expectations in Dhaka: Modi has an opportunity to reboot India-Bangladesh relations after many erratic flip-flops
Syed Munir Khasru

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting Dhaka from June 6-7 to discuss the ‘entire gamut’ of bilateral issues. The Modi government has shown decisiveness in passing the Land Boundary Agreement that was in limbo for more than four decades. While the Indira Gandhi government made the deal, Congress failed to ratify it in Parliament, even though the party enjoyed absolute majority in the 7th and 8th Lok Sabha in the 1980s. Modi has shown the will to translate his popular mandate into the required decisiveness.

Expectations were mounting that Modi’s visit would resolve the biggest sticky issue in Indo-Bangla relations — the Teesta Pact, as the Gazaldoba Barrage in upper riparian India adversely affects around 9 million people in Bangladesh. The thorny hurdle remains just what it was in 2011 — getting Mamata Banerjee’s support. The Modi government has been marshalling its powers to propitiate Mamata into acquiescing to a Teesta deal, and unlike 2011 this time Mamata is in the prime minister’s entourage.

Ongoing consultation between the Union and West Bengal governments hinges on Mamata’s concerns about getting water from further upstream Sikkim, which is pursuing a massive hydroelectric project creating a number of hydraulic dams. The need of the hour is a combination of decisiveness and delicate balancing of interests to resolve the complex water sharing issue.

Border killing of Bangladeshis by the Indian BSF is a continued concern. The number of fatalities may have slackened but they never stopped. The US-Mexico border, the Mediterranean that separates West Asia and North Africa from Europe, and recently the South to Southeast Asia sea route are key migration and trafficking frontiers faced with the challenge of massive flows of human beings fleeing from poverty, persecution and conflict — a problem of global proportions.

A civilised and humane response involves bringing on board key actors from all sides and ensuring an efficient and coordinated response. As India’s ‘most important neighbour’ — as termed by India’s national security adviser Ajit Doval — that is ‘fully responsive’ to the security sensitivities of India, Bangladesh deserves a definitive end to the border killings. Border skirmishes and an antediluvian shoot-to-kill policy are inconsistent with India’s global image of non-violence a la Gandhi and a pluralist democratic nation.

India enjoys with Bangladesh a trade surplus of $5.5 billion. More significantly, Bangladesh’s exports to India fell by 8.2% from 2012-13 to 2013-14, while India’s export rose 4.7%. This trade is estimated to rise to $10 billion by 2018 if non-tariff barriers like technical standards, classification issues and infrastructure bottlenecks are removed, a process that needs to be steered to completion.

Indian FDI to Bangladesh in 2014 was $68 million, up from $45 million in 2013. It remains lower than FDI from UK, Japan and even Pakistan. In the outward FDI map of India, while Western and Middle Eastern countries figure prominently, South Asian neighbours are hard to be found. Materialisation of the two special economic zones in Bangladesh for Indian investment can significantly improve bilateral investment. Tata Group called off its $3 billion investment proposal in 2007 after three years of waiting due to the indecisiveness of the Bangladesh government. This exit sent a negative signal about the investment climate of Bangladesh and underscores the need for stronger investment facilitation on Bangladesh’s part.

On connectivity, Modi is expected to inaugurate a bus service linking Dhaka with Meghalaya and Assam, while Bangladesh has approved a five year extension of a water transit protocol. India is pushing for a deep sea port, a strategic decision that might take a little time. The proposed motor vehicles agreement between Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal might be a first step for the four countries to get onto an Asean-style fast-paced cooperation mode rather than the ponderous and reversible cooperation style of Saarc.

On energy, Bangladesh has been importing 500 MW from India and transmission lines are set up to import an additional 600 MW by 2017. The Indo-Bangla joint construction of Rampal power plant is going forward, while the Adani group’s plans to install a 1,600 MW coal power plant and Reliance’s plan to set up an LNG-fuelled 3,000 MW power plant signal growing private sector involvement.

