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The One-Eyed Doe : Indian Diplomacy | |||
| Published on April 19th, 2007 In Uncategorized, Politics | Views 224 | ||||
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The One-Eyed Doe : Indian Diplomacy Palash Biswas Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551 Email: palashchandrabiswas@gmail.com Yunus officially announced the formation of his party, Nagorik Shakti, or Citizen"s Power. He talked about saving the country and rescuing the poor. I knew that the cafe crowd and the elite loved him, but what about the poor? “I spilled blood for this country because I believed that the poor would live freely, but we are still being harassed," said Mohammad Abdul. In ranchi, Arjun Singh defends Rahul over remark on Congress role. Union HRD Minister Arjun Singh today strongly defended Rahul Gandhi"s controversial remark on the Gandhi family"s role in the freedom struggle and the division of Pakistan, saying the young Congress leader had only stated the facts. “Nobody wants to see the facts. Has he said any anti-national thing? Just because Rahul Gandhi has said them, people are after him," Singh told a press conference here. “People are making a mountain out of a molehill. Was the Gandhi family doing any anti-national activity during the freedom movement? Were we not witnesses to what happened during the Bangladesh crisis (1971)?" he asked. Rahul Gandhi during a poll campaign in Uttar Pradesh on April 15 had said that the Gandhi family did whatever it decided to do, be it the freedom struggle or the division of Pakistan. Asked if the Gandhi family brought independence to the country, Singh said, “I don"t think that is what he (Rahul Gandhi) said. He is a young man and he also has his perceptions. Let him have some grace on that." Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh was the target of a black flag protest by Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Pariashad activists while he was delivering a convocation speech at Ranchi University on Wednesday. Rahul Gandhi, the heir of India"s Nehru-Gandhi family, has sparked a political storm with a series of controversial remarks that analysts said showed the immaturity of a likely future national leader.Rahul, 36, has been the mascot of the ruling Congress party, headed by his Italian-born mother Sonia, in the election campaign in Uttar Pradesh, India"s most populous state and once a bastion of his family.A first-time lawmaker, he has been on a barnstorming tour of the province and sought votes by trying to highlight the political contributions of his family, which has ruled the country for most of the last six decades. However, his widely reported remarks have apparently ended up embarrassing his own party and government, as well as provoking a diplomatic spat with neighbouring Pakistan. First, Rahul said that had his family been in power in 1992, it would have stopped Hindu mobs from razing a controversial mosque in Uttar Pradesh they say was built on the site believed to be the birthplace of Hindu god-king Ram. The destruction of the ancient mosque, when veteran Congress leader P.V. Narasimha Rao was prime minister, triggered some of India"s worst Hindu-Muslim violence. Then last week, Rahul claimed family credit for India getting independence from Britain in 1947 and also for saying his family was responsible for the division of Pakistan and the creation of Bangladesh in 1971. Our One Eyed Political Leadrship cares for nothing but only directives and orders from the Post modern Manmu Maharaj in Washington. Anti US communists of India have come on way ahead on the way of Capitalist Development and the Ideology is followed is nothing but Post modern manusmriti. Indian Diplomacy means only US interests worldwide and US MNC led zionist Hidutva Super Market! The generals of Bangladesh tighten their grip on power.This concept of a militarily guided democracy without democrats is familiar in South Asia. General Pervez Musharraf has followed the same script in Pakistan and his countrymen are still waiting, with increasing impatience, for the real democracy he promised them nearly eight years ago.Both former Bangladeshi prime ministers have much to answer for, including tolerance for corruption and a bitter personal rivalry that kept the country in permanent turmoil. But the answering should be done to Bangladesh"s voters and, if called for, to an independent civilian judiciary - not to an unaccountable military dictatorship. India was never successful to stop the unwanted Refugee Influx from Bangladesh despite its vital role in the liberation war of Bangladesh. Minority persecution continues so the Refugee Influx. Ulfa and north East extremist leaders have bases in Bangladesh. They have traing centres there. They run business. Government of India could do nothing. Awami League and BNP, both sides of Bangladesh Democratic Politics got involved with Anti India Islamic pro Pak fanatics, we did not notice. We were never interested to defend