May 16, 1976. A well-known day in the political arena of Bangladesh. Almost 49 years ago today, the day of the long march towards Farakka gets more attention every year when the month of May comes around. As the hostile heat wave continues across the country this year, every living being has started feeling hatred.
The urban affluent tries to find some comfort in the air-conditioned enclosure. But urban toilers and low-income people in rural areas across the country have suffered more this year. Added to this is the scarcity of irrigation water in the arable land of the farmers. Those who are deprived of Uniform River water facilities in riverine Bangladesh Mawlana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani started the movement for their welfare.
Mawlana Bhasani was not a statesman. He was the voice of the working people, an oppressed public leader. It was under his leadership that the historic march known as the 'Farakka Long March' was organized to demand the rights of people deprived of the water facilities of the Padma River.
The people of Bangladesh have been victims of India's water invasion since ages. India continues to build dams on the international river Ganges causing severe damage to the people of the two upstream countries. But because of this, Bangladesh, the country of downstream, is facing more threats.
Mawlana Bhasani has been vocal in his opposition to the construction of the dam at Farakka since its inception. In 1952, when India began to implement the plan to build a bank in Farakka, the then Pakistan government protested. India then said it was in the exploratory phase. In 1960, India and Pakistan met on this issue. However, in 1961-62, India secretly started construction of the dam. The country supporting this work was Soviet Union and the cost is estimated at one billion dollars. The 2,240 meter long Farakka Barrage, connecting Maldah and Murshidabad districts of India and West Bengal, was completed in 1970 without the digging of feeder canals and awaiting commissioning.
After the independence of Bangladesh, India completed the construction of the Farakka Link Canal quickly. In 1974, Farakka Barrage was announced as an experimental project. After that, the Farakka Barrage was launched experimentally for 41 days from 21 April. Which is no longer closed, today almost 48 years later, it remains experimentally operational.
Mawlana Bhasani raised public opinion against the unilateral withdrawal of water from the Padma since the Farakka Barrage was commissioned.
His movement was to prevent adverse effects on Bangladesh's agriculture, biodiversity and environment. When India opens all the gates every year without being able to block the excess water of the monsoon through the Farakka Barrage, the lifeline of Bangladesh Padma River in the monsoons, floods and bursts occur. Mawlana Bhasani was moved by the plight of the poor people who had lost their livelihood due to the parched river, even though the gates had been closed during the drought.
In this situation, on April 18, 1976, Maulana Bhasani wrote a letter to the then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi. He described the adverse reaction of Farakka and informed about the 'Farrakka Long March' program. Indira Gandhi, in response to that letter, said, "It is hard to think that someone who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with us against colonial rule and later saw with equal sympathy the pain of Bangladesh's liberation war and sacrifice, has misunderstood us so much and even questioned our sincerity." (BBC Bangla News May 17, 2015).
Mawlana Bhasani's reply to this was, “Your letter of May 4 is a repetition of the official commentary on Farakka. There was no such expectation from the daughter of illustrious ancestor Motilal Nehru and daughter of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.”... “I request you to visit the northern districts of Bangladesh to see the reflection of the real picture... The problem needs a comprehensive solution. It should be based on proper distribution of flow throughout the year and not just limited to two months of the season.”
Even if time passes like this, the real problem remains hidden. The response of which is reflected in the implementation of the Long March program in the direction of Farakka on 16 May 1976. This long march gave birth to an important event in Mawlana Bhasani's long struggling life.
The route of this long march program was to start a long march from Madrasa Maidan in Rajshahi, a divisional city of Padma bank, at 10 am on May 16, passing through Premtoli, crossing Chapainawabganj, crossing Kansat border and ending at Farakka Barrage area point in Murshidabad district of India. He started this journey by addressing a large public meeting at Madrasa Maidan in Rajshahi.
At that time, the 90-year-old veteran leader Maulana Bhasani was very ill. Yet he stood in front of the microphone with two men on his shoulders and delivered a thunderous speech. It was considered a surprising event by the participants of the Long March.
Mawlana Bhasani's statement was, "Just as a child has a right to mother's milk, you have a right to water." Wake up, stand up against the usurpation of your nature-given rights.” He termed the interference with this natural right of man as extremely unjust and oppressive and "raised his hand to the sky and said, Allah will surely guide us to salvation."
Accepting many hardships in his old age, he started this long march with millions of people. Along with the long marchers, he announced to go to Farakka Point inside India, but before crossing the border, he did not follow the advice of the government. He reached the Kansat land port bordering India and announced the end of the long march.
Almost twenty years after this, in 1996, the thirty-year Ganga Water sharing Agreement without any guarantee clause was concluded between the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, and the then Prime Minister of India, HD Deve Gowda which is still in force. Even after 27 years of the Ganges Treaty, there are many debates about what Bangladesh got. On the one hand, the life of Farakka Barrage has passed 50 years. On the other hand, the Ganges Agreement with Bangladesh is about to expire. It is not yet known how the contract will be renewed.
As the expired Farakka Barrage has emerged as a cause of loss for both countries upstream, there is speculation among concerned experts whether it will be demolished or not. Due to Farakka, water logging, landslides, floods, river bursts etc. in its upstream India are seen in the news headlines. Residents of Farakka spend their days in fear of any major disaster.
On the other hand, the people of 16 districts of the northern part of Bangladesh are suffering directly due to the lack of sufficient water in the agreement reached as a result of the unilateral withdrawal of water in Farakka. Padma river in Bangladesh has premature floods in monsoon, but Padma dries up before winter. The Padma, which was once a paradise, where large steamers used to travel between Dhaka and Kolkata, has now become a burden for boating.
With the closure of waterways due to lack of water, there has been a famine of all common fish including hilsa fish in Padma. In addition, fishermen, midshipmen, and naval workers have become unemployed due to the closure of river-based occupations. The branches and tributaries of the Padma have dried up and died. The verse of the famous poet Rabindranath Tagore's poem 'Paar hoye jai garu para hai garhi' - has now become an extreme truth for the Padma and its tributaries.
As a result of the adverse effects of the Farakka Barrage, the overall damage in Bangladesh is very high, which is often seen in the national and foreign media headlines from research reports presented in various seminars and conferences. Many researchers have obtained PhD degrees on the Farakka issue and have given various recommendations, but the Indian authorities ignore them. They are never bothered by the results of the research.
Even hundreds of meetings-seniors on the issue of Teesta river water distribution are still pending even after the agreement was reached. For ages, the deprived people of Bangladesh have been lamenting India's lack of sincerity in sharing the water of international rivers and being a bastion country for the food alone policy. Even as a result of Bangladesh's considerable efforts, Bangladesh is showing an extreme failure politically on the average of various geopolitical calculations.
Lack of sincerity, broken promises, vacillation on agreements and frequent cheating have left Bangladesh largely helpless to deal with its water problems through internal efforts. However, observing the current reality of river water sharing, one cannot deny that the need for the Farakka Long March is now over. Rather, Mawlana Bhasani's thunderous speech of Farakka Longmarch has not lost its strength even today.
Even today, the path of Bangladesh, the strong conviction to move forward, has not been lost. Despite being deprived of many tricks and deceptions, with the foresight, prayers and inspiration of morally strong elders like Mawlana Bhasani, our dear motherland Bangladesh will move forward far ahead in the near future.
Author: Professor of Department of Social Work and former Dean of Faculty of Social Sciences, Rajshahi University.