Modi’s visit is an occasion to strengthen genuine bipartisanship in Indo-Bangla relations. Bangladesh will honour BJP maestro Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who shored up bipartisan support for Bangladesh’s independence in 1971.

The main opposition party of Bangladesh BNP has also voiced willingness to back Indo-Bangla ties. The agenda is packed, stakes are high and tailwinds are strong. As he flies to Dhaka, Modi needs to notch up his boldness as well as to bring closure to the protracted tempo and erratic flip-flops of Indo-Bangla relations.

When Modi was declared the Asian of the Year 2014 by the Straits Times, Singapore, this writer wrote in that newspaper, “With global leadership comes global responsibility … Time and tide are on your side. What kind of ride you will make out of it, we Asians optimistically await to see.” Needless to say, Modi’s journey starts with the neighbourhood and the bigger neighbour has the larger share of responsibility.

Great expectations in Dhaka: Modi has an opportunity to reboot India-Bangladesh relations after many erratic flip-flops - TOI Blogs

 

[SrNair]

Puppet government is installed in Bangladesh that is why ..... Pakistan is a nuclear power and india feels threatened by it, bangladesh cannot be compared to pakistan

And now you have only nuclear power for boasting .

On topic : Pakistan was created on the basis anti India /Hindu sentiments.
Indians and their govt always knows about their limitation.We wont claim that we have parity with US or China.The y knows the reality.

After 1971BDis also know that.They know India is a reality that several times more powerful than other SA nations.So they dont care about parity shit.
They accept that and after these land agreemebt .BD and Eastern part of India will develop through our cooperation.

 

[Bilal9]

@asad71 @UKBengali @Bilal9 @damiendehorn @MBI Munshi @kalu_miah

Well contrary to Bhartiya beliefs it _can_ happen. Provided Indian Govt. treats Bangladesh on equal terms with respect and not treat our Govt. like a child/vassal state and give up Dadagiri.

Scarce chance of that happening...

 

[asad71]

1.This is, in reality, the lowest point in Indo-BD relations. Truly good relations must be people centric, not stooge leaders centric.The masses of BD hate India/Indians more because:

a. India has installed an illegal/unelected govt to rule over us like absolute monarchy.
b. With the aid of this govt, that India treats even worse than her state govts, India is pushing through one advantage after another - without giving us anything in return.
c India interferes in our affairs totally. Nothing in defense or foreign affairs can be done without their clearance.
d. They have pushed SHW to appoint Hindus in most key posts in govt. By now there will be a rare Hindu whose loyalty is not with India.

2. Only a little spark is required before BD people overthrow this unelected, undemocratic, killer govt. Thereafter, we will break with India totally.

 

[Rajesh12379]

Well contrary to Bhartiya beliefs it _can_ happen. Provided Indian Govt. treats Bangladesh on equal terms with respect and not treat our Govt. like a child/vassal state and give up Dadagiri.

Scarce chance of that happening...

I agree. Bangladesh (and all neighbors) should be treated with respect and equality.

 

[Mabs]

Why India stands a better chance with Bangladesh over its other neighbour

This weekend we can bury a misconception that has appropriated the subcontinent's discourse since 1947, when a Muslim League British project partitioned the land in the name of religion. India's problem with Pakistan has nothing to do with Pakistan's emergence as a Muslim nation. The problem has always been, and continues to be, Pakistan's state sponsorship of terrorism against India.

Pakistan's initial policy of "war by other means" quickly evolved into the broader framework of "war by all means".Ninety per cent of Bangladesh is Muslim.Till 197 1 it was part of Pakistan. India has a much larger border with Bangladesh than with Pakistan, with a territorial dispute since the British lawyer Cyril Radcliffe, nominated by London to demarcate lines of separation, deepened the wounds of Partition by using a scalpel with an uncertain, and occasionally anarchic, hand.

