Utopian wish for mythical Akhand Bharat
By Asif Haroon Raja
Indira Gandhi after breaking Pakistan into two parts in 1971 chuckled that India had avenged 1000 years of humiliation and sunk two-nation theory in the Bay of Bengal. Mir Jafar’s treachery committed in 1757 was repeated by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1971. He was the Mir Jafar of 20th century. While Mir Jafar had connived with East India Company to hand over Bengal to Lord Clive, Mujib connived with All India Company to break up biggest Muslim State and make Bangladesh (BD) subservient to India. Fate of Mujib was similar to Mir Jafar.
The Muslims of BD should have exercised more caution and should not have conspired and schemed in league with Indian intelligence agents and politicians before 1971. The Muslim politicians and intellectuals of Bangladesh displayed extreme naivety when they decided to embrace the very same Indians who were refusing right of self determination to the Muslims of Kashmir. Do the Muslims of BD pray to a different Allah than the Kashmiri Muslims or Indian Muslims? What makes the Bengali Muslims more deserving of Indian sympathy? The mistake made by people of former East Pakistan was not for deciding to cut loose from Pakistan, but for being so naive and seeking to liberate BD with the support of India.
Mujib’s daughter Hasina Wajid has once again captured power despite the fact that the entire opposition had boycotted the 2013 elections. She has become extremely unpopular because of her India-centric policies and witch hunt against aged Jamaat–e-Islami (JI) leaders and activists, allegedly involved in war crimes in 1971. Some have been hanged to death while others are awaiting their turn.
Reopening war crime trials in Kangaroo courts after 40 years is politically motivated and Indian inspired. It is a criminal conspiracy to undermine Islamist parties and Islam and also to keep Bangladesh and Pakistan apart by reopening old wounds that had been healed and both the countries had adopted a policy of forget and forgive after the 1974 Tripartite Agreement. The role of Abdul Quadir Mulla and his companions was not dubious. They fought for the defence of united Pakistan which was their motherland. Majority of Bengalis had grievances against West Pakistan but they never wanted to break away from Pakistan and that too with the help of India. As opposed to the terrorized Bengalis who preferred to remain quiet out of fear of their lives, JI members and Biharis were a different lot. Not only were they highly patriotic and religious, they could neither be subdued by AL thugs, nor swayed by poisonous propaganda of India or by Mujib inspired Bengali nationalism.
Once the militant wing of AL joined by Indian soldiers and intelligence spooks guised as Mukti Bahini started a civil war against the State on March 1, 1971 and resorted to gruesome acts of target killings, abductions, rapes, sabotage and subversion and also attacking military targets after the military operation launched on March 25, the Eastern Command created Al-Badr and al-Shams militias to beef up the military strength which was too meager as compared to 287,000 rebel force trained and equipped by Indian Army and BSF. Most members of the two militias belonged to JI. Rather than emulating Mir Jafar, Quadar Mulla and his comrades opted to emulate Sirajudaullah who died fighting Lord Clive forces in the battle of Plassey in 1757.
Pakistan’s division in 1971 was not the endgame, but phase 1 of the overall plan to gobble up the two parts one by one. In the next phase, RAW undertook to Hinduise BD through sustained cultural war to mould the minds of the Bengali youth. Song, music, dance and fashion are popularized, while schools/colleges/universities teachers/professors (mostly Hindus or seculars) as well as print/electronic media are working obsessively to subvert the minds of the younger generation as it was done prior to 1971. The media is also demonizing Islam and Mullahs and promoting Indian culture by encouraging obscenity, nudity and promiscuity. Free mixing has given rise to free sex in English medium educational institutions, resulting in prostitution, illegitimate pregnancies, and alcoholism and drug abuse. The ruling elite seek annihilation of Islamic parties. Witch hunt against JI under the garb of 1971 war crimes is a step in that direction. In its frenzy to defame and discredit Islam and to ban Islamic parties, the AL has virtually given BD on contract to India. The latter controls its foreign, socio-politico-economic and cultural policies.
Secularization and later Hinduisation of Bangladesh was necessary since majority of its people is staunch Muslims and they have realized that they were duped. Despite Hasina’s efforts to secularize Bangladeshi society, surging Islam and growth of love of Bengali Islamists for Pakistan and hatred for India has alarmed Indian leaders. They have seen their charged up emotions during the cricket matches, reviving two-nation theory. Indian military planners see this phenomenon as a grave threat to the security of India since Pakistan had been bisected to weaken it and not to create two-front military threat. It has therefore become essential to keep AL in power and to sideline BNP and religious parties.
42 years have lapsed and still the vengeance of AL has not subsided. It had carried out wanton massacre of non-Bengalis and pro-Pakistan Bengalis and Biharis from 1-25 March 1971; and again from November 24 to December 16, 1971 when Indian forces guided by Mukti Bahini started capturing towns. Biharis were the chief targets. Women were raped and men slaughtered and dumped in wells and mass graves, or bodies left for the dogs to eat. After achieving independence with the help of Indian military, rather than rejoicing and adopting a policy of forgiveness as enshrined in Islamic teachings, the Mujib led AL government started persecuting and punishing pro-Pakistan Bengalis and Biharis with a sadistic vengeance. They were dubbed as collaborators and their persecution continued unabated till the assassination of Mujib in August 1975.
Order was restored in BD when Gen Ziaur Rahman took over and Pak-Bangladesh friendship warmed up. This trend continued during Gen Ershad Hussain’s tenure and later during Begum Khalida Zia’s two tenures. The JI in BD became a separate political party in 1975 and took part in all the elections and won seats. It became a strong ally of Khalida Zia’s BNP. However, the situation reversed during the second tenure of Hasina Wajid in which she chose to reopen closed chapter of history at the behest of India. Being overly pro-India and anti-Pakistan, India helped her in recapturing power for the third time and legitimizing her takeover despite boycott by all opposition parties and worldwide condemnations.
With regards to Pakistan, RAW made its first penetration into interior Sindh in mid 1970s with the help of GM Sayyed and other Sindhi nationalist parties. In mid-1980s, RAW infiltrated into urban Sindh with the help of MQM. RAW also got involved in 1973 Baloch insurgency and again in 2004 Baloch insurgency, which it has converted into a separatist movement. RAW is also deeply involved in FATA and in Karachi. Apart from covert operations, India launched a full-fledged cultural invasion in 2004 to culturally subvert the youth and induce them to lead the life of fun and frolic. Sonia Gandhi stated that there is no need for India to militarily attack Pakistan since it has been culturally overpowered. Rahul Gandhi never tires eulogizing his grandmother for dismembering Pakistan. BJP leaders have never hidden their dangerous designs to undo Pakistan.
On 16 November 2012, Indian journalist Kuldip Nayar on the occasion of his book launching ceremony at Dhaka, ‘Beyond the Lines’, held the Partition of subcontinent fallacious and expressed his utopian desire of reunifying the countries of the subcontinent to single entity of Akhand Bharat. He advocated formation of ‘South Asian Union’ on the lines of European Union, which is yet another Indian floated idea of ‘confederation’. It gives a fair idea that even after passage of 67 years Indian political leaders and elites have not given up the hope of undoing Pakistan and BD and establishing mythical Akhand Bharat.
The writer is a retired Brig and defence analyst. He took part in epic battle of Hilli in erstwhile East Pakistan in 1971 war. asifharoonraja@gmail.com
