Presentation

Politics of South Asia

 BANGLADESH
People's Republic of Bangladesh
Capital: Dhaka
Population:162 million
Area: 143,998 sq km (55,598 sq miles)
Major language: Bengali
Major religion: Islam, Hinduism
Life expectancy: 69 years (men), 70 years
(women)
Currency :taka
 BANGLADESH
Bangladesh is a middle power and a major developing nation.
Within South Asia, the country ranks first in gender equality, second in foreign
exchange earnings and third in life expectancy and peacefulness.
Listed as one of the Next Eleven, its economy ranks 46th in terms of nominal GDP
and 29th in terms of PPP.
It is one of the largest textile exporters in the world.
Its major trading partners are the European Union, the United
States, China, India, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore.
With its strategically vital location between Southern, Eastern and Southeast Asia,
Bangladesh is an important promoter of regional connectivity and cooperation.
It is a founding member of SAARC, BIMSTEC, the Bangladesh-China-India-
Myanmar Forum for Regional Cooperation and the Bangladesh Bhutan India
Nepal Initiative.
It is also a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the Developing 8 Countries,
the OIC, the Non Aligned Movement, the Group of 77 and the World Trade
Organization. Bangladesh is one of the largest contributors of United Nations
peacekeeping forces
 GEOGRAPHY
The geography of Bangladesh is divided between three regions. Most of
the country is dominated by the fertile Ganges-Brahmaputra delta.
The northwest and central parts of the country are formed by
the Madhupur and the Barind plateaus.
The northeast and southeast are home to evergreen hill ranges. The
Ganges delta is formed by the confluence of the Ganges (local
name Padma or Pdda), Brahmaputra (Jamuna or Jomuna),
and Meghna rivers and their respective tributaries.
The Ganges unites with the Jamuna (main channel of the Brahmaputra)
and later joins the Meghna, finally flowing into the Bay of Bengal.
The alluvial soil deposited by the rivers when they overflow their banks
has created some of the most fertile plains in the world.
Bangladesh has 57 trans-boundary rivers, making water issues politically
complicated to resolve in most cases as the lower riparian state to India.
 POLITICS IN BANGLADESH
Formerly East Pakistan, Bangladesh came into being
only in 1971, when the two parts of Pakistan split after
a bitter war which drew in neighbouring India.
Bangladesh spent 15 years under military rule and,
although democracy was restored in 1990, the political
scene remains volatile.
Islamist extremism has been rising in the usually
tolerant country.
The low-lying country is vulnerable to flooding and
cyclones, and stands to be badly affected by any rises
in sea levels.
 POLITICS
President: Abdul Hamid
Abdul Hamid, formerly the Speaker of parliament, was elected
unopposed to the ceremonial post in 2013.
Prime minister: Sheikh Hasina
Sheikh Hasina started a third term as prime minister in January
2014 after her Awami League won elections boycotted by the
opposition amid an ongoing political crisis.
Politics has long been dominated by bitter rivalry between two
women: Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia of the Bangladesh
Nationalist Party.
Both have been prime minister at various times since 1991.
Their hostility stems in part from differences over who played a
greater role in the country's independence struggle - Hasina's
father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, or Khaleda Zia's husband, General
Ziaur Rahman.
 TIMELINES IN BANGLADESH HISTORY
1971 - Sheikh Mujib arrested and taken to West Pakistan. In exile, Awami League leaders proclaim the
independence of the province of East Pakistan on 26th March. The new country is called Bangladesh. Just
under 10 million Bangladeshis flee to India as troops from West Pakistan are defeated with Indian
assistance.

1972 - Sheikh Mujib returns, becomes prime minister. He begins a programe of nationalizing key industries
in an attempt to improve living standards, but with little success.

1974 - Severe floods devastate much of the grain crop, leading to an estimated 28,000 deaths. A national
state of emergency is declared as political unrest grows.

1975 - Sheikh Mujib becomes president of Bangladesh. The political situation worsens. He is assassinated
in a military coup in August. Martial law is imposed.

1976 - The military ban trade unions.

1977 - General Ziaur Rahman assumes the presidency. Islam is adopted in the constitution.

