January 11, 2004

Anyone coming from urban Pakistan will find a lot of similarities on the streets of the Bangladesh capital

AN e-mail containing an invitation from the Bangladesh Institute for International and Strategic Studies for participation in a regional workshop on the role of small states in regional stability generated very nostalgic feelings, though Prof Sikandar Mehdi had already alerted me. Surprisingly formalities were completed expeditiously, despite the paucity of time.

The visit to Dhaka turned out to be very educative and helpful in understanding the problems and concerns of Bangladesh in human development and foreign relations, which generally appeared to be Indo-centric. Pakistan is now seen as a “distant” country. Presentations during the BIISS workshop were well structured and thought provoking.

When I boarded the crammed up Biman flight BG031, I was pleasantly surprised when the cabin crew announced Capt. Yasmin was flying the plane. This was an indicator of the varying strides people of that country have made since they decided to part ways with us on Dec 16, 1971, perhaps owing to the discriminatory policies of the ruling cluster.

Until the plane made a safe landing at Dhaka’s Ziaur Rahman International airport, after flying over Partabgarh, Bhopal, Jamshedpur and Kolkota, I was thinking of my old friends, now Bangladeshis, with whom I had studied and worked here. Some of them I had met recently in Karachi when they came for a regional conference.

Although it is now more than 30 years when we drifted away in opposite directions in not very happy circumstances, I was struck by the commonality of concerns and problems during my four-day stay in Dhaka. Its hustle and bustle had increased manifold as it was also hosting the 49th Commonwealth Parliamentary Association’s meeting.

It was refreshing to see ladies of different age group wearing colourful sarees and shalwar kameez and men showing off their “Punjabi” dress, besides the usual western dress. The cricket playing facilities in the capital also impressed me. When I visited the stadium, arrangements were being made for the English team’s visit. Cricket fever had taken over the youth. Chinese and Thai food restaurants in the posh Gulshan area were full and so were the shopping Malls.

The first thing that I noticed was the mushrooming of high-rise offices and residential buildings, adding more pressure on the already over-crowded roads on which driving could be a nightmare for an outsider. As I headed for my hotel from the airport on a bright sunny day, I saw coaches and busses speeding in the same manner as they do here in Karachi. Even their design was not very different from ours.

A large number of Indian-made four-stroke environment friendly CNG auto-rickshaws (about 15,000 of them), double-decker busses, and Japanese and Indian cars were plying on busy Dhaka roads alongside the traditional cycle rickshaws, that have now been barred from many VIP areas. As such they have to zigzag through narrow lanes to make both ends meet. The restriction, I was told by a local journalist, had reduced the daily earning of breadwinners of over a million poor families. Many families had become destitute.

But the vertical take-off of high-rise clusters and growing poverty level is not something Bangladesh specific. It is a common problem in all the third-world countries, especially in the South Asian region where a sizable population of the world is deprived of even the basic needs. Nevertheless, I noticed the emergence of a new enterprising class of managers at different levels.

The Bangladesh government is apparently trying innovative strategies for providing more job opportunities to its teeming millions and ensuring security and stability through a policy of moderation. But that too has not yet served the desired purpose.

Emergence of new clusters is not without problems. According to a report in Dhaka’s Daily Star, “filling up of water bodies and mushrooming of concrete buildings are the main causes for reduction in water level. These unplanned practices are hampering recharge of the ground water.”

Like Karachi, in Dhaka also there was a problem of water theft as according to the report some owners of high-rise apartment buildings draw water from the main line to their reserves.

More than 70 per cent people in Bangladesh are suffering from arsenic poisoning while the water of Dhaka is still safe for drinking. But who knows how far it would go, an official of the Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

WASA has reached an agreement with China to build two water treatment plants at a cost of 450 million takas to reduce dependence on the ground water by 2010.

From newspaper reports and the conversation I had with knowledgeable people at Dhaka Club, National Press Club and the BIISS, it transpired that politics in Bangladesh is highly polarized between Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina. It reminded me of the situation that existed between Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, when they were playing the same role here.

This polarization was evident from the position both leaders had taken on Transparency International’s report about the level of corruption in that country. While the Awami League targeted BNP-led coalition, which includes Jamaat, the ruling party rejected allegations, although three years back it had used similar allegations against the AL government during the election campaign. But organizations like TI have to prove they are not subjective.

