The Enemy Within

So, so you think you can tell...a barrage from a dam, nature from nurture, hope from hype, patriotism from antipathy, culture from religion?

India is our major neighbor who is coming of age on the world stage. We cannot deny that it helped us gain our much eulogized liberation, going against the world super power. That surely does not mean we should bow to all its needs. But just like we expect Pakistanis to own up to their 71 misdeeds, we should not step back from acknowledging India's role in our struggle for sovereignty. We would do well to remember though, that India is not to continue in their benevolent role of aiding our interests. India will put its national interests first and cannot be blamed for it. It is our ministers and government representatives who should be able to negotiate a balanced deal for our country.

Even without the particular historic instance, we share a common inheritance. India itself was united only in their movement to oust the British colony and we were with them then. In the cumulative Bengal region, we speak the same language, have similar attires and cuisines as well as many shared culture and traditions. Our national anthems are by the same Indian poet. After more than a half a century of separation though, we are now perhaps more under Indian influence than we ever were. It is our largest source of import. We wear Indian textiles, eat Indian spices, watch their movies and channels, go to India for health services as well for tourism. It is estimated that 1.5 million cows are smuggled annually from India providing more than half the beef consumed in Bangladesh ^{[LA Times]}. This in turn fuels the tannery and leather based industry. Prices of so many commodities will go up if we were to stop trade with India. We do however need to decrease the trade deficit. We should be able to offer attractive alternatives to dubbed Doremon to our innocent children. It is not India's fault that they can sell their products. It is our fault that we have not been able to match even up to their standards.

There is a lot of strong sentiment against Tipaimukh Dam. This is based on the bad experience of Farakka Barrage. The diversion of water from the main river as in Farakka barrage is different from building a storage dam for generation of hydro-electricity, like Tipaimukh Dam on the Barak in India or the Kaptai Dam on the Karnafuli in Bangladesh. The Kaptai Dam has not dried up its downstream area. So the desertification of the highest rainfall area of Sylhet area is unlikely ^{[Retd Director, BWDB]}. Dams can not be so unilaterally evil. Hydroelectric power plants around the world supply 24 percent of the world's electricity.  USA and Canada have 50% and 69% of their electricity from dams. Brazil, China, and Norway are among the other top hydroelectric-generating countries ^{[Water Encyclopedia]}. As the world is getting environmentally conscious and going green, the advantage of dams become more important as a green renewable process which does not require pollution-emitting burning of fuels ^{[U.S. Geological Survey]}.

Now most of the impacts of river engineering are extremely difficult, and in many cases impossible, to predict with certainty ^{[International Rivers]}. Of course there are negative environmental impacts, but so does driving a car and cattle farming. India in all likelihood has decided to invest in such  a mammoth setup only after the cost-benefit analysis has been favorable, taking into factor the cost of risk management and environmental effects. The good news for us is that the upstream region faces more challenges and we are the downstream in case of Tipaimukh.  Assam and Nagaland, like Bangladesh, are also lower riparians and Barak passes through these states before entering Bangladesh. Governments of these two states have welcomed it because they also will benefit from its flood mitigation, dry season augmentation and power generation components. So we need a proper study to validate any qualms we have, and then perhaps bargain for a share of the electricity and proper mitigation of risks. Obstinate denial is not a solution. We have to embrace progress and development and do so by cooperation with our neighbors and allies.
[See much more about the Tipaimukh Dam at http://horizonspeaks.wordpress.com/2009/06/08/tipaimukh-faq/]

The long ongoing border killings by BSF have been jolted into our consciousness by the video that went viral on Facebook in mid January. With all due respect for the victims, I must add that our government acted promptly and properly by filing an official complaint as well as expressing its dismay to Indian headquarters. Apart from that, the news on an international channel should be message enough for India ^[BBC]. India itself did not delay the suspension of the 8 involved officers and their court martial is arranged almost in a month ^{[The Daily Star]}. I would say that is a exemplary time line. In fact, the video was made by a BSF guard, first shared on a Kolkata website _{[Asia Times]} and then leading Indian newspaper like The Hindu owned up to their fault. I, however, did not find any of our papers questioning what our border guards were doing when the victims crossed the border illegally. Anyways, let us hope that someone posts a video of the atrocities on the people of Chittagong Hill Tracks in our very own Bangladesh.

It is utterly funny that we want to hold another country responsible for our plights. Instead of taking measures to work on our shortcomings, we find solace in pointing fingers elsewhere. I got a few online invitations to ban Indian goods for the entire day of the auspicious day of today - Mar 1 2012. But why just one day? I mean, it is good for the economy to use our own national products. By all means let us forever boycott and ban all Indian and other foreign products, especially for items for which we have home made substitute. One cannot drop patriotism at the drop of a hat.

Being geographically proximate and having a lot of shared infrastructures, there are many other simmering issues between the two countries like transit, Teesta treaty and 3-bigha corridor. But I find that all propositions on any issue are criticized harshly by some stakeholder or the other. We are following the offense is the best defense strategy in this age of globalization. Let us try to look through the political brainwashing of India being our enemy and try to look at issues objectively. We could instead learn from their effective policies, barter hard for the benefits we can provide them, and deal maturely with their atrocities. It is indeed impossible for a general citizen to form independent opinions and take a social stand on all issues. It is more confusing when technical 'experts' also vary in their opinions. With so much information at our disposal, we should not let old or new media brainwash us into taking sides on important national matters.

But then again, the most we do about national issues is share a post on Facebook or sign a cause online, and this really does not change things in the real world. We end up hating the ruling party for 5 years.