An individual or institutional act is based on possible costs and benefits (tangible and intangible). It is a common sense that the act is undertaken or performed after ascertaining the benefits outweigh the costs. There is no exception. Even in the case of charity, there is a provision for tax benefit or in case of religious charity benefit is expected here after. Take the example of USAID � an abbreviation itself thought to be deliberately chosen to mislead or fool the world as it is not the aid organization with its standard meaning. It stands as the United States Agency for International Development � a federal agency that receives overall foreign policy guidance from the Secretary of State and financed from the US federal budget. Thriving to advance US foreign policy objectives, it has a stated objective, among others, is to improve the lives of the citizens of the developing world. Still the direct benefits to the US are difficult to quantify. However, patchy pictures of the real benefits are emerging. John Perkins in his international bestseller �Confessions of an Economic Hit Man� claims how the USAID along with the big and politically influential US consulting firms with the help of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have been working hard to bankrupt the countries in Asia and South America and ultimately forces these countries to be a puppet of the US government having access to those countries natural resources and other sensitive areas. What the USA has been doing in the South America with the help of the World Bank, India has been doing exactly the same in the South Asia with the help of the ADB. The ADB has become a lackey dog (neri kutta) for India burking day and night at the door of Bangladesh for TATA, Indian highway (not Asian, it would be Indian) through Bangladesh among other numerous projects harmful to Bangladesh benefiting India.
Now to Visva-Bharati � a sacred shrine to many Bangladeshis who have completely devoted their life to Rabindrasangeet and publicly claim in TV shows how they have been emancipated or elevated to another tier of their life, closer to Isshar (God), by simply visiting or studying in Visva-Bharati. If you happen to listen to these devotees you would know the kind of awe they exert in just uttering the name Visva-Bharati (VB). Talking otherwise or for that matter writing against it, as I am doing now, would constitute blasphemy to them. It is a new found religion to them. These people are importing those religious ingredients from the VB and making a concerted effort in implanting those beliefs on other aspiring Bangladeshis. The other day I was petrified to see a singer in a Bangladesh TV channel singing Rabindrasangeet barefooted in front of Rabindranath�s picture. Wearing shoes in front of their guru would probably constitute a sin. Tilak (a long white or red mark) in the forehead is another very noticeable import. Women singers and performers specially trained in VB wear those marks in their forehead that are now more and more resembles to tilak. Tilak is a must in our pahela Falgun or pahela Baishak. I still do not know the significance of tilak in pahela Falgun or pahela Baishak. But I know its historical occurrence. Tilak, Bonde Mataram and oath in front of Hindu idol Kali were the three motto of the ultra Hindu nationalists during the struggle for undivided Bengal in the beginning of the twentieth century that led to communal riots in East Bengal and kept the Muslims in that region away to join the struggle. How come the tilak � the symbol of ultra Hinduism suddenly has become an essential item in our pahela Falgun or Baishak after a century? Rezwana Chowdhury Bonna � a renowned Ranbindrasangeet singer in her autobiographical account in Parabaas proudly announces how her Kirton teacher in VB asked them to prostate a goat (sagal) claimed by the teacher as a guru. It is sickening to hear from Maitrayee Debi (a die-hard disciple of Rabindranath) that Rabindranath was the chief commander and first martyr of our liberation war. She claims in the introduction of her book Kutirbashi Rabindranath that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman considered Rabindranath as the first martyr of our liberation war. Puzzled! When the Pakistan army entered his residence, they apparently shot to shatter a picture of Rabindranath hanging in a wall.
People like Shahriar Kabir (acts like an Indian born in Bangladesh) should not jump to the conclusion that a person wearing a topi (cap) and punjabi is a GMB member or an anti-liberation war collaborator (razakar). By the same token they also argue that putting on tilak or prostrating a goat, however resembling to Hinduism, is a personal taste and should be left aside. No, we should not leave it aside. Because tilak, GMB, giving a new meaning of martyrdom etc. all have a common link that points to India. It is now known that GMB has been created and financed by India�s RAW to prove Bangladesh a dysfunctional state and the unprincipled Mahfuz Anam (of Daily Star and Prothom Alo) shamelessly penned to prove it.
Appeal of Ranbindrasangeet is known to most of the Bengali speaking middle class people. I was born few miles away from Shilaidha (Kushtia) and had many picnics in that spot while growing up. I have a fair collection of books of Rabindranath. I enjoy reading and rereading them. Though I am not a music lover, if any time I indulge in it, there is almost a certainty that it would be Rabindrasangeet.
I am not against the Visva-Bharati per se but I am merely trying to asses the cost of VB scholarship imposed on Bangladesh. Being a scholarship, it is apparently free to the Bangladeshi recipients. This means costs are borne by VB (India) � a part of the finance may be coming from the Indian government after all VB was declared as a central university and an institution of Indian national importance by an act of Parliament in May 1951. The natural question arises what benefits they receive or expected to receive from giving scholarships to students of another country. Explicit stated objectives or benefits may simply be a smoke like we have starting to see in the case USAID.
