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India as a scared elephant in the region

From: Innovation Line
Date: Wed, Aug 5, 2009 at 5:04 AM

India as a scared elephant in the region
This article could be an introduction of a book on Bangladesh - India relations, writing of which would be completed in next 30 years!

Lets take a look at India from a different perspective. Have you ever encountered a scared elephant which may be concerned with its own security? How about if the elephant thinks that others adjacent to the creature is going to hurt it physically? If you can visualize the scene, its certainly not a pleasant one, specifically for those who are around the scared elephant risk being fatally injured, if not more.

Now it's a different question whether the concern of the elephant is justified and whether the elephant should at all be scared. We can debate day after day on the justification - but the fact is if the elephant is scared, then it is scared and it is dangerous for its neighbors.

Now think of Bangladesh beside a scared India. If some of the policymakers there (in India) are also irresponsible (a portion of them), then India will be comparable to a scared elephant who can be very dangerous for BD, isn't it?

So, what to do about it?

The best thing to do is do nothing about it - just chup chap bose thako. Do our own thing. Hopefully the scare of the elephant will go away over time. Off course, we have to make sure that we aren't hurt, now.

Ok, let us say that we are safe in the short term. What about in the future?

What if the scare do not go away? What if there is something inside it which is making India scared. That is a tough situation to be in - if that is really the case. In that situation, if true, doing ONLY our own thing is not probably the right strategy in the long term. Something should be done to reduce the scare, to help the giant scared elephant. What are those, if any?

We hope to continue this elo-melo vabna on the national security that arises from sometimes 'irresponsible" behaviuor of our giant neighbor. This is an advance article for our policymakers and politicians to think about.

If you thought some of the ideas are worth of your reading time, please forward it to others. If you have an ear to the columnists in regular traditional media, please forward it to them. If you have an ear to the journalists and news editors of the electronic media, discuss it with them. Hope they would look at the suggestions and give due diligence.

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Note: This is a freelance column, published mainly in different internet based forums. This column is open for contribution by

the members of new generation, sometimes referred to as Gen 71. If you identify yourself as someone from that age-group and want

to contribute to this column, please feel free to contact. Thanks to the group moderator for publishing the article as Creative

Commons contents.

After election of December 2008, we have been silent - we are observing what Hasina government does with the trial of war

criminals. We would stay silent until we really make up our mind about the intention of war criminal trial by AL government. But

this article is one of the few exceptions which needed immediate attention.

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Hasina's about-turn to her commitment to change

From: Innovation Line
Date: Sun, Jul 26, 2009 at 11:13 PM

Hasina's about-turn to her commitment to change

Her first major failure to show the nation that she is capable

Let us first give the credit, where it is due. AL as a party has complied to the rules set by EC, held its council and submitted

its constitution. More importantly, the party has selected a relatively younger leader to be the General Secretary. However, Hasina forgot her own commitment to change her party - create a new party which will deliver the charter of change to the nation.

Are we to believe that the councilors do not have the capacity to elect the full committee of the party? Even if they decide to

continue the farcical culture of empowering the Netri to make the committe, why can they do it before the council is over? Hasina could announce a slate of committee members to the councilors which they could have suported. But she did't do it. Why?

On the face it, at the least, its the imcompetence that stands out. Beyond incompetence, there could be a number of possibilities that includes previous corrupt practice of selling these positions to the highest bidders as they used to do for the nomination of MP candidates.

If she can't change the way the party is run (let alone to relinquish the party top position while being PM), how could we beleive that she can deliver the charter of change or a digital Bangladesh? So far, it was honeymoon period for the last six months. However, the way the party council has been conducted, it has demonstrated the first major failure of Hasina as a leader.

Things to watch in near future:

1. Hasina's selection of cabinet was welcomed by many - however, it is time to assess their performance. Lets see whether you have learned how to assess.

2. The parliamentary committees are primarily to make policies, they are not investigation agencies. Hasina should know this. They aren't doing their job.

3. The current celing 10% limit of technocrat ministers quota should be abolished or increased at least. Hasina should formalize some of her advisers as full ministers in technocrat quota.

4. It is time to implement the Human Rights Commission fully and make it effective.

5. It is time to implement the Right to Information Act fully and take meaningful steps so that people can benefit from it.

6. Initiate town-hall style citizens consultation meetings about Asian Highway, Chittagong Deep Seaport, Tipaimukh.

7. Complete the judicial reforms (Oust imcompetent and rajakar sympathezers from the High Court) that was initiated by the CTG.

8. Try the war criminals.

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Re: Interesting Information about Voter List and National ID.

On 8/8/08, Mustakim Islam <mostakim2001@hotmail.com> wrote:

Interesting Information about Voter List and National ID.

Hi, Dear friendsThe reams of paper used in the voter list and national ID project is enough to cover 850 football fields!

The laminating foils used, if staked one above another would outsmart the height of Mt. Everest by 3.5 times!

The total size of all the DVDs used is about 50 terabyte! Can hold all the Hollywood movies made so far in digital format!

The total size of the database (largest in the world, larger than CIA and FBI) is equal to the overall size of the data available in the Internet (excluding video and graphics). It is five times the size of all the books (converted in digital format) available in the largest library of the world - the Library of Congress!

