Not only in Ladakh, India losing ground in Bangladesh too (Part-III)

DM Monitoring

So far, so good! However, as it appears from Bhaumik’s writings, India’s main concern has been growing Chinese influence in Bangladesh. Ironically, this is what is likely to happen in Bangladesh.
India is going to lose out to China. India is not only losing ground in Ladakh, but is most likely to lose Bangladesh as its backyard to play badminton in accordance with the rules set by itself, only to its benefit.
While China has been flexing its muscle to contain India so that it does not pose any threat to China’s economic and strategic interests in Pakistan by breathing too close for comfort for China and Pakistan through Ladakh, this Spring, seemingly, India has ratchetted up its propaganda warfare against Bangladesh.
First comes up an article, “Bangladesh army is becoming captive to one alma-mater again” on April 17, 2020 by one Nirmala Saha, who according to Subir Bhaumik does not exist, and the piece came out “in a strange website (www.worldnews.net)”. However, the article reveals that alumni of the Jhenaidah Cadet College in Bangladesh Army under the leadership of Lt Gen Mahfuzur Rahman, the Principal Staff Officer, are planning a military takeover against Hasina and her pro-Indian Army Chief General Aziz Ahmed. As Bhaumik has rightly pointed out what Nirmala Saha has suggested about General Rahman being close to both the CIA and Chinese intelligence, MSS as an absurd proposition.
Nevertheless, what Bhaumik has written in two of his articles in quick succession on 10th and 14th June 2020 have broadly argued that anti-Awami League (one may read ‘anti-Indian”) elements in the Bangladesh Army have factionalised it. So much so that Aziz’s edging out his protégé Lt Gen Mahfuzur Rahman to become the next army chief has polarized the army, and that “Aziz has now seemingly fallen out with Defence Advisor Siddiqui (the brother-in-law of Hasina Wajed’s sister, Rehana)”. Bhaumik also tells us that “even the pro-Aziz faction is now divided” after Aziz has forced a Hasina loyalist Lt Gen Nazimuddin to go on leave prior to retirement (LPR).
Bhaumik has also reproduced a letter by Nazimuddin to Hasina where he pleads his loyalty to the Awami League and seeks his reinstatement by the Prime Minister. It is noteworthy that in his 14th June article Bhaumik mentions an unsigned note in circulation in social media, which defends Aziz as “a born and congenital believer of the ideology of our father of the nation.Last but not least, Bhaumik gives an unsolicited advice to Hasina, which smacks of his (and RAW’s not-so-hidden agenda to keep pro-Indian elements in important positions in Bangladesh, especially the armed forces).
He writes: Wajed [Hasina] needs to take firm control of the situation before the army rocks her boat. At a time when the country is witnessing a silent Islamist revival evident in the emergence of the Jamaat-e-Islami breakaway, Amar Bangladesh Party, and its growing links with other pro-Pakistan Opposition leaders like the Bangladesh National Party’s Tareque Zia, professional stability in the army holds the key to future peace in Bangladesh.
To be continued…