Author: Nitin Gogoi in Guwahati
Publication: Rediff on Net
Date: February 22, 2001
The ruling Asom Gana Parishad has
lodged a protest with the Union Home Ministry over a proposal for creation
of a greater Bangladesh, comprising seven north-eastern states, West Bengal
and Bangladesh, mooted by some Bangladeshi intellectuals.
The AGP is enraged over the suggestion,
emerging following a debate on the web site deja.com for creation of a
confederation on the principles of Lebensraum.
The article by Abdul Hasanath, who
uses the pen name Dr A H Jaffor Ullah phd, has made the proposition on
the basis of similarity of the population pattern and geo-political situation
of the north-eastern states. The debate, highlighted in several dailies
in Assam, has disturbed the AGP, a party spokesman said in Guwahati.
The AGP has drawn Union Home Minister
L K Advani's attention to the debate.
The letter was handed over to Advani
by AGP vice-president Dr Joyashree Goswami Mahanta, a member of the Parliamentary
Standing Committee attached to the Home Ministry.
Although the Home Ministry has not
has not reacted to the letter, saying the suggestion was too preposterous,
the debate has come in handy for the AGP to rake up the foreigners' issue
on the eve of the assembly polls in the state. The Bharatiya Janata Party
is expected to follow suit.
The author of the article has drawn
flak from intellectuals in his country. "I would like to ask Dr A Haffor
Ullah to explain how he proposes to implement his proposal for the break-up
of India and the formation of a confederation in the north-eastern states.
Will he explain how his confederation will be established without successfully
waging liberation wars against the Federal Government of India," wondered
Dr M Rashiduzzaman, a Bangladeshi writer based in the United States.
The AGP has, however, drawn Advani's
attention to another angle. The debate indicates the encouragement given
to extremists groups to create havoc in the region, it claimed. Dr Jaffor
Ullah's opinion -- though Hindus of the Hindi belt may oppose this proposal
- is they have no way of stopping the proposition. The region's 250 million
Muslims and 10 million Bengalis would be ready to give their consent to
this proposal, Jaffor Ullah says, the AGP pointed in its letter to Adavni.
Dr Jaffor Ullah, in his thesis 'A
Radical Regional Reorganisation: Are We Ready for this?' has proposed the
drastic reorganisation of the seven north-eastern states along with Bangladesh
He says he was inspired by the formation of the European Commission. He
claimed member countries would benefit enormously in pure economic terms.
''If the seven sister states and West Bengal break away from India and
conjoin with Bangladesh in a loose confederation, this new entity of about
250 million people living in about 189,733 square miles may prosper economically
through much enhanced inter-trading among the nine states, which is not
happening at this time,'' he claimed in his article.
''The map of north-east India will
be impacted by the proposed reorganisation. The expanse of this proposed
confederacy is 450 miles, from Ingrez Bazaar (West Bengal) to East of Imphal
(Manipur) and 600 miles north (Chengele, Arunachal Pradesh) to South (Teknaf,
Bangladesh). The southern ports of Calcutta, Chalna and Chittagong may
serve the entire region provided inter-linking roads are built to join
each of the member states of this proposed confederation, he propounded,
adding if the idea worked, then countries like Nepal and Bhutan to bolster
their economic activity may join it.
The economic malaise in north-east
India had been endemic for quite some time and this was the sole justification
for thinking radically to improve the living conditions of the masses of
this region. For too long, this region had been neglected by the centralised
planners of New Delhi. Abdul Hasanath alias Jaffor Ullah writes from New
Orleans, US.
