In dollar value, this must be the largest farse of all Indian farses. India has been looking for this opportunity for two decades now. I have high confidence in Morshed that he will not fall for this trap. Facts:
- India created an astonishing 550 kilomete detour on the Asian Highway, only to bypass Bangladesh.
- Morshed refused to sign the 23 nation treaty on this point.
- Now China has offered full cooperation to create the Myanmar-Bangladesh link to the Asian Highway.
-Thailand has also pledged full cooperation to Bangladesh with this plan.
-The Bangladesh Army core of Engineers has efficiently built the Bangladesh part of the Highway, ahead of schedule.
- The Bay of Bengal reaches the deepest inland at Bangladesh, creating a great vantage point for transshipment of Chinese cargo.
-We are giving Myanmar the funding and tech to build their part of this highway, just as India did it with them not too long ago.
-This rout will greatly benefit Thailand, China, Myanmar and Bangladesh.
-This rout will be a great disadvantage of the Indian rout, which is longer in the tune of 550 wopping kilometers.
"Gosh, what a do now? We built this **** looking detour just to shaft our neighbors. We spent hundreds of millions of Indian public's money in vein! Now, these buggers are bypassing the whole thing!" Hence the 150 million trap. A small price to pay to buy the sovereignity of a nation.
Creating a Railway transit is the temporary solution to keep India even in the picture with the Asian Highway. They want to collect duties and transport fees on the Chinese and Thai transshipment, which, otherwise will bypass them. They will build these into the rail system they propose to help us with. The second possible benefit in helping us with the Railway, they might finally get their transit, that they have been trying to get for years, wanting to move massive amount of people, equipment, cargo right through the middle of our country. What a dream that would be for a full scale military invasion!
I am sure my analysis has many flaws, however it is based on facts. Several decades ago India misused a grand amount of public money to build the dam across the Ganges also. Today, Farakka is a salvage property. It has caused much more damage to India'g natural resources and environment than to any others. 85% of the dam is permanently inoperable today. Same goes for most of other dams built upstream of these Himalayan rivers. Today, floods in India are reaching bibilical proportions due to the blunders of these dams. They inflict much heavier casualties on India than on it's tiny neighbor Bangladesh. A result of doing things with the wrong intention in mind.
India exports rebellion, terrorism, separatism to all it's neighbors as a state policy. The fact is, a destabilized region can never make for a stable India. The proof: India today is more divided within itself. Today, in India, we see the barbaric style race riots that would shame any civilized nation. We see tens of thousands (it is indeed tens of thousands) of farmers commiting suicide in protest for poverty and taxation as recent as today. Separatists in the Seven Sisters states are becoming so powerful that the states now use federal armies to fight them. Kashmir is a disaster. Religious fanatics and extremists are proud policymakers and lawmakers for the nation(an undeniable fact). These heroes are so convincing that even psuodo-racists like Naipaul has thrown away his mask and joined in. A true shame for a civic society.
Ethnically, the people of the subcontinent are not very different than each other, regardless of country. I am convinced that the general everyday Indians, no matter which part of the country they are from, do not dream of becoming the masters of their neighbors. Yet, today, there is a focused and concentrated effort by the very government of India to run a massive smear campaign against Bangladesh. Proof: Just pull any, and I mean, any negative international news against Bangladesh, you will see that the source of that news is India or Indian. This is sad.
After dealing with lopsided trade policies for many years, we are just beginning to fight back. This year, Bangladesh filed its first official complaint on the issue to the WTO. Bangladesh, since her inception, through thick and thin, has been walking a fine line of neutrality on international conflicts in style. She is a model citizen of this planet. Being among the very poor, we are proudly the largest contributors to the UN peacekeeping force. We are taking firm steps towards a better democracy. Pakistan has military rule following a non-secular government. Until just a few months ago, India was ruled by religious facists. We have no such government. Our political parties do not call for Holy War and ethnic clensing, unlike that of India.
As a young nation, we are making great strides, while facing great oppression by our giant neighbor, India. Although, ironically, India's noble involvement in the birth of Bangladesh should make this a mother-child type relationship, a wholesome one.
A stronger Bangladesh will always make for a stronger India, and yes, a weaker, destabilized Bangladesh will make for an India with a fatal weakness. You can take that to the bank, along with your 150 million!
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