This could have been just another story of an impoverished girl pushed into the flesh trade by a scheming relative, until it turned into an international rescue operation involving special police teams from two countries.

The victim, who is now on her way home by the Padma river in Bangladesh, may not be aware of the effort put in by her government and Mumbai Police to have her rescued, but she will have to thank her Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who came to know about her plight through one of her employees, who happened to be the victim’s relative and decided to reach out to her.

As of now, having been sold off to two brothels in two different cities in just a month’s time, she will only be counting the hours before she is reunited with her family.

A 20-year-old girl from Bangladesh was brought to India by her relative identified as Mustav on the pretext of securing a job. No sooner did they cross the border, Mustav allegedly sold her off to an agent called Kobi, who brought her to a brothel in Surat on May 1.

The girl lived there for a month till she managed to get in touch with Mustav again and pleaded with him to get her out of the hell hole. Mustav apologised and promised to take her home, but he had other plans.

He did come down to Surat and got her out of the brothel, but only to bring her to Mumbai and sell her off again to a certain Reena Ganguly in Kamathipura for Rs 25,000. Realising that there was no way she could escape her fate, the girl finally joined the flesh trade.

ACP Feroz Patel of Social Service branch said, “The girl did not know any Hindi and could not ask for help from anyone around her.

Kamathipura girl set to go home With a lot of effort she picked up a smattering of the language from her clients and other prostitutes and began communicating.”

It was one of her clients, whose name cannot be revealed, who sympathised with her and seven days ago arranged for a SIM card so that the victim could talk to her family back home in Bangladesh. Luckily for her, one of her relatives works with the PM’s office in Dhaka, and sought her help to rescue her from Kamathipura.

Additional Commissioner (Crime) Deven Bharti, who led the rescue mission said that the Bangladeshi government had sent a request through the Interpol.

“After Interpol got in touch with us the PM’s request, we formed a special team to rescue the girl.”

This special team of the Social Service Branch under the stewardship of Patel and crime branch Unit II, Nishikant Patil, Bhashkar Kadam, Hridinath Mishra and Subhash Mali began combing Kamathipura.

“We were informed that a few new girls had been introduced in some of the brothels. We branched out and mingled with the crowd there and finally on Wednesday managed to trace the 20-year-old and four others who were brought along with her,” said an officer from the Mumbai crime branch.

The police have arrested Mausami Raju Shaikh the manager of the brothel while brothel madam Ganguli has fled to Kolkata and has been named absconding.

“This was part of an international trafficking racket. We have booked the accused under the acts of PITA (Prevention of Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act) and have handed over them to DB Marg police station, which is investigating the matter,” said Patel.

Meanwhile, the Bangladesh government has been informed of the happy developments, and arrangements are being made to take the girl home, said the police.

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Report prepared by Vinay Dalvi and Nazia Sayed and first published at Mumbai Mirror.

Asian countries like Thailand and Malaysia and India are reaping the rewards by targeting plastic surgery patients more than any other medical tourists. The rationale is obvious. Whereas preventative medicine will increasingly become more popular, it is to vanity surgery that tourism countries are looking forward to.

Like its cultural cousin  India, cosmetic surgery is not exactly an established industry in Bangladesh. One needs to go to quite a few exotic place names like Uttara, Gulshan and Dhanmodi. The prices for rhinoplasty, liposuction, facelift and Botox injections are as cheap as you would expect when you factor in cheaper cost for the proper skills.

In Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital city, you’ll find a space-age branch of Apollo Hospitals. It’s accredited by the JCI and looks every bit as modern on the inside as on the outside. The Joint Commission International Accreditation gives tourists the assurance of only the best quality medical care and competent specialists for every procedure performed. The Apollo Dhaka is currently the only such facility in the entire country with such accreditation, but with this one hospital succeeding, more similarly modern facilities are to be expected.

Would you go to Bangladesh for Plastic Surgery?

Apollo Dhaka is equipped to handle various cosmetic surgery procedures. Though not as popular as Thailand, Bangladesh has the means and the skills to perform plastic surgery procedures from cleft palate repair, blepharoplasty and even minor breast augmentation.

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Hetty Proudhonne, is our guest writer who works in Plastic Surgery Guide.

We are Bangladeshi families from Vancouver and University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada. We are deeply shocked and mourning the brutal attack on our sister Rumana Manzur. We are writing this letter out of grave concern observing the attempts made to establish a baseless extramarital story by Rumana’s husband. The Bangladeshi community in the University of British Columbia is a very small community. It is simply impossible for anyone to have an extramarital affair without being noticed by the community members.

When we met Rumana for the first time, she appeared to be an extremely nice, polite and a brilliant Bangladeshi student. We found her to be a very serious student and at the same time dedicated to her family. At numerous occasions she expressed her concern to finish her Degree as soon as possible and return to her family in Bangladesh.  As families living abroad we understood her anxiety and tried to extend our support. Rumana has been living thousands of miles away from her family. Both Bangladeshi and other international students extended their support. She always used to reciprocate with her friendly behaviour, kind words and her excellent cooking.