Another similarity that attracted me was that newspapermen in Bangladesh were also agitating for a pay rise, 6th wage board and implementation of 5th wage board in all newspapers and news agencies.

Because my guide did not keep his appointment I could not visit the camps of the so-called Biharis who are glued to their love for Pakistan, although the rulers do not want them here and opportunist nationalists, who are putting up with millions of Afghan refugees. However, some young men whom I could meet elsewhere informed that elements of the younger generation have rightly become part of the mainstream, though very late, and have opted for Bangladeshi nationality. They are now regarded as useful members of that society.

While law and order remained a problem, in which according to reports, some elements of the underworld from across the border were also reportedly involved, I could not see any roadblocks around the US Embassy in Dhaka. Ordinary pedestrians could walk on the footpath alongside the embassy without any obstruction. This was in sharp contrast to the road blocks here. Despite resentment in Bangladesh against US policies in the Middle East, Islam and Muslim-bashing by the Western media, I could not come across any radical statement from the religious groups, despite the Jamaat being a member of the ruling coalition.

Foreign Minister M. Morshed Khan has regulated domestic concerns by asking the big powers to shun the culture of double standard. Although many turban-clad men belonging to religious seminaries were on board the Biman flight to and from Dhaka on the occasion of Shab-i-Barat, they remained orderly and did not interfere with the ordinary passengers or the TV programmes shown in the lounges.

In the context of foreign policy I was surprised to note its Indo-centric under currents, although India had played important role in the independence of that country. Bangladesh, like Pakistan, is being implicated by India for fomenting Muslim militancy and cross border terrorism, a charge Dhaka has rejected strongly. This was similar to allegations that New Delhi so regularly level against Pakistan in the context of Kashmir and communal frenzy in India itself. Brig. General Sakhawat Hussain (retd) of Bangladesh called it “baseless and wild” allegations.

Although Bangladesh is surrounded from three sides by India, Dhaka’s immediate concern at the moment was not only military threat but also the Indian mega project of river linking which envisage diversion of water from northern rivers to southern rivers. The controversial plan, which would have “very negative impact on Bangladesh”, has been termed as the “Indian weapon of mass destruction” by a Bangladesh journalist. According to reports water diversion or transfer plan by India envisages the construction of 30 link canals — 14 in Himalayan rivers and 16 in peninsular rivers. The linking component dealing with the Himalayan rivers includes the building of reservoirs, barrages and other structures to store end divert water from the Brahrmaputra and the principal tributaries of the Ganges. Surplus water will be used in the arid regions of Rajasthan and Gujarat on the west, and transferred by canals linking the Ganges with Subamarekha and Mahanada rivers in Orissa-extending (by link canals) to Godavari, Krishna and Cauvery rivers in the Southeast.

Bangladesh’s concerns are deep which India is apparently not willing to address. Therefore Dhaka is trying very hard to use its ties with the US in the changed post-9/11 scenario to restrain New Delhi from pushing through its plans. I had detailed exchange of view of Brig (retd) Sakahawat on the river linking issue.

Deputy editor of the Newage, Nurul Kabir enlightened me on his country’s concerns on this issue, which also reminded me of the ongoing tussle between Punjab and other smaller provinces in Pakistan over Kalabagh Dam and the Greater Thal Canal project. He also informed me that over 200,000 children of well-to-do people were being educated in Indian schools annually, which they feared would become a tool in New Delhi’s hegemonic designs.

The Bangladeshis also expressed concern over closure of Adamjee Jute Mills, apparently under pressure from World Bank, rendering about 50,000 people jobless. This had also affected the related downstream industries. It was emphasized that while BD was being asked to close down jute industries, India was offered $500 million credit for opening new factories. It was feared that deliberately BD was being forced in the position of more dependence on India.

It would be interesting to note how Bangladeshi leaders resolve their internal conflict to withstand external threats and prevent their country from being economically crippled and virtually landlocked if and when India decided to link the rivers and mount a maritime blockade of Bangladesh. Before coming back I was invite to have lunch at the Press Club where I was fortunate to meet some of the old guards who still remember their old colleagues in this part of the world and they were very much concerned and eager to know about them. Those were moments I will never forget. As I came out the overnight drizzling had turned into a heavy downpour. But that is Bangladesh. Land of greenery and rains. That makes the spell Bengal ka jadoo more menacing.

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