N.P. Upadhyaya, Kathmandu: The July 1st undisclosed meet of the Pakistani High Commissioner Imran Ahmad Siddiqui and Bangladesh Foreign Minister A. K. Abdul Momen in Dhaka set the ball rolling.
This meet was a clear signal that the two estranged countries of the troubled South Asian region have decided henceforth to look at the regional and international issues more or less with the same lens and also hinted that the two countries wished to forge a better bilateral relations with each other keeping in mind the obtaining South Asian regional issues such as on how to fight collectively with the regional hegemon-the Indian “dominion” born 1947.
Prior to the meet of Ambassador Siddiqui and Minister Momen in Dhaka, top diplomatic sources said that this meet was made possible only when the two Prime Ministers, Sheikh Hasina and Imran Khan talked over telephone though this was kept a shielded secret by both the government for some understandable reasons.
“Compelling regional issues” have once again obligated the leaders of the two South Asian nations to make yet another direct call wherein they reportedly deliberated on the Corona pandemic and of course the fresh India-China ferocious conflict in and around Ladakh region wherein India, as usual, preferred to take several steps back “bravely” allowing China to enter and capture much of the Indian landmass to which the Indian Prime Minister Modi told his national population that the Indian armed forced didn’t allow the Chinese military to gulp even an inch of the Indian soil.
The telephonic tête-à-tête is supposed to have also taken up the issue of the predicament of the people of Kashmir who have been living a hellish life since August 5 last year. PM Khan raised this issue while talking to PM Hasina.
Rachel Hopkins, a Labor MP says on Kashmir that “It’s nearly a year since the Indian government revoked Article 370, the Human Rights have been under assault in Jammu and Kashmir and violence has led to the needless deaths of many innocent people. The UK government must schedule a debate on the Human Rights abuses in Kashmir as soon as possible”.
The British Parliamentarian from Luton South made these remarks right inside the House just the previous week.
In addition to all these concerns on Kashmir, the Pak Foreign Minister Shah Mohd. Qureshi too challenged July 23/2020, the Indian government to send independent journalists to assess the situation in the India occupied Kashmir if it can dare? Minister Qureshi in the meantime revealed that the President of the UN General Assembly Volkan Bozkir will be shortly visiting Pakistan.
The President of the UNGA Volkan Bozkir is a Turkish national.
Though the Pakistani Prime Minister raised the Kashmir issue, however, what had been the Bangladeshi response on the issue has yet to come to the open. The reason of the silence is very much understandable.
The Indian catastrophe in Ladhakh region saw fifty plus Indian soldiers killed and several are reportedly missing and yet India’s traditional ally-Bangladesh did not even condole the death of the Indian soldiers which in many more ways than one tells the likely rift that may have developed in between India and Bangladesh after India enacted the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
The Indian law had triggered gigantic remonstrations in Bangladesh and in March, fascist Modi had to cancel his visit because of growing anti-India sentiments.
Interestingly, this telephone call between the two leaders has come close on the heels of a Bangladeshi research scholar’s passionate appeal that it was time to form an alliance of some Muslim countries to confront the South Asian plague-the RAW intelligence agency of the Indian dominion. Zainal Abedin, the Bangladeshi scholar preferred the alliance of the countries like, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Maldives.
Moreover, this telephonic conversation in between the two South Asian leaders from the Chabahar project which was, as expected, replaced by the emerging superpower China.
Unlucky India was first expelled by Iran from the construction of the Railroad from Chabahar port to Zahedan, along the border with Afghanistan in the early weeks of this July.
To recall, India had signed an agreement with Iran in the year 2016 to construct a rail line from Chabahar (literal meaning is Four Seasons) port to Zahedan, along the border with Afghanistan.
The Chabahar port was being jointly developed by India, Iran and Afghanistan. The three countries considered the Chabahar port, located on the Indian Ocean in the Sistan and Baluchistan province of Iran, a gateway to opportunities for trade with central Asian nations.
India preferred to invest in this Chabahar project to negate the importance of the Gwadar port in Pakistan which is being handled by China in close cooperation with the host Pakistani government.
In simple words, the Chabahar port was more or less a counter to the Chinese investment in Gwadar port in the eyes of the Indian establishment.
The benefit for India is that it is easily accessible from India’s western coast.
Fresh reports now suggest that India has been kicked out from the Gas field project as well. Jolt in series to India from Iran.
