Mujib Ur Rehman March 1971: Soon after stepping on the soil of the independent country Awami League came out with the ambiguous slogan of “Mujibbad”. After three and half years when “Mujibabad” was proven to be an empty slogan Sheikh Mujibur Rahman like any other power hungry dictator promulgated 4th amendment and took all powers in his own hand by forming one party autocratic regime of BKSAL. This unprecedented constitutional coup de’ tat was called his ‘Second Revolution’. As he usurped absolute power apparently things for a while looked calm on the surface but beneath that uneasy calm political and social conditions were fast deteriorating. Please see article in Time Magazine wrtten by Tharoor which corrborates waht Stanley Wolpert wrote in "Zulfi"--the Bangladeshi officers harbored pro-Pakistani sentiments--in fact Khnodakar Mushtaque Ahmed made a short lived announcement and declared a confederation with Pakistan. That announcement was short lived and many believe that theere were actually two coups, one on the night of August 14th, 1975 and the other on the afternoon of August 15th which removed the original copu makers and Khoondkar Mushtaque was releived of any new role in the new BD government.

ON the 38th anniversary of the fall of Dhaka today, thoughts inevitably turn to the causes that led to the sad parting of the ways with our brothers from East Pakistan, now a friendly country Bangladesh; and to probing whether, following that shock separation, Pakistan’s ruling circles learnt any lesson and endeavoured to avoid the follies that alienated the once ardent patriotic Pakistanis, forcing them to struggle for a state of their own. Looking back, it is absolutely clear why and how disaffection took root and spread in that province. No doubt, foreign powers, principally the Indians, encouraged and rendered active, crucial and material help to the separatist elements, but they could not have succeeded had the political and bureaucratic forces, both civilian and military, from the western wing, which ruled the roost, not provided them a fertile ground to exploit. At the base of Pakistani leaders’ discriminatory attitude towards the eastern wing was sheer lust for power. As the politico-bureaucratic ruling classes squabbled over their share of power, even relegating as fundamental an issue as the framing of the country’s Constitution to the backburner, they overlooked those essential factors that would keep the country, with different ethnic composition and separated by long distance, united. The main loser was East Pakistan. The 1958 coup staged by General Ayub Khan, who hailed from the western wing, and the subsequent events in the country provided the people of that province enough evidence that though they constituted majority of the country’s population and by virtue of that ought to have had a greater share of power, they had little chance of getting their due right. And when they rebelled an unfortunate effort was made to ruthlessly suppress them with military force.

Seeking Bangladeshi identity: Bangladesh was created in the name of Bengali nationalism. However the Hindu Bengalis who had opposed the parition of Bengal in 1906 opposed and did not join Muslim Bangladesh as Bengalis. Mujib regime killed, according to many, more than 30 thousand patriots, who opposed plunder by India and by the BAL, and through the regime's misrule and plunder, along with Indian plunder and conspiracy, they caused the man-made famine of 1974, in which 3 to 5 hundred thousand people perished, according to reports. Mujib suppressed all democratic rights and unleashed a reign of terror. In the above circumstances, according to some, Bangladesh faced extinction as an independent nation and was about to become a vassal state of the Indian hegemonists. The coup of 15 August 1975 saved the situation to a large extent and it was widely supported by the people. On August 14th, 1975 Bangladeshi nationalists buried the secularism deep into the Bay of Bengal. Today Bangladesh faces new threats from India again. . After failing to take over Bangladesh on Dec 6th 1971, India is forcing a transit policy on defenseless Bangladesh that is fighting for her existence. The Transit facilites that Bharat is asking would clog existing Bangladeshi roads and pose a security threat to Bangladesh. It would also exacerbate the situation in Northeast "India" where the sevean Assamese states want freedom from Delhi. The Transit agreement poses a mortal threat to Bangladesh

The situation, reeking of injustice and exploitation, was too inviting for our archenemy to resist. Indian intelligence agency RAW went into full, luring the leadership there into promoting its cause and, as General Manekshaw later acknowledged, inducting trained and well supplied mukti bahini force of 80,000 consisting of Hindus, into the scene. Posing as local freedom fighters, they went about fighting the Pakistan Army that ultimately rent asunder the country.

It is an unfortunate reality that the Pakistani leadership failed to grasp the point that governance based on strong democratic institutions could have precluded the break-up. Army’s inroads and politicians’ shenanigans continued. The sense of injustice in smaller provinces and the post-9/11 war against terrorists again furnished India with a ready scenario to fish in troubled waters with the help of its friend USA. It is high time saner counsels prevailed among the ruling classes and they prioritised national interests over every other transient gain.

This is the history of deceit and treachery that kept the Muslims apart

This is the joint history. We can hang together or hang seperately.

Although, this idea of Brihot Bangladesh has some respectable intellectual support in Bangladesh it is
very much in its infancy and probably will not grow to maturity at least within the next 50 years and may
even then die a premature death out of natural causes such as exhaustion and lack of interest. However, the
Indian intelligence agencies, political, intellectual and religious establishment have made this an all
embracing vision that must be prevented at all costs. Lt. Gen. (Retd) S.K. Sinha PVSM, and a former Governor
of Assam has commented,Barrister M.B. Munshi

Failure to get Assam included in East Pakistan in 1947 remained a source of abiding resentment in the
country (Pakistan). Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in his book, Myths of Independence wrote, ‘It would be wrong to
think that Kashmir is the only dispute that divides India and Pakistan, though undoubtedly the most
significant. One at least is nearly as important as the Kashmir dispute, that of Assam and some districts
of India adjacent to East Pakistan. To these Pakistan has very good claims.

Even a pro-India leader like Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in his book, Eastern Pakistan: Its population and
Economics, observed, “Because Eastern Pakistan must have sufficient land for its expansion and because
Assam has abundant forest and mineral resources, coal and petroleum etc., Eastern Pakistan must include
Assam to be financially and economically strong. (Qouted in â˜Terror Sans Frontiers: Islamic Militancy
in North East India’).