India and Bangladesh

The first time when I went to Dhaka a few weeks after the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971, I could even taste pro-India feelings but with noticeable anti-Hindu sentiments. A few days ago when I was there, I sensed something entirely opposite. There is a strong anti-India feeling but a positive attitude towards Hindus who constitute 9.1 percent of Bangladesh population.
In early 1972, I heard Hindus complaining about their inhibition in celebrating their festivals. This time they told me how Durga Puja was held at Ramma Bari Maidan and Dhakarwari temple at Dhaka with all the rites and prayers. The temples and the images were well decorated at both the places. Thousands of devotees and their friends, including hundreds of Muslims, were present "to savour the sight and solemn feeling of the occasion," as a Hindu leader put it.
What frightens me is the yawning gulf between New Delhi and Dhaka. Both the governments are going over the same exercise again and again as if they are not even listening to what the other is saying. Delhi believes that Bangladesh has become a base of all those forces, religious and others, which are operating against India and that the government is looking the other side.
Chief Adviser of the caretaker government Fakhruddin Ahmed does not rule out some Bangladeshis crossing into India. But to allege that there were training camps of terrorists or that the authorities conniving at such activities was "very unfair to us and I deny all these charges categorically". He says his government has been able to contain terrorism within his own country by taking appropriate measures. It is time that India realised that it had home grown terrorists.
However assuring his statement, it does not remove the general impression in India that Bangladeshis were behind the recent blasts at Guwahati. Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogai has reportedly written to Delhi to take up the matter with Dhaka. The belief, whatever its worth is gaining ground in India that Bangladesh is a country where fundamentalism is spreading.