[This was published in the Burma Times on 09
0ctober 2014]
Anybody interested in knowing and
understanding India and its overall policies towards Bangladesh Hobson’s choice
instantly appears before him/her is to look at the seven sisters in the north
eastern zone and then ask himself/herself why an India-friendly Bangladesh is coveted
by/for India? Well, let us have a picture in mind that Bangladesh and India are
not on good terms and all the passages from the mainland of India to its
northeastern states over Bangladesh are totally forbidden, Bangladesh is
generous enough having full supports from foreign powers including China and
Pakistan to provide assistances and safe shelters to the insurgents in the
northeastern states on the one hand and on the other India is being troubled
seriously by China to use its only connecting passageway ‘Shiliguri Corridor’, the
melting point of West Bengal in the
mainland of India and Aurunachal Pradesh in the
northeastern states. And now see that reverse is taking place in case of
Bangladesh. Therefore, instant asking crops up, is Bangladesh in a position to
weigh and apply her standing befittingly while dealing with India? This is a
kind of amplification of the write-up ‘Indian seven sisters: Spark for
Bangladesh’ printed in Dhaka Courier on 5 September 2014.
Center of attention of this write-up rotates
around Bangladesh’s importance to India in the context of northeastern states
widely called ‘seven sisters’. India came into being on 15 August 1947 as a
free and sovereign state from the yoke of United Kingdom, only with three
states covered the area in the northeastern India. Manipur and Tripura were
princely states, although a much larger Assam Province was under direct British
rule. Four new states were carved out of the original land of Assam in the
decades following independence, in tune with the policy of the Indian
government of reorganizing the states along ethnic and linguistic lines. Consequently,
Nagaland became a separate state in 1963, followed by Meghalaya in 1972.
Mizoram became a Union Territory in 1972, and achieved statehood along with
Arunachal Pradesh in 1987. Today, all these seven
states together later came to be known seven sisters, also called
"Paradise Unexplored". Sikkim joined the Indian union through a
referendum in 1975 and was recognized as part of Northeast India in the 1990s.
Therefore, the number finally rose from seven to eight.
Dawning of the
sobriquet "The Land of Seven Sisters" is really interesting and
recalling. It was initially
coined to coincide with the inauguration of the new states in January, 1972, by
Jyoti Prasad Saikia, a journalist in Tripura in the course of a radio talk
show. Saikia later compiled a book on the interdependence and commonness of the
Seven Sister States, and named it the Land
of Seven Sisters. It has been primarily because of this publication that
the nickname has caught on. These states cover an area of 255,511 km, or
about 7 percent of India's total area. They had a population of 44.98 million
in 2011, about 3.7 percent of India's total. Although there is great ethnic and
religious diversity within the seven states, they also have similarities in
political, social and economic contexts.
Out of these seven (now eight) states, Bangladesh
has borders with Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram. A number of pillars
mark the border between the two states. Small demarcated portions of the border
are fenced on both sides. The creation of ‘East Pakistan (now Bangladesh)’ as a
part of free and sovereign Pakistan in 1947 produced a sort of geographical
barrier for India as this was transformed into and came up as a foreign land
standing between mainland India and its northeastern part putting all
pre-partition free communications and transportations to end.
India, as Hobson’s choice, readily created a
corridor (in the sense of passageway) in 1947 connecting the mainland of India
via West Bengal with Arunachal Pradesh, which translates to "land of the dawn-lit mountains",
is also known as the Orchid State of
India or the Paradise of the
Botanists, in the northeastern zone. This corridor is a narrow stretch
of land at Shiliguri – about 200 kilometers in length
and 20 to 60 kilometers in width having the shape of chicken’s neck--located
in the Indian state of West Bengal, with the countries of Nepal and Bangladesh
lying on either side of the corridor In fact, at the time of India’s independence
in 1947, the present territory of Arunachal Pradesh was under part-B of the
Sixth schedule of the constitution as the tribal areas of Assam and it includes
NEFT including Balipara Frontier Tract, the Tirap Frontier Tract, the Abor
Hills district, the Mishmi Hills district and the Naga tribal areas. In 1951,
all these together were renamed as North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA), which was
reconstituted in 1955 and 1957. It became Union Territory in 1972 and acquired statehood as Aurunachal
Pradesh in 1987.
Should India feel free, secure and comfort
with this corridor? Answer is definitely
not at all. Because Arunachal Pradesh, one of the 29 states of India, lies in the far northeast of the
country bordering the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south, and shares
international borders with Bhutan in the west, Myanmar in the east and the People's Republic of China in the
north. Between Sikkim and Bhutan lies the Chumbi valley, a dagger-like
slice of the Tibetan territory. A Chinese military advance of less than 80
miles would cut off Bhutan, part of West Bengal and all of North-East India,
containing almost 50 million people. This situation occurred in 1962 during the
war between India and China.
China has long been claiming Arunachal is
part of Tibet that is the territory of China, while Delhi claims it a fundamental
part of India. The difference of opinion over Arunachal was the heart of
a brief war between the two countries in 1962. People’s Liberation Army (PLA)
of China speedily invaded Arunachal and chased retreating army of India up to
the bank of Brahmaputra River in Assam, inflicting a humiliating defeat to
India. But China, in the face of mounting international criticism, soon voluntarily
withdrew troops back to the McMahon Line and returned Indian prisoners of war
in 1963.
