Being Rehman Sobhan: South Asia’s avuncular statesman
If there are a handful of South Asian figures whose work has universal relevance and international respect because of their brilliance, clarity of vision, scholarship, pragmatic realism and integrity as well as determination to make a change in the lives of billions of people, then Rehman Sobhan stands in the same league as Prof. Amartya Sen, Dr. Mohammed Yunus, Ashish Nandy and any others that we can chose to list. Interestingly, all four in my list are Bengali or Bangla speakers!
Prof Sobhan is a round, avuncular, grandfatherly figure with a mischievous twinkle in his eye who loves his kebabs. He is a delightful conversationalist — and one of the sharpest minds anywhere. He is also one of the founders of Bangladesh; he led its first Planning Commission, and is one of the most eminent thinkers and doers of our times. He has served on many international commissions and headed Grameen Bank’s governing board for many years and has been in the forefront of the battle against poverty across South Asia and the world.
He has set up his own, widely respected Centre for Policy Dialogue in Dhaka. Close to the late Sheik Mujibur-Rahman, the father of modern Bangladesh, Prof. Sobhan lived in India during the Bangladesh Liberation War when intellectuals like him were hunted down by the Pakistani army.
At an event to mark the release of his new book, ‘Challenging the Injustice of Poverty in South Asia’ in New Delhi last week, flattering things said about him by prominent scholars and writers from South Asia. It underscored the fact that although he is a Bangladeshi, Prof. Sobhan’s concerns are South Asian, focused on reducing poverty and improving trust in this vastly populous region.
His own remarks characteristically cut through a lot of flab: Poverty, he said, went beyond income levels. It should now be premised on the following additional factors: Lack of access to property (read that as land), lack of access to institutional facilities (bank loans etc), being shut out of basic human development (health, education etc.) and unjust governance. He did not say poor governance or mis-governance – he was far blunter, Unjust Governance.
That is on evidence in Jammu and Kashmir, in the North-east, in the Maoist-battered belt where decades of unjust governance are exploding into new challenges to the state, where unjust laws are being repudiated every day by people at risk and cost to their lives and where rage is growing by the moment, fuelled by an unending cycle of poverty, lack of access, unjust killings and violence.
Prof. Sobhan is one of the key advisers to the Awami League government; he has listened very carefully to North-eastern concerns over the years. In turn, he has asserted to the Government in Bangladesh, firmly and quietly, that it must stop giving sanctuary to North-east militants; that it needs to recognize that the region is deeply concerned about problems of migration from Bangladesh and to develop collaborative economic efforts and legal frameworks that will reduce flows and improve formal trade, commerce, travel and investment.
These ideas and interactions have borne fruit as is visible from the action that Bangladesh has taken with regard to the leaders of the banned United Liberation Front of Asom as well as the National Democratic front of Bodoland, who had lived for long under the benign eye of the Bangladesh security and Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh National Party (BNP). So, to blame Bangladesh for the ills of the North-east would be not just unfair but misplaced for they have take action on core concerns. It is the Government of India that has shown a lack of will.
A brief visit by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to announce a billion dollar line of credit doesn’t solve the issue: a network of transport and energy initiatives (the cross-Bangladesh road and rail links and the connection to the Chittagong Port which Dhaka has accepted after over 30 years of negotiations) that must also be in place for the LOC to work. The window of opportunity is closing fast; the opportunities for Islamic radicalism and the anti-India BNP in turn could flourish, creating severer security challenges.
While Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s problems are vast, he cannot overlook the Bangladesh factor and must develop deliverable, time-bound proposals when he visits (dates are not fixed because his team can’t put together a package!). This could assuage a growing feeling that New Delhi, immersed in its domestic turmoil, is taking too much for granted.
That would be a fitting tribute to the statesmanship and courage of Rehman Sobhan, his old colleague.
By Sanjoy Hazarika / North by North East