democracy and secularism in Bangladesh. In an exclusive interview to NDTV, Foreign Minister of Bangladesh Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury said his caretaker government has assured New Delhi that it will not allow terror groups to operate from there. Assam governor Lt Gen (retd) Ajai Singh feels that militant outfit Ulfa has disintegrated totally and is trying to hide around the difficult terrain in Upper Assam. The current attack launched by security forces is aimed at clearing the bases of the outfit. And what is your Diplomacy? Amusement is this that over decades India and Myanmar had hardly any relations. To a large degree this was due to India"s outdated model of Nehruvian ideals in its foreign policy formulation. Recent research, however, has pointed towards a shift in Indo-Burmese relations.The reasons for such a shift, placing them in the larger context of the reframing of India"s foreign policy objectives under the BJP-led NDA government in the late 1990s. These new priorities have been upheld by the Congress led government since the elections in 2004. The primary aim for such a shift was economic, as India reassessed its position globally and regionally, putting economic relations at the centre of its foreign policy formulation and engendering India"s “pipeline diplomacy". It looks in detail at the geo-politics of energy and how energy security is now playing a major role in international relations in South Asia. It then describes India"s energy needs, focusing in particular on gas, which is at the origin of the pipeline diplomacy and its increasing interest in relations with nations rich in gas and oil. It ends by assessing what impact India"s pipeline diplomacy could have on the wider Southeast Asian region, with special regard to ASEAN. Keywords India, Myanmar, India"s new foreign policy, pipeline diplomacy, geo-politics of energy, Myanmar gas reserves, India"s Northeast. And Indian Economy is well projectd by SEZ Act which is to annihiliate Rural India and indegineous production system! It is the infinite Enslavement story all along. THE Delhi Declaration of April 4, 2007 reiterated the commitment of member countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation to strengthen the partnership for prosperity with equitable distribution of benefits and opportunities among the peoples of the region. The heads of state and government acknowledged different options and alternatives and recognised many choices and challenges to enhance the regional cooperation. The 14th summit must continue to remain as a landmark with the entry of Afghanistan as a valued member of the SAARC family. This might open a new vista of cooperation with a new horizon of expectation and firm commitment to eliminate extremism, corruption, poverty and creating truly vibrant and globally competitive South Asian Economic Community. Nevertheless, seeing itself as a player rather than camp follower, India baulks at becoming entangled in East Asian power politics. An Asian quadrangle with two Caucasian members also goes against the grain of Indian nationalism. Singh has clarified that India will take no part in strategies to contain China. Travelling to Beijing and Tokyo in June 2006, Pranab Mukherjee, now India"s external affairs minister but then holding the defence portfolio, countered Japanese expressions of concern about China"s spiralling military spending and lack of transparency with the retort that China"s army has always been huge. There are powerful reasons why “India and China should cooperate and compete with each other", as Singapore"s Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew told a New Delhi audience last November. Sino-Indian trade has grown spectacularly to $17.6 billion (nudging the $26.8 billion Indo-US trade), while Indo-Japanese trade languishes at only $6.5 billion. For India bangladesh means bengali speaking all people residing outside bengal and termed as bangladeshi en block. These refugees are mostly Dalit namoshudras and Paundras. Pranab and Lalu launched a Deportation Drive nationwide enacting latest Citizenship Amendment Act with the Active Help of the Red Horses countrywide! Pl see what they claim:https://www.vedamsbooks.com/int-rel.htm You cannot escape your fate. A Doe had had the misfortune to lose one of her eyes, and could not see any one approaching her on that side. So to avoid any danger she always used to feed on a high cliff near the sea, with her sound eye looking towards the land. By this means she could see whenever the hunters approached her on land, and often escaped by this means. But the hunters found out that she was blind of one eye, and hiring a boat rowed under the cliff where she used to feed and shot her from the sea. “Ah," cried she with her dying voice, “You cannot escape your fate." Townsend version A doe blind in one eye was accustomed to graze as near to the edge of the cliff as she possibly could, in the hope of securing her greater safety. She turned her sound eye towards the land