‘Nepal's hydropower can benefit Bangladesh, entire region’

[Alter_Ego]

The Bangladeshi state has no reason to empower those in India who see Bangladesh as an existential enemy and openly spew hatred against Bangladesh and Indian muslims

There, fixed it for you

 

[Michael]

For India to faciliate electric power transit to BD from Nepal and Bhutan is a strategic imperative for it. It actually wants a stable and prosperous NE region that includes W Bengal, NE States, BD, Nepal and Bhutan.

Otherwise it will be a lose-lose for both parties as India's NE does not develop properly and becomes less stable, and both Nepal and Bhutan start to steer away from India and towards China.

This refusal would be seen by BD-Nepal-Bhutan as an unfriendly act and also exasperate the NE States and W Bengal. W Bengal is extremely reliant on a healthy BD economy and has a connection with BD due to shared ethnicity.

There is absolutely nothing to gain for India by not being part of this "energy grid" and everything to lose.

As for those countries you mentioned, they prospered as they were "propped up" by the US for strategic reasons.

BD has no "sugar daddy" like these have and so without India not only will its economic development be hampered but its leverage with both US and China will be limited.

Also, all these countries developed by having strong dictatorships who were solely focused on developing their economies and BD at most will have a semi-efficient democratic model from now on. We know that this is not the best model for 3rd world countries to develop.

We need to take the emotion out, accept BD's geopolitical situation with humility and BD can also become a middle income country just like India will probably do so in the 2030s.

Hey man, you're too heavily influenced by Western education!

Democracy is suitable for stability; Centralization is suitable for development!

Democracy or centralization is a dynamic concept. A so-called totalitarian state, at some point, is also democratic; A so-called democracy, at some point, is also centralized. It refers to the form of control of state power.

For example United States typical separation of powers, when a certain period of time, United States president or political group uses some special means to control these three powers at the same time, then, is United States still a democracy?

In the eighties of the last century, the honeymoon period between China and the United States. China has effectively embarked on democratic reforms, and the CCP is divided into factions. The result was the famous "June Fourth Incident" and the chaotic 90s that followed.

A team of ten people wants to go out on a trip together, and everyone has their own place to go. If a strong guy says we're going to climb a mountain, I'm going to beat you up if you don't go. The trip began right away. This is centralization. If someone says to climb a mountain, someone says to go to the grassland, someone says to go to the lake...... Everyone's opinion should be respected, this is democracy, but I don't know when this collective trip will begin.........

The same is true for the state. Party A should first develop trade; Party B should first develop infrastructure; The C party should first develop the military ........... As a result, nothing develops, and the country decays more and more.

Many of Europe's once developed countries have now stopped, and some have fallen into serious decay. A lot of their time and national resources are consumed internally.

On the other hand, those countries that are now developing rapidly, or some countries are developing rapidly, they all have one thing in common: the state power is highly concentrated. This is the case in India today, for example. The developed countries in Europe, in their own primitive stages of accumulation and development, also have a high degree of concentration of state power.

For some backward countries, as long as the state power is highly centralized, the economic backwardness will have little impact, at least the country is complete, at least there is no foreign force to interfere. Is your country developing? In which direction? The decision is yours. When other countries are required to invest, additional conditions can be agreed or vetoed.

I use machine-translated English, and a lot of the content can cause a lot of ambiguity..................

 

[Hope]

I think you are taking the venting here as a representation of the mindset of most BD'shis.

They do not like Hasina and blame India for keeping her in power. Let them say what they want as every BD government since independence has formed close trading links with India.

Believe me that the last thing that a prosperous BD would be would be anti-India and there would be no place in BD for NE insurgents. What happened with BNP-Jammat last time they were in power won't ever happen again as both countries have settled on mutually beneficial co-operation and respect for each other's territorial integrity.

Just wait a little while of some months and then when economic reality hits home. people will go back to trying to survive and stop blaming India for everything wrong with BD. India did not keep Hasina in power as she was able to give BD population enough till recently to at least tolerate her and her party.

BD knows that without India it will stay a 3rd world country and it won't be so stupid to turn India into a hostile country.

Pakistan is not likely to feature much if at all in BD calculus for now, but China will be given more infrastructure projects but India has no need to fear this as this will be purely economic transactions and not BD-China working against India.

I hope you are right, but the past track record, especially of Begum Zia and the Jamaat, is not very inspiring.

The textile export focussed BD economy will face a steep cliff as its LDC status expires and India should have been their ideal strategic partner as China's major strategic interests are in the east and their interest in South Asia is mainly to contain India. There is a limit to the extent they will prioritise their relationship with BD over that with India or Myanmar. The West too has enough on its hands trying to contain China, Russia and Iran and BD is not a strategic priority for them. Unfortunately , because of the burden of history, the Awami League has been the only major political force in BD that has been sympathetic to Indian interests and India has obviously reciprocated that. I understand there is a lot of hostility in BD towards Sheikh Hasina , but , with so much invested in her, India just can't hand her over to the new regime. I understand that will stoke anti - India sentiment, but the Indian establishment is stuck with the hand they have. Though I wish it were otherwise, I see strong mutual distrust and a steady deterioration in the relationship .

If the new elections are held fairly and the Awami League manages to become a participant in the next government or if a force other than the BNP or Islamists emerges, that might change, but it seems very unlikely.

 

[Hope]

There, fixed it for you

That is a fair enough point , except that there are important differences. Firstly BD does not have as much in terms of economic or infrastructure resources to offer to India as India has to offer to Bangladesh . Secondly, Indian Muslims are not desperately trying to migrate to Bangladesh for their safety .

