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Historical Farakka Long March by Maulana Bhasani

Sheikh Shawkat Hosain Nilu British-India was divided on August 14 and August 15 in 1947 and Pakistan and India were placed in the world map atlas. Human civilisations always flourished based upon the natural resources and conditions from prehistoric time. Water had a principal role to nurture a nascent civilisation. Indian subcontinent lies between the Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean in the south and Himalayan Range in the north. Due to the climate for this geographic condition the agriculture system, communication system and of course the civilisation developed based upon the natural waterways. For agriculture, fishery and communications water flow and the rivers play significant role. The sources of the rivers in Indian subcontinent are mainly Himalayan Glaciers and the Manas Sorovar in Tibet. These rivers ran through Nepal, India and Bangladesh and finished their journey to the Bay of Bengal. Depending upon the water flow of Ganges-Padma River system the economy, agriculture, fishery and river based communication is developed. More over the natural equilibrium of this region is also dependent upon the natural water flow of this system. As India was divided on Mid-August of 1947 the river flow were also divided. During the 1962 war between China and India Arunachal was detached from the Indian mainland, naturally strategic security of Assam and Tripura was under huge risk. Specialists on the geographical security of India realised that it is very urgent to build a fast way to deploy weapons over the Ganges. Under this planning with the direct assistance from the World Bank Farakka barrage was built in 1964. It was mainly intended to control the water flow and for the use at the time of war. Pakistan protested about this to international community. This project was completed in 1972. Prior to that Bangladesh was liberated through a bloody war. By an international law an upriver country can not make hindrance to the river flow without prior permission from the downriver country. If upriver country violates the law it will have to compensate the downriver country. Farakka Dam became operational from 1974 after the Mujib-Indira treaty. Khandaker Mushtaq Ahmed was then the Minister for Water Resources and Babu Jagjivan Ram was his Indian counterpart. Both of them were key personnel in their respective governments. B M Abbas was the Chairman of Water Development Board. He was known and trustworthy to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and also an important advisor to Ministry for Water Resources. Comments and counter-comments were continued to be passed on the topic of Farakka. Political analysts believe that relation between the two countries was very favourable at that time. But behaviour of India upon the flow of water was very cruel. They proposed to release 34 thousand cusecs of water during the dry season and they did not include any guarantee clause on that. Khandaker Mushtaq Ahmed repeatedly had regretting to sign that unequal treaty. He met Indira Gandhi and told her, 'In 1971 people of both countries shed blood to create Bangladesh. I don't want to believe that India wants to transform Bangladesh into a desert by withdrawing water.' As a result Khandaker Mushtaq Ahmed was released under pressure from India from the Ministry of Water Resources to be reinstated in the Ministry of Commerce and Industries. Abdur Rab Serniyabat, the husband of Bongobondhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's younger sister was appointed as the Minister for the Water Resources. The field for the unequal Mujib-Indira water Treaty was set. Through this treaty one sided water withdrawal by India was legalised violating all the international laws, thereby India started to loot Bangladesh's share of water from the international river. After Bongobondhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman being killed along with his family members his long time colleagues like Khandaker Mushtaq Ahmed, Abu Sayeed Chaudhury, Sri Manoranjan Dhar formed a military government dominated by the civilians (Civil Martial Law). Brigadier Khaled Musharraf dimissed Khandaker Mushtaq Ahmed to capture the state power on November 3,1975. It created hegemony all around the country. All the chain of command was abolished for the time being. Chief of Army Staff Major General Ziaur Rahman was placed under house arrest. Under the command of Colonel Taher public and soldiers released Major General Ziaur Rahman from his cantonment residence. And there was a rapid change in the political scenario. On the surface Justice Abu Sadat Muhammad Sayem was the President but real power was in the hand of Major General Ziaur Rahman. Mujib devotee Bongobir Qader Siddique started various sort of insurgencies in the borders. On the other hand the share of water for Bangladesh according to the treaty was stopped by the Indian administration. In such chaotic situation Leader of the Oppressed People Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani announced a schedule for long march towards Farakka on early April protesting the unjust done by withdrawing flow of water. Day of commencement of the Long March was scheduled on May 16. A public gathering was planned at Rajshahi Madrasa on May 15 by 10 AM. From there a procession was scheduled to march toward Farakka. To coordinate that procession a central committee was formed by placing Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani as convener. Mashiur Rabman Jadu Mia, Haji Muhammad Danesh, Captain Abdul Halim, Maulana Abdul Matin, Anwar Zahid, Qazi Zafar Ahmed, Sirajul Hossain Khan, Gazi Shahidullah, Enayetullah Khan and I were among the members of the coordination committee of the Long March. Why did he planned the Long March and what was his motivation to do so, Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani elaborated all in a historical letter to Indira Gandhi, the Prime Minister of India. Enayetullah Khan, Sirajul Hossain Khan and Anwar Zahid gave him their hands to compose that letter. Maulana Bhasani wrote down in his letter about his association with her father Jawaha