If one typist sits to type all the data (without any break, sleep, food, toilet) he would need two and half centuries to complete the project by himself.

Even the giant laptop manufacturer DELL fell short in their raw material to supply the laptops for this project. They had to dig in African soil for silicon for the production of microchip!

Samsung company supplied us the printer toner. The man-in-charge of Samsung company came to Bangladesh only to make sure that the demand we placed was accurate. He was confused about the number of zeros we put after 1 in the demand form!

This is the fastest collection of demographic data in the world. The second is Pakistan. They took 5 years. Many European countries are visiting us to learn how to do this job.

The most accurate database in the world - UN Chief of Bangladesh.

The most common birthday in Bangladesh is 01 January - 1.29% according to estimate. The least is - 29 February, naturally - .009%!

If all the voters in Bangladesh (8,06,00,000) unite, they can choose any party/president/ prime ministers in the world through free and fair election(Except for India and China)!

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Bangladesh do not need any sectarial science or office managment graduates?

A case could be made against the decision that has been reported in the following news item attached below.

It can not be true that the country do not need these graduates. So, we must be missing something.

What is the problem with these two programs? Its too early to learn secretarial science? Or is it too early to learn office management?

Those who have worked in Dhaka knows that most of the good office secretaries and front office executives are O-level and A-level graduates who do not want to study further or who are just taking a break before they decide for higher studies. So, the same topics can not be too early for HSC level students. Rather it would seem logical that with the increase in our need to hire them as we expand our services industry, it should be seen a good way to produce more workers with soft-skills. So, why the counter-intuitive decision from the national curriculum board, who has so far proven beyond doubt that they have been a worthless some.

Or is it that the graduates of these programs are not as per expectation of the industry? If that is the case, then measures should be taken and the teachers should be trained so that they can produce better graduates, hopefully with more emphasis on at least one foreign language.

Or is it that these graduates have started taking away the jobs of O-level and A-level dropouts and at the same time, they might be bringing the salary level down, too. So, could this decision be a result of the lobbying of the english medium schools?

We should clarify that we are not here to accuse somebody for nothing. However, the decision seems to be counter-intuitive from the context of market need. All we are asking that some stakeholder should look into the actual reasoning and merit of the decision and make sure that it helps broader national interest. Business associations (e.g. FBCCI, DCCI, etc) are relavant shakeholders in this and they should be worried about this decision.

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Bangladesh may allow transit to India.

Our geographical location makes India dependent on Bangladesh for only one transit-route. That is Kotkata -Dhaka - Chittagong - Yangon transit-route. We also feel that India should reciprocate this goodwill on our part by allowing a transit-route between Kathmundu - Dhaka and by allowing a transit-route between Thimpu - Dhaka.

We have said it all in the headline and sub-headline of the article. The only left is to answer this question -"If that is true, then what is all the fuss in a portion of the Bangladeshi press?"

Well, to find out about that you will have to ask those stupids. Its perplexing though, how come so many journalists and so many editors can simultaneously act such stupid? Well, if they are not stupids, they should work on their vocabulary. They need to get their definitions right.

There might be a supplimentary question from those newspapers who have been publishing with serious errors - "Well, we understand, what you are saying. Lets say we don't call that transit-route anymore. We stand corrected. Lets say, we call those alleged demands from India as something else - corridors. What do you say about that?"

Our answer would be - first start using the correct vocabulary. Lets first see how the transit-routes work out. Let India prove whether they really are "Incredible India" or whether they are "Irresponsible India" as far as its immediate eastern neighbors (Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar) are concerned. Once a good reciprocity is achieved on these proposed transit-routes, that will improve the body language of the relations among different nations in this region. Let the first step to happen. That would take a generation. Let the next generation think about what can happen in their time.

Ok, ok, eta na hoi bujlam. But what do you say about this question - "We might have our problem with the India's attitude or behaviour. But doesn't that hurt the general people of their north-eastern states (the so-called seven sisters). Because, even Indian government doesn't take care of the people in those states, it's often alleged. A direct proof in support of that allegation is that India has an Emergency Power Act imposed on those seven states for several decades. Don't we have a responsibility for those people?"

Our first response would be - 'Ma er cheye, mashir dorod dekhano ta ki valo?" On a serious note, we think we are addressing that, too. At least a portion of that concern. See the news time attached below, from the Bangla version of bdnews24.com.

Moreover, we have previously proposed to empower the cheif executives of the district councils of our bordering districts to take combined local projects in partnership with their Indian and Burmese counterparts so that more uniform and people-to-people exchange infrastructure are developed in our regions. We hope that would happen in coming years. On the same note, we have also previously proposed that Bangladesh should setup special economic zones for re-export processing in the bordering districts that can effectively proxy the corridor as far as economics is concerned.

In the meantime, let us start with the transit-route projects. Bangladesh should allow transit to India, only if reciprocated. Our geographical location makes India dependent on Bangladesh for only one transit-route. That is Kotkata -Dhaka - Chittagong - Yangon transit-route. We also feel that India should reciprocate this goodwill on our part with allowing transit between Kathmundu - Dhaka and Thimpu - Dhaka transit-route.

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