that she might get the earliest tidings of the approach of hunter or hound, and her injured eye towards the sea, from whence she entertained no anticipation of danger. Some boatmen sailing by saw her, and taking a successful aim, mortally wounded her. Yielding up her last breath, she gasped forth this lament: “O wretched creature that I am! to take such precaution against the land, and after all to find this seashore, to which I had come for safety, so much more perilous." L"Estrange version (A Stag With One Eye) A one-eyed-stag that was affraid of the huntsmen at land, kept a watch that way with t"other eye, and fed with his blind side still toward an arm of the sea, where he thought there was no danger. In this prospect of security, he was struck with an arrow from a boat, and so ended his days with this lamentation: Here am I destroy"d, says he, where I reckon"d my self to be safe on the one hand; and no evil has befal"n me, where I most dreaded it, on the other. Moral We are lyable to many unlucky accidents that no care or foresight can prevent: but we are to provide however the best we can against them, and leave the rest to providence. News Flash “In the recent past, the civil discipline, security and economy were at stake due to irresponsible and non-stop political agitation and activities led by her party, the Awami League, and other political parties," the statement said. “And due to this, a state of emergency has to be declared." The statement said there was “apprehension" that she might jeopardise law and order, and create political instability, endangering public safety and economic life. “For public safety, the government has issued a special security alert about Sheikh Hasina"s return to the country. This arrangement is temporary." The authorities have placed the police, immigration, air, land and port authorities on alert following their decision. There has so far been no response form Sheikh Hasina - who has been accused of murder and extortion - to the government"s announcement. ‘Clear conscience" But on Tuesday she reiterated her intention to return home from the US to contest what she called the “false and fake cases" against her. She said that she would leave Washington for London on Wednesday and would travel to Dhaka at the weekend. Sheikh Hasina said she did not fear detention or physical harm. “They can do whatever they like, but I know my conscience is clear, I haven"t done anything wrong, and I haven"t committed any crimes," she said. “They filed cases and more cases maybe just to punish me." It was also reported on Tuesday that another former Bangladeshi Prime Minister, Khaleda Zia, had agreed to go into exile to Saudi Arabia with her family. “She will be leaving the country for Saudi Arabia in a couple of days. Initially she will be leaving with a one-month visa to perform Umrah [a minor pilgrimage to Mecca] and her permanent residence there will be finalised upon reaching the kingdom of Saudi Arabia," the Daily Star reported, citing a senior government source. “Everything has been finalised… now only the formalities, including getting a visa, remain to be completed," it said. US is ‘happy" with Bangladesh"s interim government. Kamal Hossain, like millions of others around the country, is ecstatic. A well-dressed man in his early 70s, with a deep, throaty voice, Hossain sounded triumphant and giddy during our recent meeting. “People are shocked, because suddenly the law has returned to Bangladesh," he said. He thinks that if Yunus can leverage his public stature and stay committed to clean, principled politics, he could “fuel a real democratic movement." Thirty-five years ago, Hossain played a critical role in the movement to form Bangladesh, acting first as legal adviser to “father of the nation" Sheik Mujibur Rahman and later writing the 1972 constitution. But 30 years later, he found his nation"s prospects growing grim. Yunus" candidacy, Hossain says, is proof that, “God exists for Bangladesh." But is serious change truly under way? And can the army take credit? The democratic eclipse in Bangladesh this year did not follow the classic script for a military coup. A civilian caretaker has been nominally in charge since January, after troubled national elections were indefinitely postponed. Meanwhile, the generals consolidated power behind the scenes and began harassing and jailing many of the country"s top civilian political leaders. Last week, Sheik Hasina Wazed - who served as prime minister from 1996 through 2001 - and top leaders of her 14-party alliance were charged with murder in connection with violent pre-election protests. Her longtime rival, Khaleda Zia, who both preceded and followed her in office, is now under virtual house arrest. More than 150 other senior politicians have been detained on corruption charges and the timetable for new elections keeps receding. INTERVIEW - BSF to watch chickens from Bangladesh NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India has told its border guards to prevent people illegally