We were also very impressed with her regular practice of saying prayers five times a day in spite of her busy schedule. Every time we visited her place we found her opening the door with her head covered. In last Ramadan, she tried to attend masjid programs as much as possible. Muslim students here helped her especially to get halal foods. This is normal here that a Muslim is helping his/her brothers or sisters. We don’t think existence of any immoral or extra marital relationship in this generosity. We would have surely noticed that.

She never mentioned any bad things about her husband’s profession rather in many occasions she asked us what could be the possible business opportunities for her husband to run here in Canada. We always found her putting priority on her daughter’s well being. Her heart and soul effort was to bring her family here in Canada.

She had a childlike simplicity and innocence. She was extremely friendly with our children in the community. Wherever she went, she was children’s friend. She could communicate with children very easily and we are very grateful to her for the remarkable manners and courtesy she maintained which became examples to follow for our children.

All through her days for last 9 months, she never diverted from her study (which is why she was here for) and her love towards her daughter and husband. She used to miss them every single moment. The cell phone she used didn’t have signal within her building. So she always had to come outside of the building and spent long hours to talk with her daughter and husband irrespective of harsh winter condition, study load etc. Later she started using Skype for constant communication regarding the well being of her daughter and husband. She even used to teach her daughter, helping her with homework, and many other things for example how to draw flowers through Skype. We watched her regular attempts to buy expensive toys for her daughter with her very limited funding.

She was supposed to finish her thesis writing here in Canada. She could have stayed here with this perfect excuse if she had other motive or interest. But she virtually struggled to go back home and write her thesis from Bangladesh. It was too risky to be away from her supervisor at this stage and also expensive as she needs to come back to defend her thesis. Still she opted to do so just to be with her daughter and husband. We forbade her to go back for good reasons but she plainly said she can’t endure any more distance from her family. She said it’s enough for her to be away for eight months but no more. For the same reason she deferred her PhD for one more year. In normal course, she is supposed to start her PhD from next September, but she said she wants to compensate her absence from her family by being with them next year and she only would come back for her PhD if she can bring her daughter and husband and afford to stay together. As an international student, it is very hard to afford financially if she doesn’t get good funding. So she took one year to source a good funding option.

We are simply speechless, appalled, and deeply hurt in the incident of the false accusation of Rumana’s extramarital affair.

It is such a pain to observe that Rumana only went back to her family to lose the most precious gift from The Almighty, her eyesight. We feel that it is our duty to take a very strong stance against any kind of accusation that may come on our dear friend Rumana.  It is our ardent request not to put this unfortunate woman, a brilliant Bangladeshi scholar, on the guillotine of character assassination.

On behalf of the Bangladeshi families in Vancouver and at the University of British Columbia who know Rumana Manzur.

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Saif Islam [saif.vancouver@gmail.com ] is a guest writer. He is a Research Manager at University of British Columbia, studied at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Children Park – a type of real social business

(example of MOON PARK & MOON HOUSE)

This was also published in The News Today 09 Dec 2010 and other blogs

http://www.newstoday.com.bd/index.php?option=details&news_id=14376&date=2010-12-09

http://www.bdcomcn.com/English-Articles/children-park-a-type-of-real-social-business-of-moon-park-a-moon-house.html

 http://bangladesh-web.com/view.php?hidRecord=343086  



Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, of Bangladesh while addressing the prize giving ceremony of a painting competition at Dhaka Osmani Smriti Auditorium on October 18, 2010, has directed the authorities concerned to take immediate steps to recover all the children’s parks in the capital. The prime minister, according to UNB Dhaka, vowed to establish a safe and prosperous Bangladesh for every child.

Yes, there is no doubt that concerned authorities would try their best to recover all government children parks, no matter how successful they would be to maintain and keep the campaign according to given directives from the highest executive of the government. But I, like many others, am little wondered as to how much those local influential illegal occupants have gone regarding places like Children parks too. There is no need to emphasize the requirement of children parks for the over all development of a total Children. Considering their importance’s, government did their parts and hopefully would continue doing the best in this regard always. But we being the brothers and sisters, parents and relatives, teachers and lovers of every child also got to think and do exactly in the same way as our Prime Minister thought and gave directives.

Because the government can not establish more and more children parks all of a sudden, and because we all also have the morale and social responsibilities too for all the children, so, we got to also do some thing, either individually or being in a group. We may think of taking following measures to ensure so that more and more children get the facilities of Children parks:

1. Authorities of schools and other educational institutions may consider establishing children parks at their own premises, no matter how small or big those could be. They should also ensure the proper maintenances of all existing children parks.

2. Those who, specially at rural area, can effort to make few items of children park at their own premises may also make such facilities available for their own and local children. There are few such items directly related to physical exercises which don’t need lot of space, cost or electricity. Besides, such can be made with collective efforts too. Some one may also think of making the same at their roof top at city location too. The idea is so that every child gets the minimum facilities of Children Park.

3. Many rich people of our society already have hundreds and thousands of “Farm Houses” (bagan bari in bengali pronunciation) of their own. Those are indeed their spare houses out side the city areas mostly for their personal leisure and pleasure. Of course I am not trying to say any thing against their farm houses, however, would like to humbly suggest so that they could also think of making those, whole or part of those, in to some thing like children park for the local children and thus allow local children to play there either free of cost or with little ticket money. We always talk about social responsibilities and social businesses. Arranging such facilities for the children could be one of the best social responsibilities. Again the concepts of social businesses often emphasized by our Noble Laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus are known to the whole world and also widely discussed. So, from that point of view too, some token ticket money may also be charged from incoming children, however, the ticket fee got to be within affordable limit of those rural parents too.