Writes a political analysts from Pakistan in the Daily Times dated July 23/20202 that “twice in a row, India has had to eat a humble pie at the hands of Iran this month. After being shown the door in the Chabahar Port Rail project, now India has been “dropped” from an ambitious Iranian gas field project that had been in the pipeline for the past 10 years. India’s Ministry of External Affairs in a statement said Tehran would develop the Farzad-B gas field in the Persian Gulf region “on its own” and might engage India “appropriately at a later stage.” This was a face saving diplomatic statement because the truth is that last week, Masoud Karbasian, managing director of National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), confirmed to reporters that a new operator had been roped in to develop the gas field, replacing India’s ONGC”.
This means that India has once again failed in encircling Pakistan by having its presence in Iran. Foul play failed.
This further means that India has lost both the railroad construction and the gas field project in Iran at a go which must have pained the RAW republic and its paid agents in Nepal also.
South Asian diplomats say that one more reason for Iran to expel India out from the projects is that “Indian investment/assistance in Iran also accompanies the unwarranted entrance of thousands of RAW men under the garb of workers and laborers of the sort of Kul Bhusan Yadab who is now languishing in the Pakistani jail awaiting death sentence.
In fact it is this notorious Intelligence agency of India which is being used to subvert those regimes in the regional countries who oppose the Indian domination in political matters.
So not for nothing, Zainal Abedin proposes an alliance of some countries to fight the menace of this RAW agency which is the creation of the Indian “dominion” as Indian republic is being considered by the United Kingdom.
Indian stake in the claim of the $5.5b “Farzad-B” gas project emanated from the fact that the field, estimated to possess 21.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves, 12.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 212 million barrels of gas condensates, was discovered in 2008 by a consortium of three Indian companies – ONGC, Oil India Limited and Indian Oil Corporation. According to the deal, the Indian side was supposed to develop the field but they abruptly stopped work in 2012, following the intensification of sanctions against Iran, explains the Pakistani analyst S. M. Hali in his fresh write up published in the Daily Times dated July 23/2020.
With the ejection of India from the Rail and the Gas projects in Iran has in many more ways than one explained as to how the neighboring countries including Iran love to hate India for a variety of political reasons.
Iran’s hard-hitting action against India has also come due to its compulsion that this country can trust no longer the my dear ally of the United States with which Iran for the several years is not even on speaking terms let alone friendly.
In fact, Iran have had to kick India out because of the prime reason that India’s hobnob with the country which has imposed sanctions on it were increasing to the extent Iran can digest.
India understands the Iranian compulsions but yet the establishment fails to recognize the crude fact and thus is the chaos and furor is made through its paid Godi-media against Iran.
India would not have cried this foul if Iran had offered these bounties to any other country of the world other than China-India’s declared enemy since the 1962 humiliating defeat.
The associated fact is also that India can’t press Iran for favoring India once again because if India gets involved or say prefers to engage in Iran under any scheme, chances are fair that India would be scolded by the United States.
This is simple logic in that Iran has changed when India changed. Iran can’t toe the Indian lines. It is simple as that.
India’s intimate ties with Israel and the United States is what may have brought about this expected collapse in the Tehran-Delhi ties.
Needless to say, Iran has strong reservations on countries like Israel and the United States.
Writes an Indian analyst Bhadra Kumar in The Tribune dated 24 July/2020 that “India should try to understand the impending 25-year cooperation agreement dubbed Sino-Iranian Comprehensive Strategic Partnership”.
High placed diplomatic sources in South Asia claim that China is not only active in Iran but is also likely to sign several agreements with countries like Saudi Arabia and the UAE which are known archetypal rivals of Iran.
India thus has not only lost its previous clout, if it had any, in South Asian nations but is also in losing the Arab world.
This means that China is on the move with high speed and is almost close to replace India’s bold presence in the Gulf as well.
Sources claim that Beijing attaches highest importance to its partnerships with Riyadh and Abu Dhabi.
With China’s entrance in Iran, this country stands to gain if it integrates into the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), say Nepali observers.
The proposed $400-billion agreement with China envisages hundreds of development projects. It addresses Iran’s growing financial and infrastructure needs, and serves the Chinese companies and tech giants’ commercial interests.
When these benefits are there then why should Iran cling to the Indian regime for no benefits?
In many more ways than one, China for a variety of political reasons has encircled the Indian republic.
The encirclement begins from Nepal and ends in Iran along with Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.
Summing up, India’s excessive intimacy with the US and the RAW’s likely penetration into the body politic of Iran forced Tehran to say good bye to India. And the benefit thus goes to China and the countries which have been enlisted in the Belt and the Road Initiative-the brain child of China.
India’s shameful dismissal from Iran in a straight manner benefits Islamabad which has comfortable ties with Tehran establishment.
Let’s hope than many more shocking surprises await the country where, the Swedish Professor says, a joker prime minister has been elected by the people.
Needless to say, Prime Minister Modi is the joker fanatically controlling the Indian “dominion”. India’s summary breakdown is imminent. That’s all.