Even in 1971, Awami League wasn't stating it wanted independence: Srinath Raghavan

Times Of India-30.12.13

With elections approaching amidst violence, Bangladesh's future looks uncertain. Some of this is rooted in a past marked by enduring clashes.Srinath Raghavan , senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research and senior research fellow at King's College, London, spoke with Ashish Yechury about why Bangladesh's creation was a global affair, influences shaping this — and how even Israel apparently got involved:

Your book is called 1971: A Global History of the Crea-tion of Bangladesh — why global?

Well, the creation of Bangladesh is generally seen as a subcontinental affair; in default mode, it's seen as the second partition. This seems to me a very narrow view. It doesn't take into account a wider international context in which this happened and which decisively shaped the outcome. This was a global event — participants themselves thought they had to secure global support. In a sense, the struggle on the ground was matched by a struggle for global opinion. That's central in understanding these events.

You argue Bangladesh's creation wasn't inevitable — but you list conditions in the build-up to 1971 which played a key role. How do you reconcile these?

The deterministic reading of Bangladesh primarily comes from the view that united Pakistan was an unsustainable entity. The arguments are on geography, with two wings of the same country separated by India. 

There are arguments about economic disparity, cultural differences between the Bengali and West Pakistani elite and the lopsided power-sharing arrangement between the two.

What i argue is that you don't really need to look at the background to understand how the quest for autonomy transformed into a demand for freedom. We need a wider perspective.

Is your view that if the Pakistani response wasn't so heavy-handed, there would not have been an independent Bangladesh?

You might have had a loose confederation which, in some ways, is what the Awami League and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman wanted — even as late as March 1971, the Awami League was not stating it wanted outright independence. They were asking for a loose confederation with devolution of political and economic autonomy to East Pakistan.

There was hope that with a looser confederation set-up and fair elections, the Bengalis' numerical superiority would kick in and they could get greater power, a fairer share.

Why link this to the 'spirit of 1968'?
To me, the student movements of 1968 are the turning point in the history of Pakistan. Ayub Khan had been in power for 10 years and Pakistan was doing well economically, despite growing disparity and concentration of wealth. Student movements in East and West Pakistan precipitated change.

Student movements were a global phenomenon and i quote a CIA document where they say that this was a global movement. In Pakistan, these students were from a different generation. Sheikh Mujibur himself was a student leader in the 1940s, he had fought for Pakistan with different aspirations. The radicalisation of this student movement forced the Awami League to make their negotiating position far less flexible.

Meanwhile, amidst all this, you mention Israel getting involved — can you tell us more?

The Israelis have a history of supplying weapons to India. In 1962 and 1965, they sent some weapons despite the US embargo on India in 1965. So India had a secret backchannel with the Israelis — there is no indication that the Americans knew about them giving arms in 1971.

Full diplomatic recognition from India was important for Israel as they were feeling extremely isolated at that time — they thought this would help.

Bangladesh tilting towards Military rule

No doubt that Sujhata Singh’s effort will be a futile one. It is clear from the development in Bangladesh and rigidity shown by Khaleda Jia that no positive outcome will be seen to end the impasse.  The oppositions aim to avoid election holding till crosses 25^th January 2014. i.e the end of the  parliament. After that Sheikh Hasina will not be in a commanding position.

BNP’s aggressive stance in alliance with jammat is not going to turned down in near future .BNP and Jammat is set to get the whole pie of political share.

Not only the political difference but also personal ego had made the relationship of two major political leaders from bad to worse.

It is an omen in the sky of democracy.

In many Islamic countries turmoil in daily life is most common. Bangladesh is no doubt is going the same way.

This has every chance that a time will come when people of Bangladesh will be forced to believe by on going day to day suffering that Military Rule is the only remedy and a military personnel will size the power from the government democratically evoked.

UN has to play and must play a greater and active role before the present situation should go out of control.