Frankly speaking, I won’t suggest any of above if I won’t believe on those totally. I use to always think in the past about these children park facilities for our rural poor children. That is the reason I tried to establish two such children park at my own according to my personal interest, planning, limited economic capabilities and efforts. Spending my pension money, I have established one Children park named Moon Park at village PIRUJALI in General Area Hotapara, Gazipur. The area is near writer Humayun Ahmed’s Nuhash Polli and really green and comfortable in all seasons.

Well, for this case, I tried to establish and experiences by myself first and then now trying to suggest some thing for others too. It is said in the religion also that you try to do the same first before you suggest the same to others. When ever, I heard or read about the social businesses expressed by noble laureate Dr. Yunus, tried to think and identify as to how many types of social businesses could there be, specially for a country like Bangladesh? I also tried to think always as to what maximum social benefits can be offered with what minimum charges from different types of social businesses. Well, there can be many different types, but, for me, I have desired to do some thing related to children’s health, enjoyment, excitement, mental growth, physical exercise etc, and so thought of establishing one children park for them as part of so-well-discussed social business.

Now at this stage, being little encouraged by the noble directives of honorable prime minister of Bangladesh, I have only one aim of mentioning this as an example and that is, so that others who are interested may also establish such children parks at different parts of our country. Besides, those who are already having their Farm Houses (bagan bari) may also become interested as well as feel responsible to tern their those farm houses, part or whole, into children park for the local rural children and allow them to play either free of charge or with little token ticket money.

“Moon Park” is a small eco friendly green garden which is also used for picnic or outing spot for those city people who may afford to rent it and be interested to enjoy the green nature as part of their rest and refreshment. However, the focus is always given to the local children’s playing and that is why the word “park” is associated with it’s name. Any one may be wondered to know that a local child may visit and play at Moon Park with only taka ten ($ US 10 cents only) per person. The Moon Park was inaugurated on 14 April 2010 (pohela boishak) through arrangement of boishakhi mela (local fair organized on the bengali new year) where all the incoming children along with their parents, friends and relatives were allowed to go inside and play with free of charge. Surprisingly the total presence on that very single day crossed the figure 2500 (almost 100% children of that general area) which really proved in my mind that, yes, our children really need such facilities. I also felt very comfortable inside for being able to make one such park for our rural children. The smiling faces of our rural deprived children are still in my memories, pictures of which can also be shared by readers from below web link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/113734232071731875096/MoonPark#

“Moon House” is also another such place, same eco friendly garden with children park facilities where children can not only play but also see life birds and fishes. No matter how many facilities children are enjoying inside but only taka 30 ($ US 40 cents only) is charged per person. It is designed to be a real safe house for the playing of children and that is why the word “house” is associated with it’s name.

It may be mention that the eco friendly green gardens of both Moon Park and Moon House are also attracting foreigners and as such contributing to the tourism in Bangladesh too. Hope the scope of tourism in this sector would also increase in future.

I hope both Moon Park and Moon House would be able to contribute for children’s playing in the long run as part of social businesses in real sense. I also hope that many other persons having similar feelings like me would also try to do some thing better for our children which are so necessary for their total development. Children would carry us forward, they are our future hopes and so we must do our best to do best for them.

For those who may be interested to know about Moon House and Moon Park for their picnic or outing purposes may also brows below web link:

http://www.moonhousemoonpark.com/

 email: moonhouse.moonpark@gmail.com,

Friends…………….

civicus

Like many countries across the world, Indian Parliament has passed a law (Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 2010) in late August that puts curbs on the activities of a vibrant civil society in India.  The Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), 2010 is now awaiting the assent of the President and it will come into operation only when the government gazettes (when the rules are formulated). The Civil Society hopes to prevail upon the Government still to delay its enactment until the ambiguities in the Act that  restrictively affect the work of thousand  of non government organisations and especially those engaged in governance and rights related work are removed.

Expressing dismay Mrs Maja Daruwala, Director, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative  stated that ‘this is a very unfortunate development and a retrograde step that the government has chosen to take. It reinforces licence raj where the government is dismantling it for corporates and business across the country. The kind of unfettered discretions it gives will encourage more rent seeking from those with authority who have little to answer. It interferes with the Constitutionally guaranteed freedom to associate for any legal aim that every Indian has. It discourages the work and sustainability of civil society organisations at a time when the world is lauding India for its vibrant civil society. It is a great pity that the law has passed both houses of parliament even when its effect is entirely contrary to what the the National Policy on the Voluntary Sector endorsed by the Planning Commission which has said that NGO regulation must be much less burdensome.”

In this context, CIVICUS -an international alliance of members and partners which constitute an influential network of organisations at the local, national, regional and international levels, and span the spectrum of civil society has conveyed deep disappointment at the enactment of India’s regressive Foreign Contributions Regulations Act, 2010 (FCRA) and have issued a press release.

Although there have been news items on FCRA  in India, however very little have been reported in the press about the dangers FCRA t poses to civil society organizations in India. We urge the media to take note of this concern and highlight concerns  of the NGO sector in the media.

