Dear Mustafa,
Thanks for sharing your Open Letter to Prannoy Roy and Shekhar Gupta of NDTV
about Assam. It is good that the young generation is taking up this type of
misinformation cause to remove the misconception of classifying all Muslims
of Assam as migrants and blame them for the mess in Assam (to borrow the
words from Sanjay). It sends a wrong political message.
A few days back Sanjay Hazarika published an article about
"foreigners issue and Assam". Pls find below the link to the article. I
have included a few more links to show that in many areas Bangladesh is
doing better than Assam and India. Why then they would like to move away to
face an uncertain future?
Greetings and best wishes,
Wahid da
Bangladesh is in better shape than Assam
<http://www.hindustantimes.com/analysis/bangladesh-is-in-better-shape-than-a
ssam/story-lTZkHd4yTpX1LR7cnRzrbP.html>
Sanjoy Hazarika | Updated: Apr 14, 2016 14:20 IST
"In 1985, I had just come back to Delhi after a stint at the New York Times
main office. One of the first dispatches I reported was India's announcement
that it would build a fence to stop illegal migration from Bangladesh.
The Assam agreement on illegal migration and the state's
development had been signed earlier between the All Assam Students Union,
the Centre and the state government during August 14th night and 15th
morning. Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi made the announcement from the ramparts
of the Red Fort in the traditional Independence Day speech. It seemed to
calm nearly six years of turmoil and protests in Assam.
Thirty-one years down the road, much of the fence is in place, the
ability of Bangladeshis to cross into hostile neighbouring territory has
been sharply reduced, India has signed a land-swap deal on the border, it
has strong trade and communications protocols/agreements in place with its
neighbour. In addition, Dhaka has cooperated on security issues, handing
over the top leaders of militant groups from Assam and Manipur, defanging
the armed factions that our own security forces had been unable to subdue.
But is the border sealed, as AASU, the Asom Gana Parishad, the BJP
and many of their supporters seek? The fact is that no international border
can be 'sealed', not even the US-Mexico border, which is overwhelmingly
dominated by a superpower with helicopter patrols, walls, fences,
sophisticated weaponry and federal agents. Not even Europe can keep out the
Syrians and other desperate refugees fleeing IS.
Yet, the rhetoric of railing against 'Bangladeshis' remains the
same as does the strategy of using them as rationale to blame for the mess
in Assam. However, the real danger is that the real targets appear to be
Muslims of Bangla origin. Many of our younger generation are probably
unaware that over half a century ago, this group embraced Assamese as its
mother tongue to ensure that Assamese speakers remained a linguistic
majority in the state. Yet, if the current bout of hostility towards them
continues, I wonder how many of this group would be prepared to show
Assamese as their mother tongue, thereby endangering its status as the
state's official language. This needs to be understood".
Instead of bashing the Bangladeshis (read Bengali speaking Muslims)
and following the politicians and scribes; in the above article Sanjay
raises a few issues to ponder about. The following articles support his
arguments. If of interest pls check it out:
1. How Poorer Bangladesh Outpaces India on Human-Development Indicators
http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2015/06/05/how-poorer-bangladesh-outpaces
-india-on-human-development-indicators/
By Joanna Sugden
[email protected]
Jun 5, 2015 1:09 pm IST
2. Heard of the 'Bangladesh shining' story?
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/heard-of-the-bangladesh-shining-story/
article3867058.ece
by Jairam Ramesh. Varad Pande, Pranjul Bhandari
Updated: September 7, 2012
(Jairam Ramesh is Union Minister for Rural Development. Varad Pande is with
the Ministry of Rural Development and Pranjul Bhandari, the Planning
Commission.)
3. How Bangladeshis see India
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/aug/14/india.features115>
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/aug/14/india.features115
According to the latest United Nations (UN) Human Development Report,
Bangladesh comfortably beats India on most such social indicators. It has
lower infant and child mortality, higher life expectancy, and does better on
gender equality. It has forged ahead of India on these social indicators
despite the government spending little on health or education. Bangladesh's
public spending on health, as a proportion of GDP, is the same as India's,
while public spending on education is much lower. Unlike India, welfare
programmes haven't derailed government finances-Bangladesh's fiscal deficit
is much lower than India's.
4. Bangladesh vs. India - An Economic Comparison
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
<http://www.lightcastlebd.com/blog/2015/06/bangladesh-vs-india-an-economic-c
omparison>
http://www.lightcastlebd.com/blog/2015/06/bangladesh-vs-india-an-economic-co
mparison
Greetings,
Wahid
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