bringing in poultry from Bangladesh as part of a heightened vigil against bird flu, a top official said on Tuesday. New Delhi has increased surveillance for avian influenza after three of its neighbours - Bangladesh and Myanmar on its east and Pakistan on the west - reported outbreaks of the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus over the past two months. Special attention is being given to the porous 4,000-km border with Bangladesh, which has culled 79,000 chickens in eight districts to prevent bird flu from spreading. “We have spoken to the Border Security Force and the Home Ministry saying no informal trade with Bangladesh should be allowed and to stop people carrying poultry or meat products from Bangladesh," Indian Animal Husbandry Secretary Charusheela Sohoni told Reuters. Hundreds of people cross the frontier into India daily from impoverished Bangladesh and informal trade is common. India, which declared itself free of bird flu last August after outbreaks in poultry, has asked officials and poultry farmers in states bordering Bangladesh, Myanmar and Pakistan to monitor any unusual mortality among chickens or ducks. “We are naturally keeping a close watch on our neighbours," Sohoni said. “There is no cause for alarm. We are prepared and are confident we will be able to tackle an outbreak if it occurs." Of Indo-Bangladesh distrust A. G. NOORANI THE riots in Kathmandu earlier this year over remarks that the actor Hrithik Roshan had not actually made, reflected a simmering hostility towards India among a wide section of the public which was exploited for reasons of domestic politics. Once the episode was over, few people cared to probe the latent cause. So, it is with the bloody skirmishes on the Indo-Bangladesh border last April. Only 6.5 km of the over 4,000-km boundary remain to be demarcated. But if Nepal is sore over India"s refusal to replace the obsolete 1950 treaty with one respectful of its sovereignty, the issue of Kalapani and the persisting differences over the Mahakali Treaty of 1996, Bangladesh, which allowed the 1972 Treaty with India to lapse, has its own grievances. The dispute over the sharing of the waters of the Ganga was settled after protracted wrangling by a Treaty signed on December 12, 1996; thanks only to the decisive intervention of Jyoti Basu, then Chief Minister of West Bengal. Even so, it is less favourable to Bangladesh than the Agreement of 1977 which, unlike the Treaty, contained a binding minimum guarantee clause in favour of Bangladesh. He publicly complained (on January 1, 1997): “We saw from the figures that some people are talking things which are not correct." He was given incorrect statistics by New Delhi. Kathryn Jacques of the School of Classics, History and Religion at the University of New England in Australia has written a scholarly and objective work which, while understandably centred on relations between Bangladesh and India, also reckons with Pakistan"s involvement and the overarching regional factor. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was an initiative by Bangladesh. It has languished thanks to India"s apathy and to the India-Pakistan feud. As in Nepal, the domestic factor is very relevant. In each country there is a pro-India constituency which India"s high and mighty approach never fails to let down. In each, there is also an anti-India constituency which exploits this. The caretaker government “has attained a lot of achievements in a short time and is enjoying tremendous popular support," Butenis was quoted as saying. Media reports of the “courtesy call" paid by her Monday, however, made no mention of fast-moving political developments elsewhere in the country. Zia has agreed to leave Bangladesh with most of her family members as part of a government “deal" concluded late Monday, while her arch rival, Sheikh Hasina, is currently in the US. Butenis appreciated Ahmed"s Saturday address to the nation when he said the elections would take place in end-2008. She said the US government “is satisfied with the caretaker government"s performance," United News of Bangladesh (UNB) news agency said. A pro-active diplomat, Butenis has been in the thick of the developments leading to and after the general elections, due Jan 11, were called off amidst weeks of political turmoil. She was one of the diplomats engaging various parties and trying to resolve their differences. US officials have expressed their keenness on Bangladesh holding elections and returning to democracy. However, the emergence of an un-elected interim government that is widely perceived as “army-backed" and “army-guided", has been a point of criticism. The New York Times last Saturday for the first time criticised the Bush administration for “ignoring" this phenomenon. It also cautioned the new Bangladeshi authorities that taking recourse to the “Pakistani path" of military rule was no answer to Islamic radicalism. Butenis said the Election Commission is carrying out its jobs, including electoral reforms, as per its