For more information contact

• Mr. Harsh Jaitly, CEO, Voluntary Action Network India at   Email: harsh@vaniindia.org ; Phone:  91 9871198820
• Mrs Maja Daruwala, Director, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Email: maja.daruwala@gmail.com , Phone: 91 9810199745 .

CIVICUS WORLD ASSEMBLY DELEGATES EXPRESS DEEP DISAPPOINTMENT AT

INDIA’S NEW CURBS ON CIVIL SOCIETY

9 September 2010. Over 70 eminent civil society activists from across the globe who attended the CIVICUS World Assembly in Montreal this August expressed deep disappointment at the enactment of India’s regressive Foreign Contributions Regulations

Act, 2010 (FCRA).

Among other things, the Act allows for broad executive discretion to designate organisations as being of ‘political nature’ and thereby prevent them from accessing funding from abroad, which could affect the independence of civil society groups critical

of government policies. It also requires organisations to renew their permission to receive funding from abroad every five years which subjects them to additional bureaucratic red tape, and places an arbitrary cap of 50% on the administrative expenses of an organisation receiving foreign funding as a further sign of interference in the internal functioning of civil society organisations.

“The new law signals a deep distrust of civil society at a time when across the world, India is being lauded for its open democracy, its espousal of a rights based approach to development, the progressive right to information regime and the government’s engagement with its vibrant civil society organisations,” said Maja Daruwala, CIVICUS Board Member and Director of the New Delhi based Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative.

The World Assembly delegates were shocked to learn that the provisions of the law stand in complete contrast to the stated policy of the Indian Government. The National Policy on the Voluntary Sector had promised that the Government would review the FCRA and simplify the provisions that apply to voluntary organisations from time to time, in consultation with the joint consultative group to be set up by the concerned Ministry.

The original Foreign Contributions Regulations Act 1976 was the outcome of the now discredited Emergency period in India (1975-1977) when fundamental freedoms were suspended. It was passed as a security measure in order to track foreign inflows at a time when there were tight restrictions on the receipt and expenditure of foreign exchange. Laws dating back to this time that applied to the private sector have since been relaxed or simplified. Despite civil society requests to be put on par in terms of foreign financial transactions with business houses that receive investments from abroad, the Indian government has chosen to carve out a discriminatory regime against civil society groups.

The new legislation adds to additional burden on civil society despite the fact that organisations ranging from trade unions to NGOs and community based groups already need to comply with multiple laws governing their registration and operations, besides income tax and other fiscal regulations, including money laundering laws as all other

entities.

The new law adds India to the list of countries implementing or seeking to introduce restrictive legislation on international cooperation and funding that is open to abuse such as Bahrain, Ethiopia, Jordan, Israel, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation is a global movement of civil society with members and partners in over a hundred countries. The Civil Society Watch (CSW) team of CIVICUS tracks threats to civil society freedoms of expression, association and assembly across the world. In 2009, CSW tracked threats to civil society in over 75 countries around the globe.

For more information contact:

• Devendra Tak (devendra.tak@civicus.org), Communications Manager, CIVICUS or
• Mandeep S.Tiwana (mandeep.tiwana@civicus.org) Policy Manager, CIVICUS Ph +27- 11-8335959
• Aditi Datta, aditi@humanrightsinitiative.org

For countries such as Bangladesh, remittances from its expatriate communities are a valuable source of income to many residents, especially those living in rural areas and this increase in remittance flows will be gladly welcomed by many communities. However Bangladeshis living overseas may still be put off by the often high charges that Banks and Money Transfer Operators place on money transfers which means that not all of their money makes it to Bangladesh. Furthermore, many of their family members and loved ones may not have access to a bank account which creates an additional difficulty in them actually receiving the money.

However there is a new hope in sight in the form of mobile phone money transfers. Under this system funds can be transferred to the beneficiary’s mobile phone and the money can be collected or used in a variety of different ways.

International money transfer comparison website www.sendmoneyhome.org has collaborated with money transfer software systems provider RemitONE to investigate the scope and the potential of the mobile money market and to find out how increasing numbers of money transfer businesses are opting to develop these channels. RemitONE is the world’s leading provider of software systems for the money transfer markets, providing companies access to the latest cutting edge remittance platforms. SendMoneyHome has been hailed as the ‘benchmark’ money transfer comparison site by Martin Lewis and allows its 50,000 monthly visitors to compare costs, and ultimately save money, when sending money overseas.

The mobile phone platform has already seen phenomenal success in the African market, particularly in Kenya, and is now gaining increasing providence in Bangladesh and the rest of the Indian subcontinent. It is estimated that over 1 million Bangladeshis live and work abroad and the vast majority of these will regularly send money back to their loved ones in Bangladesh.

According to Bangladesh’s Expatriate Welfare Minister Mr. Khondker Mosharraf Hossain, the World Bank is supporting Bangladesh’s effort to introduce remittance transfer through mobile phones in order to make the delivery faster and cheaper. In order to help reduce the high remittance transfer costs that leading Money Transfer Organisations (MTOs) and banks charge the struggling migrant workers who send money back home to families, the World Bank has agreed to provide financial assistance to Bangladesh in setting up a mobile remittance system whereby the recipient can be sent an SMS on their mobile phone which they can then cash at specially designed Automated Teller Machines.

