Indian Thought Latest News & Views
New Delhi: 5th August, 2024 was a very important and worrying day not only for the neighbouring country Bangladesh (Bangladesh) but also for India… On the same day, Sheikh Hasina’s coup was overturned in Bangladesh, she fled to India where she found refuge, and on the same day India started losing Bangladesh, which has been its close friend for the last 53 years… and the path that Bangladesh has embarked on has become a cause of political and strategic concern for India as a neighbouring country.
Bangladesh getting closer to Pakistan
These pictures are from the recent meeting of D-8, an organization of eight Muslim-majority countries in Cairo. During this meeting, the picture of the friendly meeting between interim Prime Minister of Bangladesh Mohammad Yunus and Prime Minister of Pakistan Shahbaz Sharif is much discussed. In the meeting, Mohammad Yunus told Shahbaz Sharif that old grievances should be forgotten and new relations should be built by setting aside the issues of 1971. He stressed on improving relations between the two countries.
Mohammad Yunus knows that this is the same Pakistan for whose freedom he had formed a citizen committee in America in 1971 and ran the Bangladesh Information Center… He must not have forgotten that the Pakistan to which he is extending a hand of friendship, was the reason for Bangladesh’s long struggle for freedom, and in 1971 East Pakistan separated and became Bangladesh… But now he wants to reset the relations between Pakistan and Bangladesh… He is talking about making a new beginning.
Why is Bangladesh forgetting India?
Why is it forgetting India, which played the biggest role in Bangladesh’s freedom, and is walking on the path of Pakistan. The interim government of Bangladesh is giving one concession after another to Pakistan. Visas have been made easier for Pakistani citizens, which was not the case during Sheikh Hasina’s rule. Pakistan’s High Commission is very active in Bangladesh. The question is what is Pakistan, which has been promoting terrorism in India, going to give to Bangladesh.
Will not closeness to Pakistan push Bangladesh towards fundamentalism rapidly… Anyway, when Mohammad Yunus took over as interim Prime Minister of Bangladesh, a period of violence against minorities, especially Hindus, started under his very nose. Many people, including priest Chinmoy Krishna Das, who were opposing such violence, were arrested. India reacted strongly to all these incidents. Mohammad Yunus was reminded of his responsibilities towards minorities.
But Mohammad Yunus, on the one hand, kept making lip service on the issue of security of minorities and on the other hand, gave free hand to fundamentalists in his country… People who believe in the ideology of Banga Bandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman are marginalized in Bangladesh, are the target of fundamentalists. The effect of the changed environment in Bangladesh is visible on all the institutions there. The Central Bank of Bangladesh has decided to remove the pictures of Mujibur Rahman from the currency there. The court there has said that Joy Bangla will no longer be the national slogan there. This slogan was coined during the Bangladesh Liberation Movement and from what is happening in Bangladesh now, it is clear that the efforts to erase the legacy, all the symbols, signs of that period of liberation have intensified.
The Air Chief Marshal of Bangladesh recently visited China to modernize its air force by purchasing multirole combat aircraft and attack helicopters. According to reports, Bangladesh is considering buying 16 J-10CE fighter jets from China, which is the export variant of China’s own J-10C aircraft…
The 4.5 generation fighter aircraft can also become a challenge for India… It is compared to the US F16 fighter aircraft.. Meanwhile, Pakistan has also announced that it is going to buy China’s FC-31 stealth fighter jets in January… This is a fifth generation fighter which is full of many features including stealth technology and is compared to the US F35.
Pakistan already has J-10C, JF-17 and HQ-series missile systems purchased from China. It is clear that a triangular challenge is being woven around India… Bangladesh, which till now tried to maintain a balance between India and China in its geo-strategic strategy, has now given up that effort. This changing balance of power in South Asia is also a cause of concern for the US, which is already engaged in challenging China’s supremacy around Taiwan in the east of the Asia Pacific region… Now the changing geostrategic situation due to the growing interference of China and Pakistan in Bangladesh has become a new challenge for the US and India… It is time for a break, after the break we will see what Pakistan, with whom Bangladesh is growing closer, did to Bangladesh.