This week Prime Minister Narendra Modi will sign a pact in Dhaka with his counterpart, Sheikh Hasina, that erases a dispute as old as Kashmir. The term `historic' has become trite through general overuse, but this pact deserves such an accolade.

We tend to be sanguine or cynical about success, and so hypnotised by bad news that media often gets transfixed by the negative. Moreover, major television channels have become so Delhi-centric that we forget India lives in its states. A municipal problem in the capital consumes time with the appetite of an elephant, while a game-changer in Bengal is sidelined to the margins.

We should not underestimate the Dhaka treaty. A wall that started as brick, transformed into stone and was turning concrete, is coming down. Once India and Bangladesh can put the past behind them, the east will discover a future through economic and cultural harmony.

An economy can always find its way through political boundaries, as Europe or North America or Southeast Asia have proved. But it cannot break through hostility . Economic success is always faster and, well, more economical, with cooperation.

The two Bengals and the northeast of India are natural partners in the timeless search for greater prosperity .But an equal partnership is only possible through trust and trust can only mature through experience.

This is also a major delivery axis for an important commitment made by Modi during the 2014 election campaign: the revival of the east, which has lagged behind the rest of India for a variety of reasons, of which the most important is surely the sterile, formulaic thinking of Marxists who ruled West Bengal for three and a half decades. The quality of Modi's leadership has been evident in the quiet, but effective, way he resolved both internal and external obstacles.

Thoughtful regional icons are responding to the prime minister's repeated exhortation that the people's interest must prevail over partisan politics. That is why Mamata Banerjee will be on the plane to Dhaka. Battles are fought during elections. When over, state and Centre must cooperate to serve India.

Parties trapped in an ostrich mentality, like Congress and the Left, will lay nothing more productive than an infertile egg. Foreign policy , however, can only go as far as domestic opinion takes it. Why are Indians ready for a deal with Dhaka but wary of Islamabad?

There is, of course, a difference between Bangladesh and Pakistan in the fundamentals of the state; but esoteric reality does not get the public traction it possibly deserves. Indians are impressed by Sheikh Hasina's visible and sustained war against terrorists. She has contained faith-based political formations, and cracked down against violence- addicted extremists.

In this respect she has altered the dynamics of Bangladesh politics, and this legacy will be hard to subvert. In contrast, terrorism remains an integral part of Islamabad's catechism no matter who is in power.

Pakistan set the template for statesponsored terrorism from the day it was born. In retrospect it is astonishing that its leaders were not deflected even by the human catastrophe that accompanied Partition, or the economic burden of sudden birth.

Within days of entering office, Jinnah and Liaquat Ali Khan began plotting an illegal war to seize the princely state of Jammu & Kashmir. This operation began in October 1947, and has not ended. Pakistan army chief Raheel Sharif confirmed as much when he said yesterday that Kashmir is an unfinished agenda of Partition.

The cost of such colossal irresponsibility has been extremely high, particularly for Pakistan. If Pakistan had not opted for war the dispute over Jammu & Kashmir, which had not joined either India or Pakistan in August, would have been resolved over the table, probably in the presence of Britain, since the legality of Independence was determined by an act of British parliament. Pakistan destroyed the chance of peace for generations.


Bangladesh won freedom through a war of liberation. It was not simply a geographical departure from Pakistan but also an ideological recast. This has enabled Bangladesh to pursue its national interest on the basis of different parameters. Its differences with India, where they exist, are not based on the ideological premise that Hindus and Muslims are engaged in some form of permanent war.

India and Bangladesh can - if all goes well - walk, and work, together.



Read more at:
Why India stands a better chance with Bangladesh over its other neighbours - The Economic Times

You can tell from the first sentence of the article that it's going to be all bullshit. It wasn't a Muslim League british project, the partition occurred because the congress refused to accept and honor the cabinet mission plan. Up until 1946, ML wanted a united India, it was the congress and its conniving tactics which forced Muslim League's hand.

I couldn't get past this conscious misrepresentation by the author to read the rest of the article.