RemitONE has recently launched its Mobile Remittance Module (MRM) which allows banks, MTOs, Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) to offer their customers mobile based money transfer services. It is hoped that Money Transfer Operators that service the Bangladeshi market will strive to make these services available to their users to enable a lower cost, more efficient remittance service.

If remittances flows to Bangladesh continue to grow in the same vein then within 2 years they should account for well over US$10 billion of revenue for the country. It has become increasingly important for both the sender and recipient to be able to maximise the value of their remittance both in terms of cost and speed, which is something that mobile phone technology, such as the platform provided by RemitONE, is able to do.

It has been estimated that there are close to 55 million mobile phone users in Bangladesh which is nearly one third of the population. Comparatively only around 19 million people, or 13%, of the population have access to a bank account which could make receiving remittance payments very difficult. Therefore by being able to utilise their mobile phones to receive remittance payments from loved ones working overseas remittance flows into Bangladesh could be dramatically increased which would provide a huge number of benefits to the local population, particularly in rural regions. With more money available to them spending and investment can increase and communities developed solely through having a mobile phone.

It has been proven that Microfinance has incredible success in helping communities and their residents thrive, mobile phone based remittance has the potential to be an additional tool in which microfinance can be delivered to the population and ensure that affected Bangladeshis can use their remittance to spend money in local stores, start business, develop social infrastructure projects and co-operate with each other to deliver the best for their community.

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ADAM CREED, Director of Sendmoneyhome is our guest blogger.

Indian foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee (R) met Awami league chief Sheik Hasina in her resident on February 19 2007. Image by: Munir uz Zaman, Drik News.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed is scheduled to leave for New Delhi within the next few days. If I were in her shoes, here below is what I would have told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India during our official face-to-face meeting.

Dear Mr. Singh, thanks for the opportunity you have provided to discuss the bilateral relationship between our two neighboring countries. As you know, this relationship between our two countries is shaped not only by geography, history, culture and economics but also by geopolitics. We, in Bangladesh, are mindful of India’s timely assistance during our nine-month long liberation war that witnessed genocide of our people and exodus of millions of refugees into India. We also remember the sacrifice of many Indian soldiers that gave their lives so that we could be free and independent. On behalf of 160 million Bangladeshis, let me take this opportunity to express my deep gratitude to the Indian government and its people for all that they did, endured and sacrificed so that Bangladesh would become a reality in the global arena. Thank you.

Today, Bangladesh is a proud member of the UN, OIC, Commonwealth of Nations, SAARC and BIMSTEC; it is the seventh most populous country in the world with a vibrant economy that is listed amongst the Next-11 countries.

Having said that, Mr. Singh, as you are aware, the friendly relationship between our two countries did face some bumps in the last 38 years, especially, after the murder of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975. Our two countries share waters from 54 common rivers and share common land and maritime boundaries. Just to put into perspective, we share 4096 km of land boundary. Even after the signing of the Mujib-Indira Pact of 1974, there remain 51 enclaves of Bangladesh, measuring 7,083.72 acres, which are land-locked inside India whose residents live in abysmal conditions, with a lack of water, roads, electricity, schools and medicines. That situation is simply unacceptable in the 21st century and needs immediate redress. Six kilometers and a half of border along the Comilla-Tripura area still remain not demarcated. This must change.

In the past, Bangladesh government has frequently protested BSF incursions inside Bangladesh, and shootings which resulted in deaths of many unarmed Bangladeshi citizens. As of last month, the death count alone in our side since 1990 stands at 1090. There is hardly a week when Bangladeshis living along the border are not victims of BSF shootings, thus souring relationship between our two peoples. Such an aggressive and utterly irresponsible practice on the part of BSF must come to a halt. Our tradition dictates that we value life and cannot therefore accept practices that are grossly criminal and inhuman.

Let me now move to the crucial water share issue. It is like a life and death issue for us. Bangladesh is a lower riparian country and is, therefore, vulnerable to any unilateral action on her common rivers by India. While we understand the increasing energy demands within India, we simply cannot welcome any initiative that devastates our people. Already our people have suffered enormously from the adverse effects of dams and barrages that were constructed on many common rivers. Whereas during the lean seasons, the water flow in the Teesta River used to be 4,000 cu-sec at the minimum before the Gajoldoba barrage was constructed some 70 km upstream from Dalia point in Nilphamari in 1985, we now get less than a thousand cu-sec. We are not getting our agreed upon due share of water flow.

To meet energy needs, in the last few years India has also constructed several dams across the Teesta. Such measures have resulted in loss of navigation during the dry season and flooding during the wet season, let alone causing loss of livelihood of millions of our people that depend on water. Instead of poverty alleviation, these structures are forcing poverty onto our people.

As to the Farakka Barrage, it has been described, and if I may add, rightly so, as the Death Trap for Bangladesh. A walk along the coast of the Padma and Teesta Rivers inside Bangladesh is sufficient to prove the claim. It will surely pain any conscientious human being, seeing the irreversible damages done on our side. Mr. Singh, please, ensure that we get due share of water from all those common rivers during the dry season. Dear Prime Minister, we cannot consent to any new death trap for Bangladesh. Please, stop the construction of the Tipaimukh Dam. Please, also stop the Fulertal Barrage.

