On Nov 25, 2024, the Chinese Embassy in the Bangladeshi capital hosted a reception for leaders of all Islamist political parties, including Bangladesh’s Jamaat-e-Islami chief Shafiqur Rahman as the star attraction. The Jamaat which is supposed to be a pro-Pakistani organization was banned by Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government, for its alleged strong subscriptions with other Muslim Brotherhood organisations including the Hamas.
Intriguingly enough, this was the same day when Chinmoy Krishna Das, a prominent monk leading the protests against alleged atrocities on minorities in Bangladesh, was arrested by Dhaka police.
Earlier in the month, a four-member delegation from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) attended the Political Party Plus cooperation event in Beijing, China, from November 7 to 16 which brought together delegates from like-minded political parties in Southeast and South Asian nations.
The Chinese camaraderie with Islamic offshoots like Jamaat-e-Islami to the East and Hamas to the West also stems from their clandestine dreams of disrupting India’s trade courses in the East (BIMSTEC) and the West (India Middle East Europe Economic Corridor, IMEC). To further substantiate China’s growing escalation in the Muslim world, India’s absence from the OIC (Organization of Islamic Countries) despite having the world’s third-largest Muslim population comes in sharp contrast to China’s increasing attendance in the organization.
Interestingly, China, despite not having a significant Muslim population, is bagging invitations as a “special guest” at OIC summits, pointing to its rising geopolitical influence in the Muslim world. This alteration in OIC undercurrents highlights China’s escalating amity in the Middle East and Africa, catalysed by its economic ties with many OIC member states including the one-of-a-kind Belt and Road initiative.
Such budding friendships vis-à-vis a widening geopolitical rupture with India can also be a matter of contention and apprehensions for us as consolidating factors like a politically disrupted neighbourhood in Myanmar and Bangladesh, a volatile border coupled with increased aggression in the Northeast, an exponentially compounding problem of unrestrained migrant flow (Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants) and a strategically and geo-politically weaker position in the Bay of Bengal, all adds up to India’s woes in terms of handling hostilities.
A closer look at foreign nexus in blowing up the blaze in Bangladesh also points towards the US, which waited for the right moment to strike.
Washington’s hawk-eyes over the St Martin’s Island for a military base and the Malaca Strait for a trade hegemony, Muhammad Yunus’s links with US Organizations like the Ford Foundation and USAID, the BRAC University (students of BRAC University were directly involved in catalysing the student unrest in Bangladesh) prominently participating in projects of the Open Society University Network (OSUN) which is backed by the Deep State prime protagonist George Soros, and the open funding of BRAC University’s parent organisation, the Bangladeshi NGO BRAC by George Soros’ Open Society Foundations (OSF), all points towards foreign touch in the entire scheme of things engulfing Bangladesh.
At this juncture, it is also important to note that the Ford Foundation is already under the scanner of the RAW for allegedly propelling anti-India rhetoric. Further, it has been reported that on the 2nd of August this year, 22 US senators including Ilhan Omar who is a known Pakistan backer in the US Congress, had written to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to take action against the Hasina regime.
The American Deep State involvement in orchestrating and precipitating the Hasina ouster is also testified by the presence of the National Democratic Institute (NDI) which is a US organisation that closely observed the Bangladesh elections and is also alleged to have funded some anti-government news outlets there in Bangladesh.
Therefore, all said and done, while the last straw in the US-Bangladesh relations officially happens to be the conundrum over St. Martin Island, the latent undercurrent of the Deep State and its urge to topple democratically elected governments cannot be completely ruled out.
The 1971 Hindu-phobic, anti-Bengali Bangladesh genocide in Bangladesh which may be viewed as an outright assault on the minorities by the Pakistan Army had equal involvement of foreign aspirations and diplomatic intentions. ‘The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide’, a book by American journalist Gary J. Bass evinces and bears testimony to how a dissent cable by an American Diplomat criticized American policy and called on Washington to condemn its ally Pakistan’s bloody assault on Dhaka.
The cable message headed “Selective Genocide”, wrote… “Full horror of Pak military atrocities will come to light sooner or later”. Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger however did not intervene because Washington was trying to use Pakistan to pursue diplomatic relations with China. With an interplay of external interference and internal yeoman’s service to such aspiration, history seems to repeat itself in Bangladesh.
Besides the US, sources have also claimed that Bangladesh officials have evidence of meetings between Bangladesh Nationalist Party Vice-President Tarique Rahman and Pakistan’s ISI officials in Saudi Arabia, deciphering the active involvement of the ISI in the Bangladesh episode.
International President of the Vishva Hindu Parishad Alok Kumar has also pointed out a possible chemistry between China, Pakistan and the Deep State in instigating and fuelling mass violence in Bangladesh.
In an open letter to President Trump on November 28, the President of the Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies (FIDDS) in America, Khanderao Kand, specifically stated,” Bangladesh is rapidly descending to a radicalised Islamic State, all under the watch of the US, the State Department and the UN, who must act now to restore democracy and protect minorities”. Trump’s election pledge to ‘drain the Washington swamp’ and dismantle the warmongers and remains the only hope, if his comeback launches a major offensive on the US Deep State.
The author is Spokesperson, BJP, Assam. Views expressed are that of the author and do not reflect the stance of EastMojo in any manner.
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