The Issue of FARAKKA: 
An Introduction

X.   The Mujib Period

As I have already articulated elsewhere, Sheikh Mujb, whose mentors included Suhrawardy and Fazlul Huq, can't be easily dubbed as a pro-Indian person or someone who did not genuinely value the country's independence. However, being confined in West Pakistan (now Pakistan) during the entire 1971, the water has flown a long distance.

The liberation struggle continued in his absence. A government in exile was formed. East Pakistan became an independent nation. When Mujib returned from Pakistan, he found at the helm of a nation and a government over which he had little control. Many a times it has been pointed out that he was undoubtedly a leader to be reckoned with during the period leading up to the liberation struggle. However, management and administration were not his domain. Thus, soon he inherited an political infrastructure, within his party and outside, with special clout of India in this INdia-dependent nation, where his task was by no means easy or the obstacles were easily surmountable.

The Experts vs. the Politicians

Since the very inception of Bangladesh as an independent nation, there has been a lack of "full-fledged harmonious approach by the politicians and hydrology experts." [Begum, p. 116] The Prime Minister's Joint Declaration in 1974 and the Ad hoc Agreement of 1975 reflected this rift between the experts and the politicians. In response to the provision in the agreement "water resources of the region available to the TWO countries" (emphasis is mine), B.M. Abbas, then the leading hydrologist commented: "...The Indian side had succeeded in injecting their ideas in this declaration ... (as) this would put Bangladesh in a tight corner giving a lever to India in pressurizing Bangladesh into considering the Ganga-Brahmaputra link canal and excluding the portion of the Ganges basin lying in Nepal in the development of the Ganges waters." [Begum, p. 116]

The Bangladeshi experts on the Joint River Commission (JRC) were against the idea of the "test running the feeder canal" in 1975. To them this was actually "'commissioning of the Barrage' before settling the question of sharing the current flow of the Ganga water during the dry season." [Begum, p. 116]

It is redundant to say that politicians are not expected to be experts in hydrology or any specific technical area. Yet, politicians can make good decisions only by appropriately incorporating good technical support provided by the experts. Apparently, in the context of Bangladesh, quite typically, the politicians did not do their homework and the expert opinions were systematically ignore or suppressed. 

B.M. Abbas, a non-political personality during the Mujib era and the leading expert involved in water related issues, complained: "Sk. Mujib was an impatient man and did not like to go through a lot of papers" [Begum, p. 117]. This was in reference to 'papers' of 1974-Declaration of the Prime Ministers that Sk. Mujib signed on himself. Just to make sure that readers don't get the impression that this is not an isolated observation, here is what Dr. Nurul Islam, the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission under Mujib Government wrote: "The Prime Minister approved the broad outlines of the plan WITHOUT ANY DETAILED EXAMINATION OF THE IMPLICATIONS OF ALL THE POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS." [Begum, p. 118]

Mujib found himself at odd with the Ministry of Power, Water and Flood Control, the ministry that naturally and logically is expected to be at the center of all these disputes. At the two Prime Ministers' meeting in 1974 Bangladesh delegation included several key players: Khondoker Mushtaq Ahmed, previously the Minister of Water and Flood Control; Dr. Nurul Islam, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, and B.M. Abbas, the Adviser to the Prime Minister and the veteran water resource expert of Bangladesh. Curiously, as B.M. Abbas regretted in his book "The Ganges Waters Dispute", that he "was kept out of the talk". [Begum, p. 118] Interesting, isn't it? 

Khondoker Mushtaq Ahmed, apparently, was among those who used to take hard line against India. So, he was conveniently removed from the Ministry of Water and Flood Control. [Begum, p. 119] In any modern nation, bureaucracy plays a key role in providing continuity to institutions. The Bureaucracy of India "has been constantly enjoying the support and direction of a stable political institution, more or less of a normal democracy" ... In contrast, the bureaucracy in Bangladesh has witnessed a series of unstable political institutions where the politicians themselves have been suffering for want of consistent directions." [Begum, p. 120]

"The party of Bangladesh" in the water dispute gradually "saw their counterparts being more strong with the 'weapon' of having supported the cause of the Bengalis in the liberation struggle." [Begum, p. 120]

Go to Part XI:  Treatment of Ungrateful, Post-Mujib Bangladesh
Go to the Farakka Index.

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