Her critics may accuse Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of many shortcomings, but reckless overstatement is not one of them. So, when she alerts the world about a Western conspiracy to create a new Christian country out of Bangladesh and Myanmar, India has to take notice. And it has.
Speaking to her 14-party coalition in Dhaka this week, Hasina said a white man had offered to help her win the January 7 elections in Bangladesh easily if in return she allowed a foreign country to set up a military airbase in Bangladesh.
Without naming the nationality of the white man, she said the plan was to carve out an East Timor-like Christian nation from Bangladesh and Myanmar.
The immediate speculation has been around America.
For many years, Washington is believed to have been eyeing St. Martin’s Island, a small island in the northeastern part of the Bay of Bengal, about 9 km south of the tip of the Cox’s Bazar-Teknaf peninsula in the southernmost part of Bangladesh.
In June 2023, a rumour spread in Dhaka that Washington was demanding St. Martin’s Island in return for supporting the ruling Awami League government. But US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the US had no intention of taking control of St. Martin’s Island.
Also, the US Democratic Party establishment under Joe Biden has been long looking for a regime change in Bangladesh. Intel sources say while the US was initially punting on Nobel-winning economist and banker Muhammad Yunus — who is very close to the Clintons, Obamas, and Gates — it has now widened the net. Top US officials have been covertly in touch with senior politicians in Bangladesh from both the Awami League and the BNP, including saboteurs in Sheikh Hasina’s own political and ministerial team.
The Indian government and intelligence agencies have been closely watching the developments and tracking Bangladeshi politicians who the West could use for a possible regime change.
The greater worry is any attempt to change the region’s political map.
Although Hasina named just Myanmar and Bangladesh, the ongoing disturbance in India’s Manipur and the smell of a foreign hand there makes the spectre of a new Christian nation of particular concern for India.
Have the Western powers that Hasina referred to secretly joined hands with regional militant groups like the Kuki-Chin National Front (KNF) and the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA)?
For many years, Christian missionaries and Western NGOs have been working in the border areas of Bangladesh, India, and Myanmar — Teknaf, Khagrachari and Rangamati in Bangladesh, Mizoram and Meghalaya in India, and the Arakan state in Myanmar. They have pumped in money and got a large number of Hindus, Muslims and Buddhists converted to Christianity in these areas.
In this light, the 2023 ethnic violence which erupted in Manipur between the Hindu-majority Meitei from the plains and the Christian-converted Kuki-Zo tribe from the surrounding hills is worrisome. Some sections of the Kuki population are deeply engaged in poppy cultivation and drug trafficking from Myanmar.
To add to this heady mess, intel sources talk about funding of Kukis by US globalist George Soros. They also talk about Erik Prince of US military arms firm Blackwater moving into Myanmar in 2018, sniffing at jade mines, gas, and opium.
The US government provides support to Myanmar’s resistance forces led by Aung San Suu Kyi against the China-backed military junta.
The US has been fancying the country that the Bangladesh PM was talking about. It will stretch from the Chittagong port in Bangladesh to Kyaukpyu in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. Interestingly, the Chinese oil pipeline to Yunnan starts from Kyaukpyu. Rakhine is the province from where the Rohingyas were displaced.
The Chinese have invested billions in developing the Sittwe Port in the same Rakhine province which the US apparently eyes as part of the Christian nation. India has recently gained access to operate the deepwater port.
The incoming Indian government after the June 4 results will have to deal with the lethal cross-currents in the east. How much self-interest India robustly defends or slyly cedes will depend on who comes to power.
Abhijit Majumder is a senior journalist. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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