commitment, the Daily Star said. “We are pleased with the activities of the Election Commission and have offered assistance to this organisation," the envoy said. She said the US government “is observing the caretaker government"s activities positively". She added that if a new Bangladesh ambassador to Washington is appointed, bilateral cooperation would be further enhanced. In response, Ahmed said the Election Commission needed logistic support, and “a coordinated cooperation of the development partners will be helpful". The Ahmed government has decided to seek foreign funding for carrying out “electoral reforms" that includes updating of electoral rolls and preparation and issuing of photo identity cards for the voters. Ahmed assured Butenis that “the task of the Election Commission towards holding elections and the government"s other activities, including keeping wheels of the economy moving, will go simultaneously". He also informed Butenis about his meeting with US assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs Richard Boucher in New Delhi on the sidelines of the recent 14th SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) summit, reports said. Bangladesh in General"s grip: NY Times Editorial, April 15, 2007 Tuesday April 17 2007 11:39:08 AM BDT Habib Siddiqui, USA The current care taker government of Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed in Bangladesh is truly a prayer answered for tens of millions of its hard working citizens who had enough of their share of witnessing political jugglery by corrupt politicians that play the musical-chair game so aptly, election after election. In the name of the fifth largest democracy in the world, people saw how the country has sealed its fate as the most corrupt nation on earth. When people go hungry, and a mere $100 could bring about smile in the face of many, wasn"t it high time to go after politicians that had stolen nation"s wealth through shoddy dealings, corruption and nepotism? That is why: no one in Bangladesh is shedding tears today when the culprits, vipers and murderous politicians and their business partners are put behind the bar. They see it as their second revolution, the true liberation - some 35 years after its independence in 1971. So popular is this care taker government among Bangladeshis today that they would rather live under this government for years rather than allowing corrupt politicians to toy with their destiny once again. Regards, If Khaleda Zia, Coco and Tareq Rahman are corrupted, had done any crime, they should be and must be punished. Similar is the case for Sheikh Hasina,if she is guilty,she should be punished. if not, then she must be allowed to come back to Bangladesh. Then sending them abroad is a compromise with anti –corruption drive. And then the CTG government loss the moral ground to continue anti-corruption drive and bring other small fishes to justice. People having enough statistics f Bangladesh must agree that if Bangladesh has made any progress in the last 36 years, then the most progress and development has occurred in the last 15 years. So sending such a leader to abroad by force or forcing them to stay abroad is nothing but a conspiracy. So it is clear the CTG is either compromising in anti-corruption drive or conspiring against the most popular leader of the country. Conspiracy brings conspiracy; compromise in anti corruption drive makes the drive eye wash and opens the door of corruption. I can support neither, rather feel urge to resist both. What do you feel? Should not we do our part to resist both the two evils(conspiracy and compromise ) from our own position? Should we allow bangladesh to enter into the age of conspiracy? An objective Bangladeshi M U Ahmed ——————————————————————————– Bangladesh is a Muslim-majority country of roughly 145 million people whose army has a history of meddling in politics. In 1975, a handful of army officers assassinated Mujib, as Mujibur Rahman was affectionately known, and his family. That touched off a rapid series of coups and countercoups. Gen. Ziaur Rahman, who ruled from 1975 through 1981, survived 22 coup attempts before finally being assassinated. Five separate military regimes ruled from the time of Mujib"s murder until December 1990, when massive street demonstrations forced Gen. Mohammad Ershad, who had seized power in a 1982 coup, to step down and hand power to a civilian government. During the three elections since 1991, the army remained in its barracks. Many considered Bangladesh a model for other burgeoning Muslim democracies. Its parliamentary system placed real power in the hands of an elected prime minister, who appoints a president whose powers are limited. The United States Institute of Peace published a report in May 2005 that compared Bangladesh to Turkey and added that it “exemplifies the coexistence of Islam and democracy." But regular elections and a functioning democracy are not the same. During this period of civi |
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