Let me now move on to the bilateral trade issue. As per 2007-08 statistics, Bangladesh imported $ 3.7 billion worth of goods from India while we exported $35 million! (Informal trade is estimated to be at least double these numbers! The smuggling of contraband items from India goes unnoticed!) As is quite evident, there is a huge trade imbalance between our two countries, which needs to be corrected as soon as possible. One of the prudent ways to resolving this trade deficit would be for your government to lift the Tariff, para-Tariff & non-Tariff barriers, which are currently imposed on goods imported from Bangladesh. We would also welcome direct trading facilities with India’s seven eastern states. The import of Bangladeshi goods to those eastern states can also have a positive impact in not only closing the trade deficit with India but also reaping multi-faceted benefits to India in an area that is vulnerable to outside influence.

Let me now move to the security issues. We understand India’s priorities to contain insurgency in her north-east corner, close to the Bangladesh border. As our recent extradition of the ULFA leaders to the Indian government has demonstrated, we are very serious about ensuring that our soil is not used for terrorist and anti-state activities against our neighbor. Suffice it to say that we expect similar reciprocities from India. For years, India has had sponsored and assisted subversive elements in the hilly districts of Bangladesh to destabilize our state. There are some 40 Santi Bahini camps inside India. There are even Bangasena terrorist camps operating inside the state of West Bengal today whose objective remains the disintegration of Bangladesh and the creation a Hindu state called Bangabhumi, curving out 1/3 of Bangladesh in our south-western part. Such hostile activities ought to stop immediately.

We are genuinely interested in the Asian Highway that allows regional states to be connected with each other. We understand Indian government’s rationale for the request for transit routes that connect its north-eastern states with West Bengal via Bangladesh. For instance, the direct transit route from Kolkata in the state of West Bengal to Agartala in the state of Tripura via Bangladesh would reduce the distance from 1880 km to merely 740 km. While we are willing to consider such a request for transit routes via Bangladesh we believe that for greater good of our entire region, a more comprehensive scheme is needed that allows connecting Bangladesh to India, China, Myanmar, Nepal and Bhutan through transit routes inside India. Because of regional security concerns, I must, however, emphasize here that such transit routes ought to be used purely for tourism, trade and commercial use. Suffice it to say that we also expect connectivity to all our enclaves inside India. In accordance with the Mujib-Indira Treaty of 1974, and following the due process (Supreme Court order and constitutional amendment), the Government of Bangladesh promptly handed over the Berubari enclave to India. Sadly, India has neither ratified the treaty nor met its obligations, including the transfer of the Tin Bigha corridor. The enclaves of Dohogram and Angorputa near the border have to have 24/7/365 corridor facility. Denying such transit rights to people living inside the enclaves is simply criminal, inhuman and unacceptable.

According to the 1974 Mujib-Indira Treaty, midstream of border-rivers defines the boundaries of our two countries. However, subsequent dykes and embankments that have been constructed by India have had some adverse effects. These have led not only to severe soil erosion on our side but also changed the course of those rivers. The erosion on the Bangladesh side gives way to new chars (or islands) on the other side which Indian villagers illegally occupy in no time with the help of the BSF. Bangladesh is losing thousands of acres of land to India in this process, and this must stop. Let me remind you here that the 1974 Treaty between our two friendly states stipulated that the line of separation between Bangladesh and India is defined along fixed lines and not shifting lines, which happens as a result of shift in the movement of common rivers along the border. I call upon your government to ensure that the common border along those rivers remain physically where it was back in 1974 when the treaty was signed between our two governments.

Dear Mr. Singh, the maritime boundary demarcation in the Bay of Bengal remains a major contentious issue, especially in the light of offshore oil and gas explorations. Bangladesh Government is genuinely concerned about claims made by India and Myanmar that appear to us to be exaggerated, unscientific, irrational, ill-intentioned and illegal, and aim at sea- or zone-locking Bangladesh. As evidenced from direction of our rivers to the Bay of Bengal, we strongly believe that natural prolongation of continental shelf is from north to south and not east to west. My government has recently registered its objection with the UN to India’s and Myanmar’s claims over certain areas in the Bay of Bengal.

It is disheartening to see that the status of the Talpatty Island, formed by silts brought by southward flowing river Hariabhanga in south-western Bangladesh into the Bay of Bengal, still remains disputed between our two friendly nations. We wonder why! Is India’s might becoming the right to her exaggerated, unscientific claims and illegal possessions? Should not such disputes be resolved mutually and justly between the two friendly countries?

Dear Mr. Prime Minister, many in Bangladesh consider India as a hegemonic power that does not care about legitimate rights of its smaller neighbors. That perception has to change for greater good of our entire region. My government is committed to improving relationship with India. We believe that friendship is based on reciprocity of goodwill, cooperation and trust. Bangladesh’s smaller size should not let any state demean her geo-strategic pivotal status. We believe that contentious matters need to be resolved justly and equitably as soon as possible, failing which we only plant the seeds of distrust. We have the Gujral Doctrine in front of us to guide us resolve our outstanding problems amicably and fairly.

