PROF. NUTAN K.RESUTRA
I am shocked.
I am perplexed.
I am confused!
It’s not because there has been a takhta- palat or coup in Bangladesh; which has been the hot news. For, coups can and do happen anywhere in the world; with blessings of one big political power or the other, the continent of Africa being their favourite play-ground. The (Alas!) Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has “left” the country and till the writing of this piece, is in India. As the reports suggest, this coup is also the harvest of kheti-badi or cultivation by China, America; and above all, Pakistan.
I am a common man; literally an Aam Adami; (Sorry, not a karyakarta of the AAP) in political vocabulary. To me, an aam adami is the one who reads newspaper thoroughly- more so because he feels he has paid for it with his retirement pension; watches news on TV channels, sometimes also happens to see discussions of the so-called experts who burrrr and fight and shout about everything else except the topic of discussion! And on the basis of all these, forms his own so -called political truth about happenings and current affairs. Yes, I am that common man.
And going by the knowledge gathered from all these sources, I have learnt that there exists a Think-tank, a group of those who are supposed to possess the heaviest weight of grey matter; the group that shapes policies, procedures, actions of any government and in short, the maker of what will happen in coming days. Its main task is to safeguard interests of country in general and the government in particular. Fair enough.
I have also read that there exist certain agencies in our country: Intelligence Bureau or IB, Military Intelligence or MI and on top of that, the Research and Analysis Wing or the RAW; to name just the known ones although there might be many more working behind the curtain. Again, similar to think tank, the job of these agencies is to watch interest of Bharat viz-a-viz other countries. And for this purpose, unknown, unaccounted and unaudited funds out of tax-payers money are placed at their disposal to get the object achieved. See, what objects were achieved if we consider only the neighbours.
First Afghanistan, where India had been investing for the last so many years fell to the Taliban plunging the region into turmoil.Apprehensions had been expressed of fall out about spurt in militancy in Jammu and Kashmir, which has become a realty now. This was followed by Sri Lanka; Maldives with Out India slogan; Nepal with anti -India rhetoric;and now Bangladesh; again, with India haters taking over. The coup in Bangladesh can be summed up as the fall of last India friendly bastion neighbour! Last evening, the Prime Minister had held a security meeting with his top Ministers includingDefence, Foreign Affairs, Finance and above all the National Security Advisor. Is there any -thing to advise now Mr. NSA?
In the beginning of this write-up, I had stated that I am confused. Yes: I am, because I fail to understand what these agencies had been doing for so long. One after the other a neighbour became hostile towards India and we have conveniently been fed the blame-game about role of ISI and China in making them anti-India. Agreed, but what were the counter actions of our RAW, MI, IB, etc. Afterall, these events did not happen in one night. A lot of ground wark must have been done by the ISI and their friends.
I vividly remember that before elections took place in Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina had been making public statements about interferences of the US and Pakistan there. But our think-tank supposedly did not think it appropriate to act or react: sorry I am not privy to those higher echelons.
I think the time has come when our decision makers must take responsibility for their actions and inactions; and be brave enough to admit that what happened in Bangladesh is the utter failure of intelligence agencies in safeguarding the country’s interest. Or else the powers that are, can conveniently sit and ponder over one security review after the other. For the common Indian, let us all be prepared to face the onslaught of the fallout of instability, India-hating, alarming militancy in North-East, en-mass Bangldeshi Hindu migration and head ache of yet another hostile neighbour!
