Statesman and statesmanship!

It is a great pity that this great daily has fallen to such pitiable depths as your excellent editorial of September 2nd articulates so well. There are so many points in their particular editorial blaming the PM for the August 21 grenade attacks that just cannot be explained by freedom of the press. It is time that we take up this editorial with the Indian government through the official diplomatic channel and demand an answer. I am not sure but there must be some international press organisation that judges the ethical standards of newspapers. We should lodge an official complaint with any such organisation if it exists. The government could even consider suing The Statesman.

All said, I am not very surprised with that editorial, knowing Indian politics and diplomacy somewhat, I have seen Indian newspapers play such a role for the government all the time. This editorial reflects the stance of the Indian government. It is now for our government to make an assessment of the new Indian government. It seems the Congress is showing its true colours and the positive spin our Foreign Ministry gave following the visit of the Foreign Minister to India as an special envoy is boiling down to nothing. The re-activation of the river-linking project is another case in point.

It is time we make a serious assessment of our relations with India under the Congress-led government.

Overseas Bangladeshis are shocked to learn that the prestigious Statesman of Kolkata has cast aspersions on the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Khaleda Zia, by labelling the tragic events of August 21 as, "Khaleda's game plan...” The assassination attempt on the leader of the opposition and the former prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, and the Awami League leadership has been universally condemned by Bangladeshis at home and abroad. As The Daily Star editorial points out, how The Statesman has come to this conclusion regarding Khaleda culpability, when internal and international investigations into the attack are ongoing and in the preliminary stages, is intriguing! If The Statesman has any inside information, it should furnish it to the Bangladesh authorities rather than write character-assassinating editorials. To accuse the democratically elected prime minister of a neighbouring country of a crime of such serious magnitude without any shred of evidence is juvenile journalism, speculative journalism at its worst, and it only illustrates The Statesman's ill-will and hostility towards Bangladesh.

Unfortunately The Statesman's editorial represents the attitude of a certain section of Indian population and media who are jealous of Bangladesh's enormous success as an independent nation and wants to destroy its image. Bangladesh is after all a moderate Muslim majority democracy ruled by two democratically elected women, and is courted by all and sundry and has become a far more sought after destination for the world's politicians, dignitaries, intellectuals, and yes, statesmen than Kolkata, for instance. To reach back its glory days, The Statesman should desist from interfering in the internal affairs of its neighbouring country and should take the lead in forcing the Indian Parliament to relinquish to Bangladesh an amount of land equal to the Bangladeshi enclaves Dahagram and Angarpota, which a trusting Sheikh Mujib had handed over to Indira Gandhi's India thirty years ago in a land exchange, and which India is obliged to honour legally and morally, but has yet to do so.

Arshad Jamil, New Jersey