The external affairs minister of the newly elected, truly Hindu nationalist BJP government of Bharat (BJP prefers “Bharat” to “India”), Sushma Swaraj, is paying a three-day official visit to Bangladesh currently. There is every possibility that her agenda will include the so-called illegal Bengali-speaking Muslim immigrants in Assam, exchange of enclaves between the two countries, Teesta River water-sharing, transit through Bangladesh territory, Tetulia, and others. During the talks with Sushma Swaraj, the Bangladeshi government could also raise the question of India’s mega river-linking project, which will further aggravate the situation in our country.
It is nice to know that in India, dumping waste in the Ganges is going to be made a punishable offence. According to a proposed law, spitting and throwing garbage in the holy river will also have legal repercussions. Sanitation of the holy river was one of the main agendas of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s campaign during the Indian parliament elections this year.
The Ganges is a celestial river. In fact she is a goddess, the daughter of Lord Brahma and one of the three consorts of Lord Vishnu. Once upon a time, King Sagara sacrificed a horse, but the sacred horse disappeared suddenly as Indra, king of the gods, hid it in the hermitage of Kapil Muni. King Sagara asked his 60,000 sons, who were haughty and wicked, to find the whereabouts of the horse and bring it back. The princes searched far and wide, and finally found the horse tied next to where the sage was performing his penance. They accused the sage of being a thief. Kapil Muni, rudely disturbed during his moment of penance, opened his eyes, glared at the princes, and reduced them all to ashes.
Since the princes had died in sin, their souls were unable to enter heaven. The pious Bhageerath, the great grandson of King Sagara, upon ascending the throne, discussed with the great sages on how to absolve his ancestors of their sin. He was told that only by cleansing the ashes of the deceased in the Ganges would the restless souls be allowed entry to heaven.
The king prayed to Shiva and Brahma to help him to bring goddess Ganges to Earth. Pleased by the king’s determination, Brahma asked his daughter to go down to earth. Lord Shiva caught her thunderous mighty fall on Earth in his locks. Being released from the locks of Shiva, Ganges then followed King Bhageerath, washing through his ancestors’ ashes, cleansing them off their sins, and letting them enter the heavens.
When Lord Shiva liberated the Ganges from his locks, the river started flowing, her water ripping and dancing as she carved out a path for herself. It is a great sin obstructing and diverting the free flow of the goddess by constructing dams like Farakka across her. This sin is greater than the sin of spitting and dumping waste in her.
India is currently planning a mega river-linking project which will connect big rivers such as the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and others, with one another to divert their waters. This is another great sin in the making.
Brahmaputra refers to the son of the Lord Brahma. According to “Kalika Purana,” Parashurama, one of the 10 incarnations of Lord Vishnu, brought down the river Brahmaputra from the lake Manswaravar, through Tibet, Arunachal, and Assam to Bangladesh with his axe. Diverting its flow will be another great sin since it goes against the will of the Vishnu avatar, Parashurama.
There has been hue and cry in Assam about illegal Bengali-speaking Muslim immigrants there coming in from Bangladesh. During his campaign run, Modi supported Assam’s claim and pledged that these illegal immigrants would be sent back to Bangladesh when his BJP government came to power. In fact, the Indian state of Assam has been harbouring, though unwillingly, a number of Bengali-speaking Muslims on its soil for a while.
The British imperial government transferred the Sylhet of Bengal to Assam in 1874. On July 6 and 7, 1947 a referendum was held in Sylhet on whether the district would join East Bengal (Pakistan) or remain with Assam (India). In the referendum, Sylhet voted in favour of East Bengal, though in Karimganj, a subdivision of Sylhet, the margin of votes in favour of East Bengal was narrow. Karimganj was (and still is) a overwhelmingly Bengali-speaking Muslim majority subdivision (now a district). But the Bengali-speaking Muslims there voted in favour of joining India due to the deep influence of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind – a Muslim religious organisation – on them, which was against the creation of Pakistan. After the referendum, the Redcliffe Commission gave Karimganj to Assam, though Ahomes (Assamese people) were not happy with getting that subdivision as they always wanted to, and still want to, have a monolingual and culturally homogenous Assam.
Besides Karimganj, the Hailakandi subdivision of Cachar district of Assam has a Bengali-speaking Muslim majority population. So it does not necessarily mean that a Bengali-speaking Muslim in Assam is an illegal immigrant.
Top officials in the Indian government are hinting that India and Bangladesh may ratify a long-pending Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) during Sushma Swaraj’s visit to Bangladesh. They say India is also in favour of an early resolution of the Teesta Water Sharing Agreement. But in return, they want Bangladesh to grant India a land passage from rest of India to its northeast through Bangladesh territory, Tetulia – a 4km corridor in Bangladesh which will reduce the road travel from the rest of India to northeast by over 85km. In this regard, they cite the example of the Tin Bigha Corridor, with a length of 0.53km which India has granted to Bangladesh.
In the talk, Bangladesh could raise the subject that, during monsoon, India suddenly opens up the gates of Gajaldoba Dam on the Teesta River, which inundates a vast tract of land in Bangladesh.
The LBA aims to redraw the international boundary between India and Bangladesh by exchanging land enclaves and areas of adverse possession on either side. India stands to lose about as little as 400 acres to Bangladesh if the agreement is signed, but this agreement will fulfill the aspiration of the people living in these enclaves.
We hope, with the visit of Sushma Swaraj to Bangladesh, the relationship between the two neighbouring countries will be closer, based on proper understandings between them.