 

[Rajesh12379]

Because Dhaka is run by an low life Indian puppet while Islamabad is NOT. Pagan India can only deal with 3rd class satellite states for exploitation NOT a nation that can hold its ground.

The days of low life filthy razkaar terrorist child loving, goat fucking jamaatis is over in the region. Good to see their stinky cowardly arse on fire.

They are treated worse than slaves by their Arab masters. What do they expect here?

1.This is, in reality, the lowest point in Indo-BD relations. Truly good relations must be people centric, not stooge leaders centric.The masses of BD hate India/Indians more because:

a. India has installed an illegal/unelected govt to rule over us like absolute monarchy.
b. With the aid of this govt, that India treats even worse than her state govts, India is pushing through one advantage after another - without giving us anything in return.
c India interferes in our affairs totally. Nothing in defense or foreign affairs can be done without their clearance.
d. They have pushed SHW to appoint Hindus in most key posts in govt. By now there will be a rare Hindu whose loyalty is not with India.

2. Only a little spark is required before BD people overthrow this unelected, undemocratic, killer govt. Thereafter, we will break with India totally.

You can't do that from kaffir crusader Canada.

And your cowardly lungi ilk don't dare come back. Hasina will make sure these cowardly razakaar lungis are handed over to the brave Gurkhas for the treatment this time.

Anway one brave gurkha can handle 1 lac of these cowardly lungi razakaar warriors.

 

[nForce]

Indian Aggression and RAW conspiracy yada yada

lol..It's quite interesting to see some Bangladeshis claiming creation of Bangladesh to be Indian conspiracy. I cannot possibly imagine how the creators of Bangladesh would have reacted to that.

Nijeder budhhi suddhi ki beche diyechilo naki ?

 

[asad71]

The days of low life filthy razkaar terrorist child loving, goat fucking jamaatis is over in the region. Good to see their stinky cowardly arse on fire.

They are treated worse than slaves by their Arab masters. What do they expect here?



You can't do that from kaffir crusader Canada.

And your cowardly lungi ilk don't dare come back. Hasina will make sure these cowardly razakaar lungis are handed over to the brave Gurkhas for the treatment this time.

Anway one brave gurkha can handle 1 lac of these cowardly lungi razakaar warriors.

Wonder why "brave" dhotis need to hire Gurkhas to fight for them?

 

[SipahSalar]

Because EVEN if we gave KASHMIR on A PLATTER to Pakistan

This conflict will continue

Of course not, after Kashmir issue is taken by Pakistan there will be no more reason to fight. Only those who don't want peace will have you believe that Kashmir issue is not the end all.

 

[Rajesh12379]

Wonder why "brave" dhotis need to hire Gurkhas to fight for them?

Gurkhas are our own people. We have millions of Gurkhas in India.

They are very much Dharmic people. Our very own.

Even Brits hire Gurkhas because they are one of the very best soldiers in the world.

Quite unlike the razakaar lungis and others who threw their guns at the first site of Dharmic soldiers while being "brave" on the unarmed Bangladeshi civilians and raping their women. Just in Dhaka 24000 of them dropped their guns at the first site of 5000 Dhamric soldiers.

 

[scorpionx]

India accepted partition along the lines of religion.

If so did Pakistan, that in no way explains why Cochin-Travancore and the princely state of Indore were persuaded not to join India. That in no way explains why Maharaja of Jodhpur was offered a blank paper by Pakistan to put terms of his own.

 

[Zabaniyah]

MJ Akbar....I've seen his opinion pieces on The Daily Star newspaper. The man makes his points, but often far from reality.

Nonetheless, he is quite right about this one:
'....Indians are impressed by Sheikh Hasina's visible and sustained war against terrorists. She has contained faith-based political formations, and cracked down against violence- addicted extremists.

In this respect she has altered the dynamics of Bangladesh politics, and this legacy will be hard to subvert.'

The ruling are here to stay.