S Mukherjee 

India calls for free, fair polls in violence-hit Bangladesh

  

 TNN | Dec 5, 2013, 
India called for free and fair elections in Bangladesh, stressing that stability of the neighbouring country had implications for the entire region. "We hope that the forthcoming elections will respond to the aspirations of the people of Bangladesh and that they will be free, fair, impartial and peaceful and find wide acceptability," said Sujatha Singh, foreign secretary, on her first visit to the neighbouring nation. She also urged an end to the ongoing violence in Bangladesh, which has alarmed security circles in India. 

In her meetings with the government and opposition leaders in Dhaka, Singh insisted on the importance of holding elections and the importance of wide participation for the elections to be credible. "I conveyed to the Prime Minister the high importance which India attaches to having good relations with Bangladesh and to peace and stability in Bangladesh. Both these are essential elements for ensuring the larger good of our region," she said. 

Highlighting the nation's progress, she said, India had a strong interest in a stable and independent Bangladesh. She also stressed on how far Indo-Bangla relations had come, focusing on "cooperation in the areas of political understanding, security, trade and economic relations,economic development, energy and people to people exchanges". 

The Awami League government has by carping on the unfinished agenda of Teesta agreement and the land boundary pact successfully overshadowed all the bilateral progress that had been achieved. Singh made no bones about stressing on them, "energy (500 MW inter-grid connectivity and commencement of work on a 1320 mw power plant in Rampal); sub-regional cooperation in power and water and trade and connectivity; development assistance ($800 million credit line well on its way to implementation and $200 million untied grants-in-aid); trade (unilateral zero duty quota free access to all Bangladeshi products except 25 tariff lines that has led to significant increases in Bangladesh's exports to India, particularly in garments); border haats; security, border management and border infrastructure." 

She met foreign minister A H Mahmud, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, leader of the OppositionBegum Khaleda Zia and Jatiya Party chief General H M Ershad. She told them that political parties had responsibility to fight elections. Later, Ershad tweeted that she had said if they stayed away from elections, the field would be open to extremists. "As a fellow democracy, India hopes that the forthcoming elections will strengthen democratic institutions, practices and processes in Bangladesh," Singh said. 

The election boycott by the Jatiya Party is a big blow to the Awami League government, which has been trying to get all other parties into the elections leaving BNP isolated along with Jamaat-e-Islami. The nation is in the midst of increasing violence, as BNP takes its opposition to the streets. BNP wants Hasina to resign before elections are called. The PM instead has opted for an all-party government to take a more equitable approach to the elections. This is not acceptable to BNP, whose leader Begum Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina are locked in a winner-takes-all political battle coloured by deep-seated personal enmity. 

It is possible now that the elections, originally scheduled for January 5, may have to be postponed. The last date for filing of nominations was on Monday, and reports said only about 1,100 nominations have been made, when the expectation was for about 2,500. BNP certainly has not filed nominations and has asked the Election Commission to postpone the polls. Sheikh Hasina is unwilling to do that and wants to rush through elections that are deemed "free and fair" even without BNP contesting. The idea was to wean other parties away from BNP's alliance to get them to participate in the polls. That does not seem to be happening. 

Violence has also overtaken the streets, evoking strong reactions from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay. In a statement on Monday, Pillay had said, "In the past week, we have seen acts as extreme as protestors throwing molotov cocktails onto public buses without allowing the occupants to escape, leaving women and children with horrific burns... Such levels of violence are deeply shocking for the Bangladeshi people, the vast majority of whom want — and deserve — a peaceful and inclusive election." 

Dhaka is dangerously close to inviting serious international attention. Pillay went on to chastise the entire political leadership. "Whatever their differences, political leaders on both sides must halt their destructive brinkmanship, which is pushing Bangladesh dangerously close to a major crisis. Instead, they must fulfil their responsibility and use their influence to bring this violence to an immediate halt and seek a solution to this crisis through dialogue," she added