Henceforth,
after the India-China border conflicts in 1962, the North East became a
strategic region as regards the national security of India.
A new vertical atlas of China, an update of
its official national map, issued by its Hunan Map Publishing House in the last
week of June 2014 showing India held disputed Arunachal Pradhesh and parts of
Jammu and Kashmir as the territory of China has raised further hullabaloo. It
also raised question if China sticking to the map will go for annexing the
territory that may lead to repetition of 1962 Indo-China war. It is interesting
to mark that the vertical map was unveiled in Beijing in the last week of June 2014
marking celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the Panchsheela Treaty, which
was attended, among others, by Myanmar President Thein Sein and India’s
vice-president Hamid Ansari. Panchsheela Treaty-- five principles of peaceful co-existence
– was signed in 1954 by China, India and Burma (now Myanmar).
The new vertical atlas of China has no doubt
threw a new challenge to India, already perturbed by recent report of intrusion
of Chinese troops 11 km inside Indian territory in Ladakh and strategically
important Chumbi valley of Bhutan. The map also depicts China’s sea
boundary in the South China Sea, through which $5.3trillion worth of goods is
traded every year, and extending its northern land border to Meghalaya, Assam
and Myanmar.
Speaking at the function marking the
anniversary of Panchsheela Treaty Chinese President Xi Jinping said hegemonism
or militarism is not in the genes of the Chinese. China neither interferes in
other country’s internal affairs nor imposes its will on others. It will never
seek hegemony, no matter how strong it may be. His statement was viewed as
directed at India without naming it.
In another meeting attended by foreign diplomats, civil and army officials the President laid importance on strengthening the country’s frontier defenses on land and sea. China should bear in mind its history “as a victim of foreign aggression… The country’s weakness in the past allowed others to bully us.” However, he did not explain if the new map is linked with strengthening China’s frontier defenses.
The Indian Foreign Ministry issued a
statement regarding the new maps, noting that “cartographic depictions do not
change the reality on the ground. The fact that Arunachal Pradesh is an
integral and inalienable part of India has been clearly conveyed to the Chinese
authorities’” The timing of the controversy over the new map came while Indian
Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari was on a five-day visit to China from 26-30
June for the celebration of the sixtieth anniversary of the “Five Principles of
Peaceful Coexistence.”
However, China’s deletion of Sikkim from the
list of China's "countries and regions’ showing Sikkim as a part of India
is a positive gesture indeed, although the Sikkim-China border's northernmost
point, "The Finger", continues to be the subject of dispute and
military activity.
Therefore, for India, needless to say twice,
Bangladesh is a coveted point of attention to get connected between the mainland
and seven sisters plus Sikkim using many routes for the reasons that--------------------
(a) Bangladesh has borders with Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram in the east and located in the west is Paschimbanga (former West Bengal), a state of India that is widely connected with the mainland states of India. Hence Bangladesh is a dependable bridge in many ways between the northeastern zone and mainland India via West Bengal;
(b) There are a lot of problems including
insurgencies in the area. To speak the truth, willingly or unwillingly,
Bangladesh has become ‘safe shelter’ for those insurgents. Here the role of
Pakistan, EU countries and US cannot be set aside. More important is China’s
strong growing relations with Bangladesh since the change-over of 15 August
1975. Under such compelling circumstances, an India-friendly Bangladesh is a
call of time;
(c) All sorts of possible trades and commerce
may easily ply over Bangladesh using diverse modes of communications and
transportations from mainland to the northeastern zone squeezing time, energy
and costs; and
(d) From defense and strategic standpoints,
India, in the wake of any conflict or war with bordering state China or Myanmar,
can take notes and actions more promptly and logistically provided Bangladesh stands
by her and responds accordingly. Thus, gravely enough, for many reasons, overt
or covert, Indian defense expenditures for this zone may as well be reduced too
much below a supportable point. India is determined to activate the wave of
development by eradicating terrorism, drug-trafficking, smuggling etc
bi-laterally or regionally. A peaceful and stable northeastern region with a
spell of development is a guarantee for India’s growing hold in south Asia.
Creation of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (MDONER) in 2001
is a milestone in this regard and it was accorded the status of a full-fledged
ministry on May 2004. The ministry is mainly concerned with the creation of
infrastructure for economic development of North-Eastern region. One should not
make a delay to understand and realize the gravity of the appointment of state
minister for external affairs former chief of army of India Vijay Kumar Singh,
first of its kind, also as Minister of Development of North Eastern Region (MDONER) since May 2014. Here lies the nitty-gritty of geo-political
weight and importance of Bangladesh.
Therefore, the asking arises is Sheikh Hasina
administration dealing with India having this very geo-political weight and
importance rightly and befittingly? So far nothing substantial and rewarding
took place for Bangladesh and the dividends are increasing in favor of India. Critics
are of the views that ‘Regime security is gaining over State security’. I presume
that Sheikh Hasina is now a matured statesman and she is capable enough to
handle the landscapes, present and/or future, bringing and ensuring plus points
for Bangladesh while dealing with India. Therefore, for more, negative or
positive, we have no choice but to rely on time, space and dimension. And next
issue shall envelop ‘VK Singh: New Skipper
of MDONER’.
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