Bangladesh: Visit of Indian Army Chief Significant

BANGLADESH: VISIT OF INDIAN ARMY CHIEF SIGNIFICANT

By Dr. Subhash Kapila

This Paper may be read in continuation with the Author’s earlier Paper: “Bangladesh – India Strategic Partnership: The Imperatives” (SAAG Paper No. 2765 dated 11 July 2008).

Introductory Observations

General Deepak Kapoor Chief of Army Staff, Indian Army is scheduled to visit Bangladesh from July 28, 2008 on a three day visit. All Indian Army Chiefs routinely visit a number of foreign countries once during their tenure of office as part of high-level military-to-military contacts supplementing other Indian foreign policy initiatives.

The visit of the Indian Army Chief to Bangladesh comes at a significantly opportune time when trust between the militaries of the two nations holds the possibilities of being successfully forged. Military-to-military trust is an essential pre-requisite for reinforcing diplomatic relations.

Some important perspectives that need to be taken into account in relation to the visit of Indian Army Chief to Bangladesh are discussed as follows:

Significance of Indian Army Chief’s Visit to Bangladesh
Indian Army Chief’s Visit: The Prevailing Contextual Backdrop in Bangladesh
Bangladesh Army Chief’s and Bangladesh Army’s Centrality in Bangladesh
The Priority Strategic Focus for Indian Army Chief’s Visit to Bangladesh

Significance of Indian Army Chief’s Visit to Bangladesh

The visit of General Deepak Kapoor, Indian Army Chief to Bangladesh this month-end assumes significance for the following reasons: (1) The present Indian Army Chief’s visit to Bangladesh comes after a long gap of seven years. The last visit to Bangladesh by an Indian Army Chief was in 2001 (2) A prompt return visit by the Indian Army Chief to Dhaka following the visit of Bangladesh Army Chief, General Moeen U Ahmed to India in February 2008 indicates the significance that India is investing in building a substantive relationship with Bangladesh (3) Preceding the Indian Army Chief’s visit to Dhaka were the joint discussions between the Foreign Secretaries of India and Bangladesh. Focus of discussions was on how both countries can cooperate in joint tackling of terrorism threats (4) Succeeding the visit of the Indian Army Chief would be joint discussions between the Home Secretaries of India and Bangladesh to sort out issues of border incidents and infiltration.

Against the above backdrop what emerges significantly is that the Indian Army Chief would not be overly burdened to discuss contentious issues with the Bangladesh Army Chief.

General Deepak Kapoor could then be left free to discuss, explore and suggest newer and deeper initiatives to further the “ushering in a new era of close cooperation” in Bangladesh-India military cooperation as was highlighted by the Bangladesh Army Chief during his visit to India in February, 2008.

Indian Army Chief’s Visit: The Prevailing Contextual Backdrop in Bangladesh

India’s flurry of high-level discussions with Bangladesh including the visit of the Indian Army Chief to Dhaka needs to take into account the prevailing contextual backdrop in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh for more than a year and half is being governed by a Caretaker Government with the solid backing of the Bangladesh Army Chief and the Bangladesh Army.

Bangladesh in the preceding period was being governed by a BNP-JEI Coalition Government led by Prime Minister Khaleda Zia of the BNP. It needs to be recalled that the JEI is an Islamist fundamentalist organization which in 1971 was opposed to the liberation of Bangladesh. Under the BNP-JEI regime a creeping Talibanization of Bangladesh was underway including giving a free hand to Pakistan’s ISI to use Bangladesh as a springboard for Islamist terrorism against India.

India-bashing consequently had become a favorite past-time and a political tool in Bangladesh’s heated domestic politics resulting in myopic and distorted misinterpretations of India’s well-intentioned initiatives towards Bangladesh.

The advent of the Caretaker Government backed by the Bangladesh Army Chief has led to the cleaning up of the political mess, widespread corruption and the prominence to Islamist activities in Bangladesh under pressure from the JEI.

More importantly, the advent of the Caretaker Government in Bangladesh has led to more nuanced policy approaches towards India. The flurry of high-level bilateral exchanges between Bangladesh-India in recent times are a pointed indicator of this emerging trend. It signals the emergence in Bangladesh a trendto craft its relationship with India based on strategic realities rather than Pan-Islamism.

Significantly, therefore, when the Indian Army Chief visits Dhaka in July 2008 the prevailing contextual background in Dhaka would be characterized by a greater positivity in Bangladesh’s approaches to India as opposed to the uneasy relationship of the earlier regimes.

Bangladesh’s political parties like the BNP and JEI can be expected to voice opposition to the Caretaker Government’s policy initiatives towards India as a strategic sell -out but what should not be overlooked is the centrality of the Bangladesh Army Chief and the Bangladesh Army in Bangladesh’s policy establishment and governance.

