Published
: Sunday, 08 September 2013
M.
Serajul Islam
A special tribunal set up in Cooch Bihar in Paschimbanga has acquitted Havildar Amiyo Ghosh of the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) in the Felani murder case. Felani's father has dismissed the verdict and has vowed to take it to the international court of justice. In Paschimbanga, human rights group MASUM said that "the BSF trial was a sham." In Bangladesh, at the time of filing this article, there has been no official response from the government or from human rights groups/civil society or the political parties.
Felani
was a teenager who was killed by the Indian Border Security Force on January
07, 2011 while crossing the barbed-wire fence between Bangladesh and India,
illegally. That was not the worst part of the death of the teenager; her body
was kept hanging on the barbed wire fence for five hours before it was taken
down by the BSF. The death caused widespread anger in Bangladesh. Human rights
groups in India, Bangladesh and many other countries were abhorred.
Unfortunately, New Delhi failed to acknowledge the anger and sentiments in
Bangladesh over the death. Although insisting that Felani died because she was
at a place she was not supposed to be, New Delhi eventually apologized but it
was long in coming.
India
came to Bangladesh's assistance in the worst moments of its history when the
Pakistani military had unleashed one of history's worst genocide on the people
of Bangladesh in 1971. India hosted 10 million Bangladeshis on its soil who had
fled Bangladesh for fear of their lives. More importantly, India assisted the
Bangladesh freedom struggle to victory. That should have tied the two countries
in friendship forever. That did not happen for an array of reasons for which
Indians had always blamed Bangladesh. The way the Indians dealt with the Felani
murder was a reflection of that mindset in India while dealing with Bangladesh.
In
recent times, however, prominent Indian citizens have come forward for the
first time to set the record straight - that for the pitiable state of
Bangladesh-India relations, India must share responsibilities. Sekhar Gupta,
the distinguished Editor of the Indian Express, addressed a letter to the Chief
Minister of Gujarat, who many Indians now see as the next Indian Prime
Minister, to come forward and resolve the internal strife within the BJP so
that the party would come behind the Congress-led government to ratify the
Bangladesh-India land boundary agreement (LBA) that the Indian Prime Minister
signed in Dhaka in September 2011.
Sekhar
Gupta joined other prominent Indians who have recently spoken strongly against
New Delhi's failure to deliver to Bangladesh the Teesta Water Sharing Agreement
in addition to the LBA. Four former Indian High Commissioners to Dhaka -
Muchkund Dubey, Dev Mukherjee, Veena Sikri and Rajeen Mitter - have also
criticised New Delhi for letting down Sheikh Hasina who they thought had taken
great political risks to provide India its dream from Bangladesh - a complete
assurance of its security. They stated that Indian failure to reciprocate has
become what Sekhar Gupta described as "killer embarrassment" for
Sheikh Hasina with elections in the country within months. An IBN/CNN/The Hindu
poll conducted not too long ago placed Bangladesh on top of list Indians
trusted most.
These
prominent citizens have put New Delhi on a spot forcing it to strengthen the
efforts that Prime Minister Manmohon Singh and Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid
have been undertaking with the BJP and Mamata Banarjee in recent times to
deliver the two deals to Bangladesh. In fact, the latest developments in India
have convinced most people in Bangladesh that New Delhi would have delivered
the two deals had the BJP and Mamata Banarjee not been the party spoilers.
Further, these developments have also revealed that the objections of the BJP
and Mamata Banarjee to the deals have more to do with the nature of domestic
politics in India rather than with any anti-Bangladesh bias.
These
are paradigm shifts in India that augurs well for the future of
Bangladesh-India relations. Therefore, even if the Congress-led government were
to fail to bring the BJP and Mamata Banarjee to the party to deliver the deals
before Bangladesh's national elections, the realisation in India among the
stake holders there that New Delhi has been unfair to Bangladesh would
undoubtedly augur well for the future of Bangladesh-India relations under new
governments that the two countries would have within the next year. Of course,
New Delhi would need to have faith in the democratic process in Bangladesh to
complete the paradigm shift. It would need to believe in relations with
Bangladesh and not with a particular political party. Indian President Pranab
Mukherjee had made that promise while on a visit to Dhaka in May 2012 when he
was the Indian Finance Minister. New Delhi would need to keep that promise.
Nevertheless,
the changes in India are positive despite its failure on the deals. It also did
something unusual to make up to Bangladesh with the trial of Havildar Amiya
Ghosh. This was the first time that the Indian authorities decided to try BSF
personnel for killing a Bangladeshi on the border. According to Human Rights
Watch, BSF personnel killed over a thousand Bangladeshis on the border in the
decade ending in 2010. Two hundred Bangladeshis have been killed by the BSF in
the last four years despite commitment by India to a zero tolerance on such
deaths. Felani's death and continued killings on the border have
"abhorred" Bangladeshis.
The
Indians have fenced off Bangladesh-India border with control of border
crossings in the hands of the BSF. Yet illegal crossings of both human beings
and commodities, including the hugely lucrative cattle smuggling, are a
commonplace. The smuggling racket is controlled by the BSF, a fact well known
to New Delhi. Yet the Bangladeshis are killed regularly, most of them shot in
the back that occur when smuggling deals go sour over payment. New Delhi never
acknowledged this well-known fact. Therefore, when it agreed to try Amiyo Ghosh
for Felani's murder under Section 304 of the Indian Penal Code (unintentional
killing) and Section 146 of the BSF Act, it was welcomed in Bangladesh as a
positive development in Bangladesh-India relations.
The
no-guilty verdict delivered on the case was thus a big disappointment in
Bangladesh. The law does not allow appeal on the verdict. Amiya Ghosh has
already been released. Felani's father Nurul Islam talked about going to the
international court that was more out of frustration because there was no
question of that happening. West Bengal-based human rights group MASUM talked
about putting pressure on New Delhi to find out legal ways to keep the case
alive. That too does not appear likely to happen. So far, Foreign Ministry
officials in Dhaka said, unoffciially, that there were "disappointed"
at the outcome.
The
Indian High Commission asked Bangladesh to wait, calling the verdict reached at
Cooch Bihar as "the first step." A High Commission spokesman said
that the verdict would go for "review by a competent authority". The
Indian High Commission knows too well that a not a guilty verdict would add to
the negative impression about India.
The
writer is a retired career Ambassador
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