The Nobel Prize winner, Mohammad Yunus was recently in China, and one of the supreme oratory acrobatics in an exercise as one of the best in an exercise, he takes Northeast India into a legend that reduces Bangladesh the exclusive guardian of the Bay of Bengal. If it was the trick of a geophysical chess, it was built with a careless irony aura – a one that not only distorts reality, but also threatens to incite sensitive relations with India.
A prize winner in an award winner
In China, a nation that has played the power broker in South Asia as an art, Yumns decided to go lyrically about how it is a strategically important Bangladesh, it has been labeled in South Asia as “only Guardian of the Sea”. It would be fun if not so dishonest.
It is impossible to not be influenced by such a statement. To say that Bangladesh, which has a 710 -km coast, is the only patron in the Bay of Bengal, claiming that Monaco is a full emperor of the Mediterranean Sea. If it was just a nationalist bomb, it can be safely ignored as an empty posture. But Younus overtook him.
With a sleep of the hand, which would embarrass an experienced magician, he brought the north -east of India into the story, suggested that the area reaches the sea to the sea in part of Dhaka. Naturally, it completely ignores India’s deepest-sea ports, its burial marine strength, and its historically ancient trade routes. But why should the facts spoil a good diplomatic game?
Northeast: A convenient pawn in the story
There is some rich symbolic about Yunus’s dialect to make Bangladesh an exclusive entrance between the Indian Northeast and the World Economy. He demonstrated that he took over the country in Paris at that time, even a few days ago. Northeast, forged in history, has been the place of conspiracy and competition for centuries, with its determination and sensations. But any suggestion is that the Northeast of India has no access to the sea other than Bangladesh, not only wrong – this is a lump sum construction.
India is investing heavily in its own maritime infrastructure. Sitway port in Myanmar, which was built under the Kaladan Multi-Model Transport Project of India, is a clear indication of India’s efforts to reduce dependence on Bangladesh for maritime access. In addition, the Northeast is well linked to Kolkata and other ports through a broad road and rail network, currently the projects are running to further improve connectivity.
But Yunus’s claim has a specific agenda: it adds fuel to the growing story of Dhaka that the key to regional trade lies in Bangladesh, which easily sees India’s long strategic options. This is not just a naive mistake – it is a deliberate attempt to make Bangladesh geologically relevant at the cost of truth.
A love affair
If there is a nation that has gone in large length to please the ascension of Bangladesh, then it is India. India has been a regional stable impact in 1971, from reducing the independence of Bangladesh to giving preference trade concessions. In 1971, 93,000 Pakistan soldiers were surrendered to the Indian Army in Dhaka at the cost of the lives of about 3,000 Indian soldiers. But not more often, the political leaders of Dhaka and, even these days, even many of its intellectuals, are almost conservative to incite the bear.
There is no question that Bangladesh has set a long way in economic development and progress, crossing India in many human development indices, but both sides of geopolitical fence are facing Beires, the habit of playing Beijing, even attempts friendly relations with New Delhi – it has reached the border on careless opportunism. Bangladesh’s growing economic relations with China, such as increasing dependence on Chinese investment in strategic infrastructure, have not survived India’s notice. But for a public icon such as Younus, China is at a whole different level of wrong level to use India as a platform to reduce India’s stand in the region.
China: convenient audience
Therefore, there should be no surprise that Younus decided on China as an area of statements. Beijing has long been desired to strengthen its footprint within the Bay of Bengal, using Bangladesh as an interested partner in its belt and road initiative (BRI). By blowing a whistle loudly that Bangladesh is the major sea travel route of China for the region, Yunus inadvertently echoes the declared aspirations of Beijing (or perhaps with purpose).
China, naturally, congratulates such stories with alcrities. Over the years, it has been trying to overcome India’s regional dominance, and playing in the hands of the leaders of his neighbor’s star is the ultimate imagination. However, the question is whether Dhaka fully appreciates the outcome of such grandeur. Playing China Card can be a clever diplomatic step, but a string that is with strings – a habit of turning into a bad dream.
Gulf Real Conservator
For all the bombing rhetoric of Yumns, the reality is harshly different. India’s Andaman and Nicobar Command is the Gulf of the major military base of Bengal, and India’s Navy is the most vocal sea appearance there. The country’s maritime trade route, naval patrol, and disaster relief system is mainly operated by Indian power rather than wishes to Dhaka.
Even in commerce and trade, Bangladesh is not the only gatekeeper Yunus, it assumes. The Bay of Bengal initiative for multi-regional technical and economic cooperation (BIMSTEC), a alliance including India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, guarantees others that a country does not have full dominance over regional maritime matters.
If Dhaka feels that it is the only patron of the sea, it may have to return to the very basics of regional geopolitical policy.
Fuel fuel
At a time when India and Bangladesh are struggling to solve sensitive issues such as sensitive issues such as Teesta water-sharing disputes, border trade imbalances, and Rohingya crisis, etc., Yunus’s statement helps in promoting goodwill. Instead, they introduce an additional layer of stress in a relationship with already a vigilant diplomacy.
New Delhi Thus so far, Bangladesh has moved towards Bangladesh’s flirtation, which is aware of the economic compulsions determining the decisions of Dhaka. But enjoyment has its limits. If the powerful personality as Yunas starts increasing stories that try to reduce India’s role in the region and increase the power of Bangladesh’s bargaining, then the Dhaka will not be long to face a very horrific neighbor. History has repeatedly demonstrated that running India in a defensive position rarely does a good job for its small neighbors.
Proud versus overache
There is nothing wrong in making itself vocal in the world in Bangladesh. In fact, its economic development, despite its inbuilt challenges and strategic value, should be recognized and honored. But there is a thin line between national pride and strategic overgrowth. It is not only more to declare yourself as “only the patron of the sea” while reducing the greatest power of the region – it is diplomatic hubris.
Younus will hire well to take into account the reliability, like goodwill, in his history of advocating microfinance and social enterprise, who earn hard, but easily lost. A Nobel Prize does not make any immune with geopolitical facts, nor does an emotional address in Beijing change the tide of power in the Bay of Bengal. The sea does not bend in words, nor is there a balance of the power of this region.
(Author, a senior social sector leader, can be reached at mbiswanath@gmail.com. The opinion expressed here is his own.)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