Our achievements and progress in literature and cultural front are tremendous. Once people in Bangladesh eagerly waited for books, magazines, dramas, movies, and songs produced in Indian side of Bengal. The eagerness is gone; we are capable of producing similar if not superior products. This achievement is not without costs that are related to VB. Our literary and cultural circles are dominated by people trained in VB or have some sorts of link to Kolkata. Livelihood of these people is very much dependent on the marketing of their products in the Indian side of the Bengal. The Indian government understands that and taking the full advantages of it through the institutions such as VB.
The government of India is as corrupt as our own government with one significant difference though. People running Indian government would die for their national interest; on the other hand, our ministers (especially secretaries of those ministries) would not hesitate to sell their body and soul for their personal benefits over the national interest. There is an ocean of gap between the legitimate earnings and lifestyles of these secretaries and their families. India is simply exploiting this gap. India helped Bangladesh to achieve independence hurriedly not for the sake of loving Bangladesh people but for their own benefits. MBI Munshi in India Doctrine points to the fact that Nehru had a dream of united India again and passed over the blueprint for united India (Akhand Bharat). In pursuit of that dream India has been running havoc mercilessly against its all neighbours. Maulana Vasani probably foresaw what a fox Nehru and his followers were. That explains why he was arrested by the Indian government when he arrived in India in April 1971 and kept him separate from the Awami League leaders reportedly having fun in the hotels of Kolkata. Maulana Vasani after leading the Long March against Farakka Dam in May 1976 reportedly said the following in a private gathering: �It was not right to break Pakistan. India is trying to inhale Bangladesh. Keep your eyes open� (quoted from Ibne Golam Samad, Daily Nayadiganta, July 6, 2009). It would be atrocious to believe that Maulana was against independence but what he probably meant is that we should have earned our own independence without India or external interferences.
Though a very small number of politicians (non-Awami leaguers) in our country time to time raise their voices against India when she nakedly flexes her muscle against the neighbouring minnow, one group of influential Bangladeshis always remains silent. This is our literary and cultural group, many of them trained and brainwashed in VB; whatever proven injustice India imposes on Bangladesh, they remain completely silent as if intoxicated by opium unable to open their eyes. They justify their acts of treason by saying it is politics. You can fool people sometimes but not all the time. By shying away from your national interest in favour of your personal and material gains itself is politics. Musicians all over the world have voiced their protests against social and economic injustice to their own country or to other countries. Imagine India was in the receiving end, how their writers and musicians would react. They would bring the government down. Rezwana Chowdhury Bonna in her autobiographical account is talking about her dream of spreading Rabindrasangeet to each and every home in Bangladesh. The VB trained singer has apparently forgotten that an overwhelming majority of those people are living in poverty. I do not think Rabindrasangeet would have a much of an appeal in empty stomach. Ahare �Amaro parane jaha chai �� oder parane agae vath ar shudho pani chai, Ms. Bonna. Oh, I forgot, to our writers, musicians, newspapers and TV reporters uttering the word pani (water) seems now tantamount to Muslim fundamentalism; to them sacred words are now zal (water) and snan. To me, this is the real benefit India gets from those scholarships; and the huge amount of money spent by India on our literary and cultural groups work as opium that silences the expected protests from influential groups against India�s inhumane and uncivilized acts against Bangladesh.
It�s a long and cherished memory for me how we in our childhood, especially in the dry season, ran toward and jumped in the water of Padma passing by few minutes walk from our village home. It was very big; we could not see the other side of the river even in the dry season and during the rainy season it looked like an ocean. I gained the first hand knowledge that world is round (could be flat according to George Bush, the last President of the USA) by observing the huge steamers ploughing through that majestic river. We used to run to see the mast first, before the visibility of their entire body, by the sound of a horn coming from a long distance. Now it is a sad story. Every time I visit Bangladesh, I must go to see my village and of course the dead river (if you can call it river any more). It has become a huge sandy barren land (char) and the river itself looks like a man-made canal. The other majestic river I saw in my childhood is the Gorai. The same sad story applies to Gorai as well. These are all thanks to Farakka Dam. The plight of those millions of poor people whose livelihood depended on Padma and Gorai is now well known.
What is less known is the other impact of Farakka. Few years back I went to visit my village. I saw a pot of water near a tube-well. I noticed a thick lair of darkish substance floating in the water of that pot. They told me that it was arsenic and that was my first hand knowledge of arsenic. They told me the stories of arsenic how it has been slowly poisoning and killing them. I could not stand. I immediately asked my brother who was with me to arrange to install enough deep tube-wells in three villages including a primary school so that people have access to pure drinking water. How many villages are you going to help? And water level is sinking very fast. Arsenic has become one of the main problems of Kushtia and neighbouring areas because of the sinking water level due to Farakka. What is sad is that the so-called economist Abul Barkat (another Bangladeshi safeguarding Indian interest) and his family from Kushtia are playing politics with the arsenic problems in Kushtia and collecting booty from it.
