It appears some so-called intellectuals of Bangladesh have been randomly picking ideas from my book The India Doctrine (1947-2007) and using them as if they were the originators of the concepts and interpretations therein. If this was the case then why have all these pseudo-intellectuals failed to publish a single book or thesis on the subject during the last 40 years? There seems to be a trend developing where rightist 'intellectuals' steal (or should that be borrow ideas) written by others without giving them credit. This probably explains the intellectual vacuum within some political parties in Bangladesh and their massive defeat in the national elections.

To avoid plagiarism as just described you must give credit whenever you use

• another person’s idea, opinion, or theory;
• any facts, statistics, graphs, drawings—any pieces of information—that are not common knowledge;
• quotations of another person’s actual spoken or written words; or
• paraphrase of another person’s spoken or written words.
  

http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/plagiarism.shtml

According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, to "plagiarize" means

1. to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own

2. to use (another's production) without crediting the source

3. to commit literary theft

4. to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source.

In other words, plagiarism is an act of fraud. It involves both stealing someone else's work and lying about it afterward.

http://www.plagiarism.org/learning_center/what_is_plagiarism.html

I have refrained from identifying the persons involved in plagiarizing my work to save them from public embarrassment but if they continue to use the ideas, concepts and interpretations used by me in my books then I will name and shame them because they have no right to present themselves as honest or having any claim to integrity. They are the same charlatans who have ruined this country and are now defrauding the people with ideas stolen from othes since they do not have the ability or intelligence to come up with new ideas of their own.

¶ 2/21/2009 01:00:00 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

Mahmud ur Rahman Choudhury

Three important events have taken place in Bangladesh since I wrote the commentary last Monday. These are: (1) The Indian external affairs minister has visited Bangladesh barely a month after the AL government took office, (2) Student agitations on various issues have again taken a violent and destructive turn and (3) The Indians are going ahead with the construction of the massive Tipaimukh barrage - all of these events collectively impinge on us in more than one ways but the one which directly affects our very ability to survive is the issue of water-sharing of some 53 common rivers between India and Bangladesh. By constructing Tipaimukh and other barrages, India is depriving us of life-giving waters, drastically reducing our ability to survive and therefore this is the issue needing immediate and continued public attention and the subject of this commentary.

India has resumed construction of the Tipaimukh barrage on the Barack river just a kilometer north of Jakiganj in Sylhet; the construction work was stalled in March 2007 in the face of protests within and outside India. The barrage when completed in 2012 is supposed to provide 1500 megawatts of hydel power to the Indian state of Assam but in return its going to bring about a major disaster for Bangladesh, practically contributing to drying up of 350 km long Surma and 110 km long Kushiara rivers which water most of the north-eastern regions of Bangladesh. The Tipaimukh barrage is going to seriously affect not only agriculture in large portions of Bangladesh, particularly in winter, but is also going to bring about negative ecological, climatic and environmental changes of vast areas in both Bangladesh and India.

It's not just this one Indian barrage that is a source of considerable concern and trepidation in Bangladesh; in 1976 India put into operation the Farraka barrage which more or less destroyed the Ganges-Brahamaputra basin, most of which lies in the deltaic plains of Bangladesh and in 1990 India also constructed a barrage along the Teesta river thereby virtually making ineffective much of the Teesta barrage project constructed down-stream in Bangladesh to support irrigation and agriculture in the north-west region of the country. What is even more worrying is that India has evolved plans to divert waters, from the north of the country to its drought-prone southern and eastern states, of some 53 river which flow from India to Bangladesh.

Bangladesh shares a common border with India in the west, north and east and with Myanmar in the southeast. These borders cut across 57 rivers which discharge through Bangladesh into the Bay of Bengal in the south. The upstream courses of these rivers traverse India, China, Nepal and Bhutan. Trans-boundary flows, which enter Bangladesh from remote catchments extending short distance to thousands of kilometers upstream, are the important source of water resources. Among the trans-boundary rivers, the ones most affected by Indian barrages and their related systems of canals, reservoirs and irrigation schemes are Ganges, Brahmaputra, Meghna and Teesta. Although the Indian and Bangladeshi governments have a water sharing agreement for the Ganges, there are none for the other 53 rivers that cross the border. With the Tipaimukh barrage now underway, India seems to be going ahead with its mega-project of diverting river waters from its north to its south and east, thereby putting Bangladesh's very survival at stake.

As to how the AL government is going to handle this issue of our survival through water-sharing of common rivers between India and Bangladesh is difficult to say because right now the government is suffering from a sense of complacency and deja vu over "friendship" with India forgetting the fact that India is a state with interests to maintain and that Bangladesh too is a state with equally pressing imperatives to survive as such. India is taking unilateral decisions about matters which affect Bangladesh's core interests and if these cannot be resolved bilaterally, Bangladesh must look at options of going to multilateral forums such as the UN to get its right not only recognized but also implemented. International laws dealing with water-sharing of common rivers and sources are ambiguous, unclear and contentious and so, Bangladesh ought to vigorously pursue these matters, perhaps even garner international support for a change in those laws dealing with water-sharing - this international dimension is a crucial factor affecting the management of the trans-boundary river systems. There is thus, no scope for Bangladesh to be deflected from this core issue of water-sharing notwithstanding Indian deceitful and diversionary insistence and propaganda on "terrorists and transit".

The Bangladesh Today – February 16, 2009

¶ 2/16/2009 09:06:00 AM 0 Comments Links to this post