New Delhi: If wishes were horses, India and Bangladesh could easily ride off into the sunset together.
So, when Bangladesh army chief Gen. Moeen U. Ahmed arrived in Delhi in late February, the first army chief from that country to visit India, army chief Gen. Deepak Kapoor gifted him with two stallions and four mares, handpicked from the army’s Remount Veterinary Corps.
The six horses cost Rs3.6 crore (Rs1 crore each for the stallions and Rs40 lakh for each mare), but Indian officials are emphatic about the fact that its money well spent.
“The fact that this Bangladesh army chief is a muktijoddha (freedom fighter) indicates that he is well disposed to India,’’ said a senior Indian government official, who did not wish to be identified.
Strengthening ties: Maitree Express on its maiden Kolkata-Dhaka run. Train services between India and Bangladesh commenced after 43 years on 13 April, which is also the Bengali new year. (Madhu Kapparath / Mint)
The reference is to 1971, when India supported the rebel army in erstwhile East Pakistan called the Mukti Bahini, or freedom force, to fight and secede from Pakistan. The Indian Army provided logistics, arms, training and aid to these freedom fighters, thereby helping midwife the independent state of Bangladesh.
With the Bangladeshi army once again running the country, albeit behind the façade of a caretaker government, India is hoping the army chief will be able to break through the political deadlock between Bangladesh’s warring Begums—as Khaleda Zia of the Bangladesh National Party and Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League are known—which has affected both the country’s domestic politics, as well as its relationship with neighbours.
“In the interregnum until elections are held later this year, India is hoping that the caretaker government of Fakhruddin Ahmed and the army can help resolve a number of issues ranging from terrorism to border demarcation to improving bilateral trade and enhancing connections,’’ well-known columnist B.G. Verghese said.
Another senior Indian government official agreed that the India-Bangladesh relationship had been a victim of domestic politics between Zia and Hasina. “We now hope that the army chief—although there may be the danger that he becomes another Pervez Musharraf—can now deliver,’’ he added.
“We must be pragmatic, India can neither change her geography, nor choose her neighbours,’’ this official, who did not wish to be identified, said. That pragmatism seems to be working. Within six weeks of the army chief’s visit, train service between Kolkata and Dhaka commenced on 13 April, celebrated across undivided Bengal as Poila Baisakh, or the Bengali new year; the services had been disrupted for 43 years.
As the “Maitreee Express’’ was flagged off with much fanfare, nostalgia and soul-searching about “soft borders and cross-border connections,’’ passengers on both sides expressed happiness at the restoration of the service.