Dear Mr. Singh, let me reassure you that our Bangladesh Government considers yours as a friendly government. We strongly believe that the bumps I mentioned in our roads of friendship can definitely be fixed and we can usher in a new era of regional cooperation, prosperity and friendship. What we need is political will that is forward looking. With that, I believe that we are capable of weeding out mistrust, thereby allowing our peoples on both sides of the border to live peacefully and prosperously. As we move into this New Year, let’s give that present to our peoples. Thank you.

[Dr. Siddiqui is Chairman of the Board of Directors, Bangladesh Expatriate Council, and is an advisor to the NRB Council, USA. He has authored nine books, lives in Pennsylvania and can be reached at {saeva AT aol.com}]

But that bureaucratic flare seems to be a far fetched phenomenon and have been absent in the political leaders or parties, especially when dealing with the issue of demanding and attaining apologies from our very own adversary, Pakistan. After four decades of breaking the shackles off the grip of Pakistan, we are still only competent enough to request Pakistan to apologize for the massacre and hatred displayed by them in the 1971 war, as the recent reports suggests.

According to reports that came in last Friday, Bangladesh is still unmoved from its position of demanding apologies from Pakistan for what they have done during the war 38 years back. And the reply came in immediately as one of Pakistani government official simply but bluntly tried to mediate the issue saying: “Let bygones be bygones”.

First of all, it is a pity, a shame on our part that we just have to or rather can afford to request our attacker to seek pardon from our people. And officials like foreign minister Dr. Dipu Moni or foreign secretary Mr. Towhid Hossain who are responsible to ask Pakistan to apologize, simply managed to reassert their position about the matter. What is more alarming, the foreign secretary himself let the matter slip to the Pakistan side by simply commenting: “They can say anything from their point of view”. Isn’t this an affirmation that Pakistan has the right, or the freedom to say anything regarding the brutal death of 3 million people? Or should we read it as a part of the bureaucratic efforts that are being practiced to make Pakistan beg our pardon for what they had done to us? Maybe Dr. Dipu Moni can answer the questions as she promised to talk about the issue before media when she returns from her visit to Myanmar.

Under the circumstances now; Pakistan gains the upper hand; for obvious reasons. They have successfully and bureaucratically handled the matter as reports were published on the influential Pakistan Dawn newspaper referring to the 1974 tripartite between India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Quoting Pakistan foreign ministry spokesperson Abdul Basit, it says that the apology issues were settled under the April 1974 tripartite. Mr. Basit further demanded that Pakistan has previously apologized for its army’s wrongdoings in Bangladesh. So, he could easily outplay and overpower Bangladesh’s demand for apologies from Pakistan as a nation by this statement whereas Bangladeshi foreign officials could merely manage to facilitate his authority of speech. Mr. Basit, however, managed to drop off the issue to be discussed at a meeting by the Pakistan foreign ministry, the time of which is yet to be specified. So, we can easily match the latest Pakistani mode of apology with the one which President Parvez Musharraf termed as “Developments in 1971” in July 2002 trip to Bangladesh and thereby settled the apology issues that time. He asked to bury the murder of the millions as if it was an excess of aggression in a football field:

“Your brothers and sisters in Pakistan share the pain of the events of 1971. The excesses during that unfortunate period are regrettable. Let us bury the past in a spirit of magnanimity. Let not the light of the future be dimmed. Let us move forward together.”

Evidently then, it has been no real problem for Pakistan to outdo Bangladesh’s bureaucratic endeavor to seek their apologies time and again; whereas Bangladesh always faltered and was left behind. There has been no lack of excuses on their part to avoid our right to ask their pardon, which ultimately proves that they are not sincerely sorry for what they had done to us. As a result, we can still pursue but not demand an apology from a nation which snatched away 3 million lives of our greatest sons of the soil, and encroached the physical jurisdiction of 200000 of our mothers and sisters.

Maybe it is time to refurnish or reconsider our foreign policy; at least towards Pakistan if we really want them to apologize and thereby pay homage to our gallant warriors of independence. And this is in a way indispensable also, because Pakistan would probably never formally apologize for 1971 and take actions for the wrongdoings. We need to make them apologize to uphold our dignity, to live our lives with our heads held high.
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Mashfique Habib is a graduate in English Language and Literature from Jahangirnagar University. At the moment, he is doing his graduation in Business Studies from London School of Commerce under the University of Wales.

“Article 31 and Article 12 of the constitution of 1972 contained some provisions which strictly prohibited floating of political party based on religion and the use of religion for materisalising any political interest was banned. Unfortunately, these provisions were omitted from the constitution during the post 1975 period and the religion based politics started in the country” – Barrister Shafiq Ahmed

Passionate wave of progressive spirit appears to be hitting the bastions of religious parties. None other than the prime guard of constitution, honorable Law minister, seems to be leading the wave. We are yet to see his rhetoric turning into reality, but if that ever happens, only heaven knows who will stop the eventual chaos.

Banning of an ideology that is seen as a threat to civil norms is totally acceptable. It’s a much easier task when the idea is in its infancy. But when it has acquired enough support, a significant group of followers, and appeared to have gained enough “moderation” in its tune, banning and therefore a head on confrontation is no longer a good idea.

