BANGLADESH/ INDIA
All aboard!
After months of discussion – and four decades of waiting – the Maitree (friendship) Express finally chugged across the India-Bangladesh border on 14 April, the first day of the Bengali new year. In fact, two Expresses were in order for the celebrations, with one leaving from Dhaka and the other from Calcutta, simultaneously. Although crossborder buses began running a decade or so ago, the Maitree is the first crossborder rail connection since 1965. The anticipation was evidently worth it. The demand for tickets was so high that Bangladeshi authorities were forced to add an additional car to the train, to accommodate eager passengers. As a result, 80 more people, in addition to the 418 in the regular cars, made the journey to Calcutta. (Its Indian counterpart only had a small contingent for its maiden run, though this will soon change.) The 538-km journey, 418 km of which are in Bangladesh, currently costs USD 8 for a seat in economy, USD 12 for a seat in the air-conditioned compartment, and USD 20 for a sleeping berth. Although trains are currently only set to run a few times a week, it would seem that public demand would quickly change this. The only complaints so far: out of a 13-hour trip, five hours were spent at security checkposts.
REGION
Apocalypse soon
It may be a regular discussion nowadays, but the numbers are always astounding. If Southasia continues with its relatively slapdash attitude toward the rapidly degrading environment all over, an estimated 125 million people in the region look set to become 'environmental refugees', due to sea-level rise, droughts, decreasing water supplies and monsoon variability. According to a recent report by S Chella Rajan, a professor at IIT Madras, around 10 million migrants per state would flee from West Bengal, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, with between four and six million a piece from Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Orissa. This massive internal movement would inevitably be dramatically compounded by Rajan's estimate that around 75 million Bangladeshis would also be fleeing to India. In addition to the worry that such issues have barely made it to the contingency-planning stage in most countries, the evidence on the ground is already distressing. Little has been done for the recently displaced, such as the 19 million made homeless during the monsoon floods of 2007. That number could eventually seem like a small drop in the bucket.
INDIA/ PAKISTAN
Mind your own business
New Delhi may claim to be open to 'dialogue' on matters related to Kashmir, but still feels that observers who have no standing in the matter should keep quiet. The Organisation for Islamic Countries (OIC), which met in March in Senegal, irked India over comments on Jammu & Kashmir in its final resolution. The 56-member body expressed "concern" over human-rights violations in J & K, as well as the government's refusal to allow a fact-finding mission to the state. Of course, other human-rights groups have documented violations in detail. But perhaps Indian policymakers bristled at the choice of words when the OIC suggested that India is "denigrating" the "legitimate" Kashmiri freedom struggle. Such criticism of New Delhi stands in stark contrast to the OIC's praise of Islamabad for taking steps to "peacefully" settle the Kashmir issue. Reacting, a Ministry of External Affairs spokesman warned that the OIC has "no locus standi in matters concerning our internal affairs."
NEPAL
Of interest to all
Nepal's elections to a Constituent Assembly, on 10 April, went off surprisingly smoothly for polls that had already been twice postponed. In the face of the unanticipated results, everyone breathed a sigh of relief – in and out of the country. Indeed, Nepal's polls were historic not only for the opportunity given to – and taken by – the Nepali people, but also for the overwhelming interest shown by the international community. First and foremost, of course, were the election monitors. In addition to the thousands of home-grown monitors, close to a thousand others swooped in from a range of international organisations. Then there was the material support: ink from Australia, ballot boxes and a fleet of Election Commission vehicles from India. Even comfy voting pads from the People's Republic of China (see pic). When Nepal votes, the whole world shows up to the party!