The “color revolution” in Bangladesh reminds me of a story where every bad thing is happening to the other person but to you. Till you are left with no time to be wiser.
“Color Revolution”?
I suggest you google “Colour Revolutions and US role” to understand the difference between popular civil unrest and engineered coup which the United States has been inflicting on the world since your grandfather’s time.
(I can offer a link but suspect that it could make you feel sheepish how little you know about our world but then the road to redemption has to begin somewhere.)
You took no note when Pakistan’s Imran Khan flashed the communique from his embassy in Washington about plan to oust him for his temerity to visit Russia’s Putin; as you didn’t care when Sheikh Hasina predicted a similar fate for herself for refusing to let the United States have a military base on a Bangladesh island.
The inference to draw is that the United States would stop at nothing to have its way and if there are governments around the world who wish to pursue policies of national interest, they have it coming.
The tools the United States uses are quite simple: one, create a public figure and shower him with global awards such as Nobel Peace Prize, Magsaysay etc; control the elites of that country who hold sway over media, political parties, judiciary etc; do incessant propaganda so as innocents can’t spot the difference between chalk and cheese; have NGOs which are hand-crafted; and religious bodies bolstered and fattened over the years for one fine day when they all would be needed.
These forces lay dormant as long as the power in centre is your nautch-girl; but if you get closer to its enemies like Russia or don’t lend a helping hand in enmeshing China in its own lake, you are dealt with swiftly.
Not that India’s Modi doesn’t know it. Even the most pathological hater of India’s prime minister would concede India has pursued an independent foreign policy under him. The United States offered a long rope, unsuspecting he would hold on for this long. But now there is no time to lose. It can’t be that Russia overruns Ukraine and US/West/NATO’s best-laid plans go to waste; multipolarity takes wings; India leads Global South and the US does nothing. I suggest you view events in Pakistan and Bangladesh from this prism.
Bangladesh is a blow in the guts
So the Color Revolution in Bangladesh is a very, very, very bad news for India. If you look at the map of the sub-continent, you would notice quite a few of our northeastern states—Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura—border Bangladesh. There’s Mamata’s West Bengal of course. She also has the Chicken’s Neck in Siliguri under her state—a narrow corridor of a few miles—which gives access to seven states of the NorthEast and if throttled, India’s loses its northeast.
Now how would you look at the “revolutionaries” of Bangladesh who dismantled Sheikh Mujibur Rehman’s statue and torched his museum? Who does it to the man who gave you the very nation in the first place?
These are not revolutionaries but fundamentalists who are making thousands of Hindus flee to Indian border. Interim president Mohammad Yunus is a US stooge, has always been, which got him the toy of Nobel Peace Prize among other decorations and billions of dollars as fund to his NGO. The fundamentalists in Bangladesh, as they are in Pakistan, would now work overtime in our Punjab and Bengal, both of which are adversary state governments to India’s Centre. The baton is just a step away from being passed on to India’s jihadis. India must burn so as Modi becomes history.
This isn’t the only challenge facing the Modi’s dispensation. It’s a minority government on its own, hoisted largely on the crutches of Naidus and Nitishs. A few minor players here and there and a No-Confidence Motion in Parliament would sail, making the “Abki Baar 400 Paar” look very difficult to live down.
So the Modi government knows what would happen next: Insurgents and fundamentalists in NorthEast and West Bengal would be funded and armed to the teeth (as it is, fifth column of illegal Bangladeshi abound), the region would burn and the sinful media would go to town, barely repressing its glee while maintaining a sombre face. The columnists of Rand and other high-sounding Observer or Research Foundations would be let loose to brainwash us on democracy and individual freedom.
The twin threat to Modi and India
The no-confidence motion would be easier to tackle with. One has no doubt the Modi government would be working overtime to increase the numbers of NDA lest the prime ministerial bait or one such tempts some of his allies. The real elephant in the room is how to combat the threat we have on our East/NorthEast.
On the face of it, the Mamata government has already outlived its existence by a few years. The wound has only festered and the infected body would take a very long-time to be sanitised. Make no mistake: Bengal is another Pakistan in the making.
Of course, Modi swears by Akhand Bharat and he doesn’t need to look over the shoulder at army, unlike how the uniformed men in Pakistan and Bangladesh have behaved. But the issue is whether he bites the bullet or let things drift, making his third term sterile in terms of reforms.
If Modi bites the bullet, let’s say dismiss the Mamata government, or shows a heavy hand in NorthEast when the need arises which it would shortly, the Color Revolution in India won’t need a second invitation. Indian cities would burn and the judiciary is the last thing you could bet on. The tempest could toss this government in a drain.
Bangladesh is much like Ukraine in how it forced Putin’s hands. Likewise, Modi’s hands are also being forced so as a narrative could be built in painting Modi as villain and anathema to India’s “democratic” traditions.
The other option, of letting things drift, is no option either. For the wolves are encircling and they would go for the kill. The enemy is at door.
Sometimes, alone in his bed at night, Modi could be rueing the long rope he offered Mamata all these years. West Bengal needed cleaning up long ago. It’s him, and not his adversary, who has tied himself in knots. The moment is now long past. He has to go for the jugular, without worrying about, say the judiciary, or “peaceful” protestors at his Capital’s door which he can’t shoe away for fear of political fallout.
You didn’t worry about the consequences on your foreign policy. You can’t worry about domestic fallout either now. Do what is best for India even if it runs foul of your BJP’s interests. Do your rajdharma. Do it now or you would have cursed India with many Jinnahs.
