Bangladesh receives aggressive shocks
The head of Bangladesh's interim government, Mohammad Yunus, is bent on hitting his own foot with an axe. Mohammad Yunus is completely sitting in the lap of China and Pakistan. India is constantly giving shocks to Bangladesh. It is bound to cause damage to Bangladesh. The Central Government has now imposed restrictions on the products coming from Bangladesh. Products such as readymade garments, processed food, plastic products, wooden furniture and dyes will not be imported from every border or port of India. Readymade garments will now be available in India only through Nhava Sheva (Mumbai) and Kolkata Seaport. At the same time, the border points of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram, and Changrabari and Phulbari in West Bengal have been completely closed for goods like baked goods, snacks, drinks made from fruits and vegetables, cotton yarn waste, PVC and dye. This decision has been taken in response to the restrictions imposed by Bangladesh on Indian exports through the land route and high transit fees which are against the spirit of bilateral agreements. Sources said Bangladesh has a free access to the Northeast market, affecting the local manufacturing sector. This creates unhealthy dependency and stalls the industrial development of the North-Eastern States.
Earlier, on April 9, India had withdrawn the transit facility given to Bangladesh, under which Bangladesh used to export to the Middle East and Europe from other Indian ports, including Delhi airport. This facility was limited to Nepal and Bhutan only. The move will severely impact Bangladesh's exports and will face distance, high costs and uncertainty in shipping goods across the world. India had provided many facilities to Bangladesh and had given organized routes to Bangladesh through trans-shipment. India did not take this step against Bangladesh arbitrarily, but Bangladesh itself is responsible for this situation. After the ouster of Sheikh Hasina's government, Bangladesh was constantly trying to harm Indian interests. Mohammad Yunus has derailed the efforts of Bangladesh to strengthen economic relations due to anti-India attitude. In fact, after the overthrow of Yunus government's anti-India sentiments, the religious places of Hindus were demolished. It had washed away the bitterness in the relations between the two countries. Bangladesh has fallen into the hands of fundamentalists, forgetting the atrocities committed by Pakistan and the benevolence done by India. This step by the Government of India has not been taken suddenly. Recently, Bangladesh's interim government chief Muhammad Yunus said during an event in China that seven northeastern states of India are "landlocked" and their access to the sea is possible only through Bangladesh. Calling himself the "Guardian of the Indian Ocean", he also invited China to send global shipments through Bangladesh. India found this statement highly objectionable and its impact was clearly visible in this decision.
China's move is seen behind this act of Mohammad Yunus. The corridor connecting eight northeastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura with West Bengal is called Chicken Neck and hence it is called Chicken Neck. Its length is 60 kilometers and the width is only 22 kilometers in some places. China wants to break away from the northeastern states from India in some way or the other. China also claims Arunachal Pradesh and the Chicken Neck corridor seems to be its weak link. After the Pahalgam terror attack, India taught Pakistan a lesson through Operation Sindoor, then China appeared to stand in support of Pakistan. For the third year in a row, China renamed several places in the Indian state of Arunachal. India, as before, rejected China's absurdly unfounded claims.
In complex situations, India decided to carry out an economic surgical strike on Bangladesh. Bangladesh's readymade garments industry has been the backbone of its economy. Although the size of Bangladesh's industry is much smaller than India's, exports are worth $ 45 billion. Due to political turmoil, its readymade garments industry has suffered a lot. India's imposition of several restrictions on it will affect its exports. Already impoverished, Bangladesh will face a serious economic crisis. To meet the challenges, India has started a project to develop strong railway and road networks in and around the Chicken Neck corridor. Bangladesh has also banned Sheikh Hasina's party Awami League. As a democracy, India is naturally concerned with the weakening of democratic freedoms. India supports free, fair elections in Bangladesh. It remains to be seen in which direction the relations between the two countries will move.