The same sad story is predicted to happen to Sylhet if the Tipaimukh Bandh is erected as the Indian government is determined to go ahead with the project. Other day I was watching a TV show showing the beauty of Surma and its surrounding passing through Sylhet. It is really beautiful and Bangladesh is proud of that beauty. Seeing the unfortunate suffering of people of my own district, I wish and pray that India stops this heinous inhumane act. Experts in Bangladesh as well as in India predict that if the Tipaimukh Bandh is completed, the Surma, Kushiara and Meghna would die and Bangladesh would see a huge desertification that never seen before. Moreover, just like in Kushtia, experts fear that arsenic would be the number one killer of people in Sylhet.
People in Sylhet are demonstrating and crying everyday. How many people in Bangladesh are listening? Our water resources minister Shri Ramesh Chandra Sen is one step ahead by claiming that Tipaimukh Bandh would be good for Bangladesh; though he did not back down from his claim but slowed down little when newspapers and TV talk show guests started to ask whether he is a Bangladeshi or an Indian. However, these are politicians and playing politics with our poor people is their profession of earning bread and butter. Patriotism is far away in their list of priorities. Pleasing their leaders, especially India is their main priority. Newspapers are carrying articles claiming how the present Awami league ministers are in a race to show who is the friendliest to India. This gives the credence to the rumour that India hand picked those ministers because she helped to bring the present Awami League in power. Giving the most sensitive ministry to Shri Shri Shri Ramesh Chandra Sen could be used as empirical evidence to that rumour. It would be foolish on the part of Awami League to assume people of Bangladesh are ignorant and stupid.
What is shocking is the silence of our intellectuals and cultural organizations on Farakka and Tipaimukh. Shocking is probably a wrong word because we know the reason for their silence as they are fed and intoxicated by Indian opium. Kabir chowdhury, Selina Hossain, Muntasir Mamun, Shahriar Kabir, Asaduzzaman Noor, Mahfuz Anam, Rahat Khan (of Ithefaq), Bangla TV channel I (rumour is that �I� stands for Israel) and scores of others who have been crying for trials for those anti liberation collaborators. There are some hints of personal vengeance to those people after 40 years of their alleged crime. But they never ever voice their protests against Indian atrocities committed on Bangladesh. They are completely silent on Farakka and Tipaimukh. They never found it worth considering in showing solidarity to millions of poor people deprived from the legitimate right to the water of common rivers. I wonder if Maulana Vasani would have been dragged to the court by Shahriar Kabir for leading the Long March against India but would confound in the colour of a collaborator for his statements in the private meeting mentioned above. Obviously we do not expect much from these people because we know the reason; it explains why Shahriar Kabir reportedly in a public conference in Kolkata announced that uprooting Islam completely from the soil of Bangladesh is his main goal. India on the other hand has pitched its permanent tent on the soil of Bangladesh through institutions such as VB and Bangladeshi thugs (worst than street criminals and baptised in Bonde Mataram and Neheru Zindabad) and would not go away until she inhales Bangladesh.
Prof. Dr. Ashraf Nakibullah currently teaches Economics at Bahrain University. He can be contacted at anakibullah@yahoo.com.
The writer writes from an extremist point of view and spreading venom against people of a religion. I do not understand how an academician can write such an article which does not have an academic value.
2408
২
USA থেকে Faisal লিখেছেন,
২৬ জুলাই ২০০৯; সন্ধ্যা ০৬:৪১
Dear Dr. Ashraf,
Thanks for your article. However, the nation will be much more benefited if you write on economy.
2443
৩
Dhaka,BD থেকে Mirza Mehedi Hasan লিখেছেন,
১৭ নভেম্বর ২০০৯; দুপুর ১২:৫৯
Dear Dr Ashraf,
I have lost my language to pass any comment on your article. I can not believe that a professor of a university can write from such a narrow point of view. First, try to understand Islam then others.
5390
৪
riyadh থেকে nurul alam hawladar লিখেছেন,
১৭ নভেম্বর ২০০৯; দুপুর ০৩:৫০
mr.Gopal how are you? i think you are not fine.
Kabir chowdhury, Selina Hossain, Muntasir Mamun, Shahriar Kabir, Asaduzzaman Noor, Mahfuz Anam, Rahat Khan (of Ithefaq), Bangla TV channel I They are completely silent on Farakka and Tipaimukh.those People acts like an Indian born in Bangladesh.you are from india.so you can not understand how an academician can write such an article.this is best article.thanks Dr. Ashraf Nakibullah.please keep continue.allah bless you.thanks "sonarbangladesh.com" to published this article.
5394
৫
Jamalpur থেকে Md sheikh sohag ahmed লিখেছেন,
১৩ ফেব্রুয়ারি ২০১০; বিকেল ০৫:৪৩
If govt want that bd will success from poverty. Of course i mind govt will be success.
8304
৬
WESTBENGAL, KOLKATA, india থেকে SOUGATA ROY লিখেছেন,
২৬ অগাস্ট ২০১০; দুপুর ০৩:২৩
Thanks for your articles. Its make a good relation of two countries.
33355
বাংলা (ইউনিকোডে) অথবা ইংরেজীতে আপনার মন্তব্য লিখুন:
West Bengal থেকে Gopal লিখেছেন,
