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On the issue of Gaza and Israel, when the world humanity is standing in one line with the common people of Palestine, with the Israeli attack and human rights violations in Gaza. People are protesting in different parts of the world.
Just then, I suddenly saw a group called India Boycott as an alternative in Bangladesh, which has become popular on social media.
The first few days took a while to figure out. India boycotts suddenly! What is India boycott? I could not match that account. And who is concerned about the deterioration of Bangladesh-India relations? I wanted to find out.
Be it people or goods, or the state, anyone can boycott. In our personal life we also boycott many people in different ways; it is a natural process. But when the issue is between the two states and the neighbouring states, the rest of the account is not settled, there are arguments, discussions, gratitude, etc. Boycotting India is not as easy as we can boycott Israel, sitting thousands of miles away.
As a neighboring country, Bangladesh has a tense relationship with India on various issues. Some are resolved some issues still remain unresolved. Which has been repeatedly discussed. Especially border killings and the Teesta incident are the most discussed. But it is not in any condition to boycott India. In the past, we have seen that Bangladesh has occupied itself by determining the maritime boundary with India through international courts.
Common people have a kind of idea about those who gave birth to this boycott trend through social media. Some of them sat in Australia and France and started promoting it through social media. But the internal reality of Bangladesh is very grim. I saw a news this week that fifteen thousand tourists returned from India in three days. Peele was shocked to see the queue for visa at the Indian Embassy in Bangladesh. Due to the delay in issuing visas, people are instead abusing India because of issuing short days of visas. In such a situation, how realistic is this India Boycott Movement? Or is there any other door open in front of us as an alternative to India?
What is the benefit or loss if India boycotts? India Boycott Movement is basically boycotting all Indian products. So that the country's export trade declines and suffers financially. In a 2023 report, according to Bangladesh Bank data, Bangladesh imported goods worth 8,916 million US dollars in the fiscal year 2021–22. Out of this, 1 thousand 369 million dollars worth of goods are imported from India. In that financial year, Bangladesh exported 199 million dollars worth of goods to India. There in 2022, India's total import amount was 723 billion dollars, or 72 thousand 3 billion dollars.
According to an Economic Times report, Bangladesh is India's fifth-largest export destination. Although Bangladesh is a much smaller economy than India, it imports huge amounts from India. Bangladesh's imports from India are so high, mainly due to its geographical proximity. It takes less time and cost. But India is not Bangladesh's biggest import source now; that place is now China.
The report also said that at the end of the last fiscal year, India's gross domestic product, or GDP, will stand at 340,000 billion dollars. The share of foreign trade will be 48 percent. However, the export of services is more than the country's products. Despite being India's fifth-largest trading partner, Bangladesh is not among the country's top 10 import sources. He means that India now exports services, components, raw materials for production more than products. All in all, boycotting India is a complex equation.
On April 22, a human chain was formed in front of the National Press Club in Bangladesh, at the initiative of the Nationalist New Party, demanding boycotts of Indian products and elections under a caretaker government. BNP Chairperson's Advisory Council Member Zainul Abedin Farooq said there
The movement of 'Indian product boycott' will continue until democracy returns to the country, this movement of Indian product boycott is going on and will continue. We are not against you (India); we are against your government. Many poor people in Bangladesh are in India; democracy-loving people are also in India; we support them too. Zainul Abedin Farooq said, 'You (Indian government) are helping to strangle democracy in Bangladesh. So, we don't accept you.
The matter became clear when the most politically known people, under the banner of human rights organisations, organised a protest rally under the banner of "Boycott India" in front of the Indian Embassy. Due to the live broadcast, no protest or boycott was visible in the speeches of those who gathered on the issue of the India boycott. Rather, the speech they gave online was just an imitation of the traditional BNP leader Zainal Abedin Farooq's speech.
So boycotting India seems to be a political agenda of BNP. BNP, cornered by Awami League in the field of politics, is not participating in this year's upazila elections as a party. It does not seem that the leaders and activists of the Trinamool are obeying that order. I showed the news that six senior BNP leaders participated in the election in four upazilas in Sunamganj the picture of the whole Bangladesh is not supposed to be much worse than this.
In my opinion, BNP has taken the strategy of keeping the workers in the field by bringing the Israel issue and India issue together. If you want to boycott India, you should first reduce your dependence on India. Only word-of-mouth is not possible. Bangladesh should prepare first. As it is not possible for Bangladeshi freelancers to boycott Israel.
Bangladesh earns one billion dollars a year from the freelancing sector. 64 percent of the world's top-rated freelancers are Bangladeshis. Currently, the freelancing market in the world is one and a half trillion dollars. Six and a half million Bangladeshis are working in this market. It is second in the world in terms of labour supply. And all this freelancing is controlled by Israel.
The writer is the Editor at Bricklane News and UK correspondent for Daily Kalerkontha.
Messenger/Fameema
