With what has been happening in Bangladesh since 05 August 2024, there seemed no hope of 16 December 2024 being celebrated for defeat of Pakistan and liberation of Bangladesh jointly by the Armed Forces of India and Bangladesh in the traditional way by Indian Armed Forces and Mukti Bahini veterans-Mukti Yoddha/Joddha. However, albeit very late and without any advance intimation, they did. Six Indian Armed Forces veterans of the 1971 War and two serving officers were invited to Dhaka and six Yodhas with two serving officers of Bangladesh Army were invited to Kolkata to attend the Vijay Diwas (India) and Victory Day/Bijoy Diwas (Bangladesh) ceremonies.
Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus did make a Victory Day speech but made no mention of Sheikh Mujibur Rehman. The sentiment in his interim government allows India to be mentioned, if at all, only as an ally.
One of the most disturbing and significant visuals of the chaos which began in Bangladesh on 05 August 2024 was of Bangladesh’s first and founding President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s statues being vandalised, hammered, garlanded with shoes etc. These acts signified hate for those involved in Bangladesh’s struggle for the freedom from oppression and atrocities by the ruling West Pakistanis and an attempt to wipe out its glory of liberation and birth of the new nation Bangladesh in 1971.
At least 29 leaders of the Awami League were killed and Sheikh Hasina was fortunate to have escaped by being flown out of Dhaka in military helicopter.
There was some déjà vu. On15 August 1975, Bangabandhu (pronounced Bongobondhu, meaning friend of the people) Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, considered to be the driving force behind the liberation of Bangladesh was assassinated. This writer cannot forget that day because, he was doing a gunnery course at the Armoured Corps School & Centre, at Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, where three Bangladesh Army officers were also doing courses. The one doing the Gunnery Course came to this writer’s room early in morning on 15 August 1975, looking very upset and broke the news of Sheikh Mujib’s assassination. He then requested this writer to convey this up the line to the Commandant and that he be allowed to proceed immediately back to Dhaka, as he needed to be with his mother, who was a senior Awami League politician. This writer did the needful liaising and arranged for this officer to be dropped to Pune to catch a flight to Delhi, from where he flew to Dhaka.
Immediately after Sheikh Mujib’s assassination by pro-Pakistan officers of Bangladesh Army, his daughter, Sheikh Hasina, her husband, sister and two children were secretly provided refuge by India’s then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in New Delhi’s Pandara Road, an area where this writer grew up in the 1960s.
The Awami League (AL) ruling in Bangladesh since 2009 was overthrown by the student–people’s uprising in early August 2024. Apart from the 29 AL leaders killed, many went into hiding; the properties and residences of many AL leaders were looted, vandalized and set on fire; many ministers and influential politicians of AL were arrested; many of them were prohibited from leaving Bangladesh and bank accounts of many AL leaders and their families were frozen. Since then, the party has remained underground. Sheikh Hasina, the former prime minister had to flee to India. From a secular democracy Bangladesh was plunged into anarchy along with atrocities against Hindus and non-Muslims.
A look back at pre-Bangladesh history is relevant. A few years after the painful birth of Pakistan (1947) in two parts-West and East – separated physically by India, the Bengalis of East Pakistan realized that the oppression, exploitation and deprivation that they had suffered at the hands of the British, were all back and this time being practiced by their West Pakistani ‘countrymen’.
Some of the causes of discontentment of East Pakistan’s Bengalis were: East Pakistan had been turned into a market to dump West Pakistani products; foreign trade policy was biased in favor of West Pakistani interests; the ruling elite allocated and distributed resources in favor of West Pakistan; between 1948 and 1960, East Pakistan made 70% of all of Pakistan’s exports, while it only received 25% of the due money; no profits/advantages were accruing to East Pakistan despite it being the largest producer of raw jute; Urdu vs. Bengali-the state language of Pakistan was to be Urdu and no other language despite Bengali being granted official status in 1956; 1969’s mass revolt; protests/ demonstrations as Pakistan central government failed to aid victims of Bhola Cyclone in coastal areas of East Pakistan in November 1970; – Pakistan refusing to accept Awami League under Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rehman winning 298 seats in the East Bengal elections and 167 seats at the National Assembly elections; Operation Searchlight-genocide by Pakistan army in East Pakistan of over 3 million East Pakistanis- largely Bengalis, but also Hindus and Christians and rape of up to 4,00,000 East Pakistani women.
The Bangladesh Liberation War began on 26 March 1971. A band of determined East Pakistani Bengali youth rose in rebellion under the banner of Mukti Vahini (freedom force) and aided and trained by Indian Army, became an asset against Pakistan Army in East Pakistan. Meanwhile around 10 million East Bengali refugees entered India during the early months after March 1971, of whom 1.5 million may have stayed back after Bangladesh became independent. The two-nation theory had been shot to smithereens.
On 03 December 1971 India had to declare war on Pakistan after its attack on Indian airbases. Indian Army fought on two fronts -Western and Eastern-and within 12 days it encircled East Pakistan and ended the war on December 16, 1971with over 93,000 Pakistani armed forces personnel surrendering to it at Dhaka. This surrender was the largest of its kind since World War II. The casualty count of Indian Army in this war was about 3,800 killed and 12,000 injured.
Having been requested by the highly suppressed Bengalis of erstwhile East Pakistan to assist them, the Indian armed forces did so and after Bangladesh’s liberation, they did not stay on there but returned to India.
Muhammad Yunus, who took over as the Chief Advisor of the interim government in August 2024 has been described in media as “a puppet of the renewed CIA-ISI (Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence) nexus/US Deep State decoy”, who has ignored India’s contribution of over $10 billion for Bangladesh’s development and also provides 25 percent of Bangladesh’s electricity.
It is widely reported that one of Yunus’ first acts after becoming the Chief Advisor of the interim government was to free Islamist terrorists from prison, lift the bans of proscribed Islamist terror outfits, given them free rein and allowed them to gain a lot of influence in Bangladesh. Yunus has allowed them to perpetrate all kinds of atrocities against Hindus mainly and even other minorities. False cases have been lodged against Chinmay Krishna Das, a priest of ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) and spokesperson for the Bangladesh Sammilita Sanatani Jagran Jote and others.
While India’s External Affairs Ministry (MEA) has been urging Bangladesh to ensure the safety of the Hindus and all minorities, Mohammad Yunus and others in his administration have been reportedly blatantly denying reports of attacks on Hindus and other religious minorities as fake and insisting that Hindus are safe in Bangladesh.
Retired Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar has not pulled his punches by plainly warning, “Do not underestimate the ingenuity of the Deep State in America to have its way. Keeping the guard down will be a catastrophic mistake on the part of the Delhi establishment. We could get hit when least expected. That’s what happened in Bangladesh and Syria.”
President elect Donald Trump has stated: “I strongly condemn the barbaric violence against Hindus, Christians, and other minorities who are getting attacked and looted by mobs in Bangladesh, which remains in a total state of chaos.” While such statements sound good, it remains to be seen how much Trump will do to rein in the US’ Deep State. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, must make best use of his equation with Donald Trump and urge him to undo whatever possible of the major damage that has been done during the Biden administration in the long period before Trump’s swearing in.
It is vitally important for India to try to prevent Bangladesh from becoming a pro-Pakistan anarchy. India’s MEA must get into high gear for launching information/influencing operations. If Bangladesh gets completely taken over by anti-India elements, then India will have to make necessary provision in its external security capacity.
