Bangladesh: Jamaat chief calls US ‘tested friend’, ignites debate

Dhaka: Although Dhaka can recognise the importance of its present-day partnership with the United States, it cannot overlook the serious failures of Washington’s policy during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War against Pakistan.

Those contradictions became particularly evident in December 1971, when, as the Indo-Pakistani War reached its critical stage, the United States sent Task Force 74, led by the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, into the Bay of Bengal — a move widely perceived as a support for Pakistan, a report has stated.

The policy of the former US President Richard Nixon’s administration during the Bangladesh Liberation War has been widely criticised by historians as one of the gravest moral failures of American foreign policy. Influenced by geopolitical interests, particularly the Cold War rivalry and the effort to establish a strategic relationship with China, Nixon and his National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger, sustained support for Pakistan despite increasing evidence of severe atrocities committed by Pakistani forces in Bangladesh, according to a report in Bangladesh’s newspaper, Daily Sun

It argued that this is precisely why the projection of the United States as a “tested friend” calls for careful reflection.

“Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Shafiqur Rahman’s description of the United States as a “tested friend” of Bangladesh during the celebration of the 250th anniversary of American independence at the South Plaza of the Jatiya Sangsad has reignited an old debate. Diplomatic niceties are an integral part of international relations, and there is nothing unusual about celebrating the ties between two countries. Yet portraying the United States as a “tested friend” without acknowledging the defining test of 1971 risks reducing history to political convenience,” the report detailed.

“The irony is difficult to ignore. The remark comes from the leader of a party whose own role during Bangladesh’s Liberation War continues to cast a long shadow over its political legacy. For Jamaat-e-Islami to invoke the language of enduring friendship while remaining silent about both its own wartime position and Washington’s record during the Liberation War raises uncomfortable questions about historical consistency,” it added

According to the report, the decision to host the celebration at Bangladesh’s parliament drew criticism from leftist political groups and intellectuals, who viewed it as overlooking a painful episode in the country’s historical journey

“They also linked the event to broader concerns about growing American influence, echoing their recent criticism of the Interim Government’s reciprocal trade agreement with the United States as being contrary to Bangladesh’s sovereign interests. Whether one agrees with these objections or not, they reflect a historical memory that remains deeply embedded in the national consciousness,” it noted.

Slamming Jamaat over its controversial role during the Bangladesh 1971 Liberation War, the report said, “History is not served by selective remembrance. Bangladesh’s Liberation War is the moral foundation of the Republic. Any political party—particularly one whose own wartime role remains deeply contested—should approach that history with humility rather than revisionism.”

IANS