Above
is a question that I have asked myself numerous
times, but have failed to come up with a
reasonable response. Before asking readers for
their help, I want to draw a comparison between
India
and
Bangladesh
to see where these two countries stand in their
respective positions:
India
Bangladesh
Landmass:
3,287,590 sq. km.
144,000
sq. km.
Population: 1,065,070,607
141,340,476 (July 2004 estimate).
Natural
Resources: Coal (fourth-largest reserve
Natural
gas, arable land and timber.
in the world), iron ore,
manganese, mica, bauxite,
titanium ore, chromites, natural
gas, diamond, petroleum,
limestone,
arable land.
GDP:
$3.022 trillion (2003 estimate).
$258.8
billion (2003 estimate).
Industries:
Textiles,
chemicals, food processing, Cotton
textile, jute, garments,
steel,
transportation equipment, tea,
cement, chemical, fertilizer,
cement, mining, petroleum,
light engineering & sugar
machinery, software.
Oil
Reserve:
4.33 billion barrels (Jan 200 estimate).
N/A
Oil
Production:
732,400 barrels/daily (2001
estimate).
3,581 bbls/day (2001 estimate).
Exports:
$57.24
billions (2003 estimate). $6.713
billions (2003 estimate).
Military
Power:
172,153,371 (2004 estimate).
22,807,339 (2003 estimate).
(Fit
for service).
In
my understanding, most of
India
�s industries are fed by locally available raw
materials. On the other hand, most of
Bangladesh
�s industries are dependent on imported raw
materials.
India
and
Bangladesh
share a long and porous border. Since
Bangladesh
needs to support itself through import,
India
has become one of its largest exporters. While a
good number of commercial transactions between
these two countries take place officially, many
are not. To avoid tax and levies, a lot of
merchandises from
India
also enter
Bangladesh
through illegal channels.
As
I understand,
Bangladesh
�s economy is dependent, to a great extent, on
imports from
India
today. Should
India
put a stop on the export of its bovine animals,
poultry, fish, spices, sarees and other
essential goods,
Bangladesh
would find itself in a very difficult situation.
Without import from
India
, would Bangladeshi people not only miss the
daily doses of their protein (beef being its
major source), they would also have a great
difficulty in observing their Eid-ul-adha due to
the shortage of sacrificial animals in their
country.
In
the arena of entertainment, many Bangladeshis
look to
India
for its availability. They not only enjoy
watching Indian movies on VCRs, they are also
fond of
India
�s cable channel television stations. I
believe Zee-TV is one of the favorite channels
of the
Bangladesh
people. They watch Indian movies at the cost of
their local productions.
Bangladesh
has become a market of the Indian goods. With
the passage of time,
Bangladesh
is likely to become more dependent on
India
to meet its needs. This is what is best for the
Indian economy; it does not need to physically
occupy
Bangladesh
in order to achieve its economic goals.
Since
India
and
Bangladesh
are not compatible with each other in any way, I
wonder what the former is supposed to gain by
being against the latter. Can any reader help me
understand the equation between these two
countries? And also, what
India
, or for that matter, any other country of the
world, expects to gain by maligning
Bangladesh
directly, or through its agents?
August 11, 2004
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