Bangladesh Army Chief’s and Bangladesh Army’s Centrality in Bangladesh

India’s policy establishment needs to factor-in in its strategic and political calculus the centrality of the Bangladesh Army Chief and the Bangladesh Army in Bangladesh’s policy establishment and governance.

This factor has been deliberately brought into discussion here in that prior to the Bangladesh Army Chief’s visit to India in February 2008, India’s High Commissioner in Dhaka is reported to have characterized it a purely “military-to-military” contact.

This is a disappointing observation which under-emphasizes the centrality of the Bangladesh Army Chief and the Bangladesh Army in the scheme of things in Bangladesh.

Let us fist take General Moeen U Ahmed’s profile and his policy attitudes towards India. The Bangladesh Army Chief studied in his childhood in Pakistan, trained in the Pakistan Military Academy and served in the Pakistan Army. Later on after liberation of Bangladesh he was Bangladesh’s Defence Adviser with the Bangladesh diplomatic mission in Islamabad. He has his contemporaries in the Pakistan Army.

With such a backdrop he naturally should have been another pro- Pakistan element in the Bangladesh power elite. That the Bangladesh Army Chief could have broken out from such an expected mould speaks of his realistic strategic vision that India cannot be ignored in Bangladesh’s strategic calculus and that good Bangladesh-India relations are essential for Bangladesh’s stability.

Coming to the Bangladesh Army, one central fact that all India policy planners should not forget is that unlike the Pakistan Army, the Bangladesh Army whose nucleus was provided by the Bengali elements of the then Pakistan Army present in then East Bengal along with the Mukti Bahini “fought and battled for the liberation of Bangladesh”.

Like the Chinese PLA, the Bangladesh Army is widely perceived as a “Liberation Army”. Further the Bangladesh Army has been actively involved in safeguarding the integrity of Bangladesh and also in alleviating the national distress in the innumerable natural disasters that have inflicted Bangladesh.

The Indian High Commissioner was therefore wrong in describing the Bangladesh Army Chief’s visit to India as a purely “military-to-military contact”. If that was so then why were his calls arranged on India’s entire galaxy of political leadership. Also, why his discussions with India’s trade setup including meetings with Shri Jairam Ramesh.

India’s Army Chief would be well advised to factor in the centrality of the Bangladesh Army Chief and the Bangladesh Army in Bangladesh power calculus even though his policy brief from the Indian Government is likely to be restricted to military issues.

The Priority Strategic Focus for Indian Army Chief’s Visit to Bangladesh

The Indian Army’s steps for enlargement of military engagement with Bangladesh Army stands spelt out in this Author’s Paper referred above. One is sure that the measures suggested in the said Paper would receive active consideration in discussions between the two Army Chiefs.

However, what requires emphasis is that the Indian Army Chief’s strategic focus should be in exploring as to how India’s military postures in the Siliguri Corridor and the North Eastern States are not degraded or compromised by Bangladesh Army’s acts of omission or commission. That should be the larger vision that should be addressed during his exchanges with the Bangladesh Army Chief during his forthcoming visit.

Concluding Observations

This Paper cannot be more aptly concluded than by once more repeating the Concluding Observations of the earlier Paper.

“Bangladesh-India Strategic Partnership is an idea and a strategic imperative whose time has come to implement by both countries.

In South Asia, in terms of relative stability Bangladesh offers more promise than Pakistan. Bangladesh therefore deserves a higher priority attention than Pakistan in terms of strategic and political effort by India's policy establishment, diplomats and the strategic community.

India’s efforts and initiatives to work towards a Bangladesh-India Strategic Partnership should not be allowed to be misread in Bangladesh as an Indian effort to convert Bangladesh into an Indian satellite State.

India’s political history of the last 60 years does not provide any indicators to such Indian inclinations anywhere in South Asia, least of all Bangladesh, where its war of liberation itself was a strategic partnership between Bangladesh liberation stalwarts and the Indian nation state.”

India’s genuine respect for a strategic partnership was reflected in that the document of surrender that the Pakistan Army was made to sign in Dhaka in December 1971 reflected significantly that the Pakistan Army was surrendering to the “Join India-Bangladesh Command”. It eloquently underscored that India believed in “jointness” with Bangladesh.

In the spirit of the above one should hope that both the Bangladesh Army Chief and the Indian Army Chief during their discussions at this month’s end would be able to lay the foundations of a substantive “Bangladesh-India Strategic Partnership” in the strategic and political interests of both countries.

(The author is an International Relations and Strategic Affairs analyst. He is the Consultant, Strategic Affairs with South Asia Analysis Group. Email:drsubhashkapila@yahoo.com)