Remember the economic imperative for India to get involved militarily in 1971 was that she couldn't afford to keep the East Pakistani refugees in India.

 

[Afif]

Secondly, Indian Muslims are not desperately trying to migrate to Bangladesh for their safety .

Doesn't mean they are less prosecuted. Numbers don't lie.

 

[UKBengali]

I hope you are right, but the past track record, especially of Begum Zia and the Jamaat, is not very inspiring.

The textile export focussed BD economy will face a steep cliff as its LDC status expires and India should have been their ideal strategic partner as China's major strategic interests are in the east and their interest in South Asia is mainly to contain India. There is a limit to the extent they will prioritise their relationship with BD over that with India or Myanmar. The West too has enough on its hands trying to contain China, Russia and Iran and BD is not a strategic priority for them. Unfortunately , because of the burden of history, the Awami League has been the only major political force in BD that has been sympathetic to Indian interests and India has obviously reciprocated that. I understand there is a lot of hostility in BD towards Sheikh Hasina , but , with so much invested in her, India just can't hand her over to the new regime. I understand that will stoke anti - India sentiment, but the Indian establishment is stuck with the hand they have. Though I wish it were otherwise, I see strong mutual distrust and a steady deterioration in the relationship .

If the new elections are held fairly and the Awami League manages to become a participant in the next government or if a force other than the BNP or Islamists emerges, that might change, but it seems very unlikely.

I don't think that now is a good time to hand her over to BD as there simply won't be any impartial trial, that is if she is not lynched by the mob before she even gets to appear in court. It is a difficult one for India and no matter what it decides to go as regards Hasina, it will probably be blamed either way.

Any new BD government would prioritise economic development more than anything else and India-China-US is key here. It simply will have no agency to act in any hostile way to any of these countries.

BD-India were in the middle of talks to set up a FTA between the two countries, which the World Bank said would increase BD exports to India by 4 folds to 8 billion US dollars a year and so India would become second only to US as an export market for BD.
Likewise Indian exports to BD would rise from 10-11 billion US dollars a year to something like 25 billion US dollars. There is a lot of room to rapidly increase mutually beneficial trade between the two countries.

We will have to see but without economic stability, no BD government will last very long as the students will again be out on the streets, demanding their overthrow. This is why I can confidently say that no future BD government will act in a hostile way to India as they simply cannot afford to and must in fact integrate even more with India and the rest of the region.

 

[Hope]

Doesn't mean they are less prosecuted. Numbers don't lie.

What numbers ?

The main reason for India's concern about religious and other persecution in BD is that many of them end up coming as refugees to India . How many Indian citizens, Muslims or otherwise , have become refugees in BD ?

 

[Afif]

What numbers ?

Number of muslims killed and lynched by hindu mob unfortunately.

 

[Alter_Ego]

That is a fair enough point , except that there are important differences. Firstly BD does not have as much in terms of economic or infrastructure resources to offer to India as India has to offer to Bangladesh . Secondly, Indian Muslims are not desperately trying to migrate to Bangladesh for their safety .

Remember the economic imperative for India to get involved militarily in 1971 was that she couldn't afford to keep the East Pakistani refugees in India.

Frankly India neither have that much to offer Bangladesh either. I mean, cheap cotton and onions can be bought elswhere.

The rest is nice story … maybe a bestseller in India, but mere Bollywood fantasy outside of India

 

[Afif]

Frankly India neither have that much to offer Bangladesh either. I mean, cheap cotton and onions can be bought elswhere.

The rest is nice story … maybe a bestseller in India, but mere Bollywood fantasy outside of India

BD has sufficient onion production. It is just because of previous mismanagement, some would get wasted before reaching the market.

Than government would import like 5% of total demand from India. Rest is still from local production.

 

[Alter_Ego]

BD has sufficient onion production. It is just because of previous mismanagement, some would get wasted before reaching the market.

Than government would import like 5% of total demand from India. Rest is still from local production.

Bangladesh is extremely fertile.
Effective modern way of agriculture can easily feed the entire nation.

 

[AjayGhatak]

….or just a change of mindset and better governance

You severely underestimate how hard it is to "change the mindset" and "better govern". Oh and it is "...and" and not "...or".

 

[AbuShalehRumi]

According to members of the new regime, India can flood BD at will.

What! When? Yunus administration said india didn't shared enough data and didn't gave us warning about floodgate release. Although we know why india did it, but they kept things formal.
.
We have to ask China to help us on river management...

Also, trade with India is a much larger percentage of BD's economy than trade with BD is of India's economy.

India isn't an export destination for us. India doesn't print dollar. That makes india replaceable. Obviously it will be painful for us.
.
For example, newly imported Pakistani and Chinese onions are 12-15 taka cheaper then Indian onions. Don't know how...
.
Business will continue as usual unless india continues its mission to destabilize Bangladesh.

If India adopts the same approach to BD as it has towards Pakistan, it will be an irritant for India but will cripple Bangladesh.

Lets see...

If tensions heat up on the border, India's military power is far superior.

For now yes.

Ergo, BD needs a non-hostile India more than India needs a non-hostile BD.

This is 2024 and we have options...

 

[bengalcdn]

No thanks. This will create a crippling dependency that will become a blackmailing tool.

It should be one of the options not the only one. At the end of the day Nepal India Myanmar are our neighbours and we should have cordial relations with them. Bangladesh should look into all options including wind power and solar as well.

 

[bengalcdn]

Build more nuclear power plants.

Do you believe the Bangladeshi govt and workers are disciplined enough to maintain the complex safety protocols of running a nuclear power plant? Better option is wind and solar and we get pretty strong winds in coastal areas if BD