The Bangladesh political crisis has put India in a quandary. It is not able to take a quick, measured action to defuse the crisis. There are so many imponderables. The situation is delicate and fluid. The reason? This crisis is an engineered one. Foreign powers have played a major role in creating the political upheaval. There are sinister designs involved. Selfish geopolitical interests of powerful countries are behind the turmoil which has been deliberately created to put breaks on the rapid progress of Bharat, emerging as a major economic and geopolitical power.
Bangladesh is innately and historically a part and parcel of the larger Indian nation. The 1947 vivisection of India was an artificial dividing action creating an imaginary political border between peoples having common ancestry, heritage and culture. Such borders are truly not enduring type. Sooner or later, these dividing lines dissolve to re-establish the old, historical integrated cultural entity. And this will happen to India and Bangladesh too.
Let us consider a hypothetical plebiscite in Bangladesh about the choice between an independent state and an integral part of mainland India. What would be the choice? The answer is difficult. Bangladesh has seen the advantages and disadvantages of an existence as a part of Pakistan and as an independent country. The experience as an independent country has been clearly better. But now the moot point is—in its democratic framework, is the present condition of the country in line with the desires and aspirations of its majority population? Much more than that, I would like to pose a larger question. Have the last 77 years been great for the countries of the south Asian subcontinent? Have they experienced peace, progress and prosperity all through? These countries are intrinsically inseparable parts of each other. Their moorings are common. They are characterised by deeper bonds of ideological and cultural similarity. Geographical contiguity is unalterable. Political separation is superficial, unnatural and long term unsustainable. This is the deeper truth that needs to be understood by the population inhabiting the countries of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Nepal and even Afghanistan. The larger Bharat as an integrated nation is a cultural reality. Nations are as old as human civilisation and these nations have ideologies as their fundamental bases.
Viewed in the above light, Bangladesh has a secure future only if politically aligned and attuned with Bharat. The first artificial divide through human machinations was created by the partitioning of Bengal in 1905. The second, of course, occurred in 1947. The third incident of creation of Bangladesh in 1971 was a natural political incident based on the cultural nationalism of the east Bengali population. But Bengal cannot remain divided for long. East and West portions of Bengal have to reintegrate sooner or later.
The present geopolitical activities —overt or covert appear to be like movements on the chessboard. Political powers are in play and any action by Bharat—diplomatic, economic or military has to be taken with lot of circumspection. The present government is presumably doing quite the same. Major military interference or confrontation is risky because powerful inimical countries are only waiting for a pretext to grab geopolitical advantage for the purpose of fulfilling their hegemonic and expansionist agendas.
Under the above circumstances, the best course of action is active propagation of right ideological strands through the population of Bangladesh by use of modern media power which Bharat too possesses. Ideological correction is actually most important today. The key personnel involved in the Bangladesh coup—its Army personnel need to be approached , influenced and aligned with true democratic ideology based on cultural nationalism. Religious extremist groups and their actions are antithetical to peace , progress and prosperity not only of Bangladesh but its adjoining countries. Why the present Army chief of Bangladesh did not control the rampaging crowds and advised PM Sheikh Hasina to evacuate needs to be investigated, analysed and clearly understood.
The Bangladesh Army has the key role even now and can be worked upon covertly and remotely to reverse the coup. For achieving this, the larger educated and politically alive population of Bangladesh has to be approached and influenced. This is the time to apply the principles and strategies expounded in Chanakyaneeti. Saam, Daam, Dand or Bhed need to be used to align Bangladesh Army and political elite with Bharat’s interests. Bharat is militarily powerful and possesses economic levers as the major country in South Asia. Carefully and intelligently proceeding on a planned path will enable it to reinstall Sheikh Hasina or any other friendly leader as the PM in Bangladesh and bring it much closer to Bharat. That would be in sync with the natural course of things for stability, peace and progress in the subcontinent.