Almost every country that tried some sort of outright ban, especially in the context of religious parties, had to painfully admit their failure. Today’s Middle Eastern semi-despotic regimes are prime examples. Their attempts to ban the lunatic ideologues gave rise to such wave of fundamentalist violence that the very existence of these states is now questionable. Those Arab states that at once shined like the emerging beacons of secularism, socialism, and nationalism, (quite like us in 1971) were ruined into total anarchy and now lead by an immortal dictatorship.

Bangladesh’s experience with local religious demagogue has been mixed on the other hand. Curious mixture of Mullah, Military, Money and Modernity complicated the scene. Whilst most Islamic countries fell prey to puritan ideals, our mix and match combination with a light touch religiosity of the overall population never gave much political satisfaction to power hungry mullahs; until, of course, recently. Like others, we too are seemingly sliding down the scale, and at this historic point Bangladesh ought to take a political step that will decide her fate in years to come.

The sad fact of life is that where there is religion, there is follower and therefore there are sentiments which are easy to be manipulated. Yet, human mind, if given the right opportunity, time, understanding, and education have shown a profound likeness for liberal democracy that no fundamentalist religiosity can unset.

We have choice at hand. Do we allow them to run free, or choke them to death and therefore let them burst and cause chaos? I think the solution lies in the “third way”, tighter regulation and allowing the political discourse of ideological debate to linger.

For the last three decades, despite absence of democracy, sellers of heaven have not profited from the masses. In a sense their existence resulted in two contradictory outcomes. One is that it prevented a large scale conversion to destructive ideas and showed their policy failure to politically enlightened Bengali nation. The other a fringe minority that felt they failed to rule by God’s thoughts have now lost their minds and following their brethren up in the SWAT hills. It is this small minority that needs to be choked. As for the “bigger” and more diluted followers, keep them keen and keep them mean in the democratic political discourse. They will swallow their eventual demise.

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About the author:

Chowdhoury Mohibul Hassan Nowfel is a graduate of London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in Anthropology and Law. He is also a qualified Barrister/Lawyer from the Honorable Society of Lincolns Inn through the College of Law London.

A Screenshot of the Talk Show called Tritio Matra

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;”

What can I say more than that? Far from my mother land I try to type some words on my note book. Recently I was monitoring some talk shows on the forth coming election in Bangladesh on a few Bangladeshi channels and noted some anomalies. The roll of media in Bangladesh seems a bit funny to me.

One of them is Channel I which airs a popular Talk Show called Tritio Matra. The host Zillur Rahman is a renowned Dhaka elite. Bangladeshi elites (Shusheel Samaj) are the 8th wonders of the world. Now who are these elites?

During the liberation war (1971) there were some notable intellectuals in Bangladesh, who augmented the cause of Bangladesh and some of them were able to escaped the wrath of the Pakistani and collaborator forces. They had representations in every part of the society and were very much near and dear to the people. Some of them explicitly dedicated their life for country. Their successors and the contemporary intellectuals had a dream for a secular and progressive Bangladesh. I can mention few names such as Kabir Chowdhury, Hassan Imam, Dr Nilima Ibrahim, Samsur Rahman, Begam Sufiya Kamal, Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury and the list goes on. They fought for their Principle and rights without any compromise all through their lives. But they were countered by the reactionary forces and very often they were labeled as “Awami Intellects”.

In course of time a few of them already reached the end of their lives and the nation lost some valuable assets. Some of them like Humayun Azad was the target of fanatics because they had progressive thoughts. I am sorry to say we have not got eligible successors of them, probably they retracted out of fear. Instead, we got some compromising, power monger, rootless and people of double standard, who are now known as the elite class of Bangladesh. You will see their re presentation in almost every forum now.

A chunk of editors, retired army officers, barristers, business men, some rootless politicians, media celebrities have formed a big syndicate. Over the top they are getting support of a portion of Non resident Bangladeshi who have the fatal attraction for a non elected regime and backing of some ambassadors of some influential countries.

Coming Back to Zillur Rahman’s popular Talk show, suddenly I have found some funny kind of characters are appearing at his program. One so called businessman from Qatar, who tried to get nomination from one political party but failed, simply was slumming politicians indiscriminately and have made funny comments about the father of the nation on a free style manner. Zillur was also fueling on the fire.

Our elites are very often teaching us lesson of democracy. Some times they forget that “the people of the country know their need more than the elites”.

In the last few days there were much brouhaha about Arafat Rahman’s scandal in a Singapore Bank, which was exposed by the Anti Corruption Commission in Bangladesh. This news is making big head lines in the newspapers.

My question to the Anti Corruption Authority is, “why they chose this particular time before the election for this investigation? Were they sleeping the last two years?”

The Bangladesh media is a champion to show their allegiance to the party in power. They can also predict which party can come to power and try to show their faithfulness by going some extra miles. Some Journalists have already started to cash on Arafat issue to be near to Awami League even by resorting to some false reporting.

Over the top the High Court is giving verdict against the Election commission (EC) to include detained leaders in the polls. Now the election commissioner was seen showing emotional reactions to the media on these decisions of high court. In fact he had found ways to voice his frustrations without showing contempt to court.

But our so called Elites are silent on these issues. I don’t know if I ever will see a sane political process in Bangladesh but for now most of the so called Bangladesh elites seem to have a moral bankruptcy.