New Delhi: Even as India denied that the opening of a dam in Tripura caused the recent floods in south-eastern Bangladesh, students in government universities in Bangladesh held demonstrations on Thursday (August 22) blaming India, local media reported.
Students from many educational institutes held a torch procession at Dhaka University on Thursday evening, where they chanted slogans including “People, stand against Indian aggression”, the Daily Star reported.
Hundreds of students as well as some teachers held a torch procession at Dhaka’s Jahangirnagar University on Thursday evening, where they chanted similar slogans, the newspaper’s report said.
Around three million people are affected by floods in Bangladesh and at least five people have died as of early on Friday, as per the Daily Star. Thousands of people are also affected in nearby Tripura.
There have been allegations in Bangladesh that the opening of the gates of Tripura’s Dumbur dam upstream from the Bangladesh border without prior notice was to blame for the floods, but India’s external affairs ministry denied this in a lengthy statement yesterday.
But students protesting on Thursday blamed the opening of the Dumbur dam, the Daily Star reported, adding that they also called for fair water-sharing agreements with India.
A delegation from a faction of Bangladesh’s Gono Odhikar Parishad political party submitted a memorandum to India’s high commission in Dhaka among which was a demand for the closure of all dams opened towards Bangladesh within 24 hours.
Dumbur dam still in sights of Bangladesh cabinet officials
Bangladesh’s interim environment adviser Syeda Rizwana Hasan said in an interview to the Daily Star yesterday that “what we are trying to figure out is whether we were told before the [Tripura] dam was opened”.
“The other issue is, why do we only have agreements on eight rivers when we share so many rivers with India?” Hasan asked.
She also said that while Bangladesh and India may not have a treaty on the Gumti river – on which the Dumbur dam lies – there were still “international treaties, such as such as the no-harm principle [and the] principle of cooperation, on how to manage transboundary or shared resources between countries”.
“Our chief adviser is set to speak with the Indian prime minister and raise these concerns,” Hasan added, referring to Muhammad Yunus.
When Yunus met Indian high commissioner Pranay Verma yesterday, he suggested devising a high-level cooperation mechanism between the two countries for water issues that could be activated during emergencies, his press secretary was cited as saying.
Nahid Islam, the country’s information and broadcasting adviser, also said yesterday India had shown “inhumanity and non-cooperation by opening the dams without any advance warning”.
In India, Tripura power minister Ratan Lal Nath denied that the Dumbur dam’s gates were opened manually.
“If we were inhumane, we could have done that a long time ago – by cutting off the electricity supply, because they owe us nearly Rs 180 crore for electricity,” BBC Bangla quoted him as also saying yesterday in response to Islam’s remarks.
The Indian government acknowledged yesterday the “concerns being expressed in Bangladesh”, but it said it would “not [be] factually correct” to say that the floods were caused by the Dumbur dam’s opening.
“The flood in Bangladesh is primarily due to waters from … large catchments downstream of the dam,” its statement said.
Floods in wake of pro-India government’s ouster
Bangladesh’s floods also take place against the backdrop of its political transition. Yunus’s interim government took over the reins after a popular students-led movement ended Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year premiership.
Hasina is currently in India, having abruptly left Dhaka after resigning on August 5. Her Awami League political party has long been perceived as pro-India, which meant that her removal from power had thrown up diplomatic challenges for New Delhi.
Students at the Shahjalal University of Science and Technology chanted, “If you want freedom, abandon loyalty to India.”
One student leader was quoted as saying by the Dhaka Tribune: “Fifteen years of fascist misrule and subservient attitudes have turned us into slaves of India. India’s dominance is eroding harmony among the people of Bangladesh.
“A people’s government has now been established in Bangladesh which does not serve Indian interests. We hope that India will think a hundred times before causing such incidents in the future.”
Thousands displaced by rain in Tripura
Fourteen people have died due to floods in Tripura and 65,400 were in relief camps as of Friday morning, The Telegraph reported.
The newspaper cited chief minister Manik Saha and other officials as saying that four National Disaster Response Force teams comprising 120 personnel had landed in Agartala and that helicopters had been deployed to rescue stranded people.
State power minister Nath told BBC Bangla that parts of Tripura saw 375.8 millimetres of rain just on August 20.
“If we look at the entire month, in the first 21 days of August, the normal expected rainfall was 214 millimetres. However, we have received 538.7 millimetres of rain, which is 151% more than normal,” he was quoted as saying.