1979 - Martial law is lifted following elections, which Zia's Bangladesh National Party (BNP) wins.

1981 - Zia is assassinated during abortive military coup. He is succeeded by Abdus Sattar.
 ERSHAD ERA
1982 - General Ershad assumes power in army coup. He suspended the constitution and
political parties.
1983 - Limited political activity is permitted. Ershad becomes president.
. He later stepped down following popular protests
1986 - Parliamentary and presidential elections. Ershad elected to a five-year term. He lifts
martial law and reinstates the constitution.
1987 - State of emergency declared after opposition demonstrations and strikes.
1988 - Islam becomes state religion. Floods cover up to three-quarters of the country. Tens of
millions are made homeless.
1990 - Ershad steps down following mass protests.
1991 - Ershad convicted and jailed for corruption and illegal possession of weapons. Begum
Khaleda Zia, widow of President Zia Rahman, becomes prime minister. Constitution is
changed to render the position of president ceremonial. The prime minister now has primary
executive power. Cyclonic tidal wave kills up to 138,000.
Awami League returns
1996 - Two sets of elections eventually see the Awami League win power, with Sheikh Hasina
Wajed, the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, becoming prime minister.
 Ershad era
1997 - Ershad is released from prison. The opposition BNP begins
campaign of strikes against the government.
1998 - Two-thirds of the country devastated by the worst floods ever.
Fifteen former army officers sentenced to death for involvement in
assassination of President Mujib in 1975.
2000 September - Sheikh Hasina criticizes military regimes in a UN speech,
prompting Pakistani leader General Musharraf to cancel talks with her.
Relations strained further by row over leaked Pakistani report on 1971 war
of independence.
2000 December - Bangladesh expels Pakistani diplomat for comments on
the 1971 war. The diplomat had put the number of dead at 26,000,
whereas Bangladesh says nearly three million were killed.
2001 April - Seven killed in bomb blast at a Bengali New Year concert in
Dhaka. Sixteen Indian and three Bangladeshi soldiers killed in their worst
border clashes.
 Political crisis
2006 October - Violent protests over government's choice of a
caretaker administration to take over when Premier Zia completes
her term at the end of the month. President Ahmed steps in and
assumes caretaker role for period leading to elections due in
January 2007.
2006 November - A 14-party opposition alliance led by the Awami
League campaigns for controversial election officials to be removed.
Chief election commissioner MA Aziz steps aside.
2006 December - Election date set at 22 January. Awami alliance
says it will boycott the polls. Awami leader Sheikh Hasina accuses
President Ahmed of favouring her rival. Blockade aimed at derailing
parliamentary elections paralyses much of the country.
2007 January - A state of emergency is declared amid violence in
the election run-up. President Ahmed postpones the poll.
Fakhruddin Ahmed heads a caretaker administration.
 Political crisis
2007 March - Six Islamist militants convicted of countrywide bomb attacks in 2005 are hanged. They include the
leaders of Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen.
2007 April - Sheikh Hasina is charged with murder. Begum Khaleda Zia is under virtual house arrest. Several other
politicians are held in an anti-corruption drive.
2007 August - Government imposes a curfew on Dhaka and five other cities amid violent clashes between police
and students demanding an end to emergency rule.
2007 November - Cyclone Sidr kills thousands.
2008 June - Sheikh Hasina is temporarily freed to get medical treatment in the US.
2008 August - Local elections take place, seen as a big step towards restoring democracy. Candidates backed by
the Awami League perform strongly.
2008 November - The authorities say general elections will be held on 18 December. Sheikh Hasina returns to lead
her party in the poll.
Awami League win
2008 December - General elections: Awami League captures more than 250 of 300 seats in parliament. Sheikh
Hasina is sworn in as prime minister in January.
2009 February - Around 74 people, mainly army officers, are killed in a mutiny in Dhaka by border guards unhappy
with pay and conditions. Police arrest some 700 guards. A further 1,000 guards are detained in May.
Bangladesh 2009 October - The government bans the local branch of the global Islamist organisation Hizb-ut
Tahrir, saying it poses a threat to peace.
2010 January - Five former army officers are executed for the 1975 murder of founding PM Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman.
2012 May-June - Key figures from the main Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami, including leader Motiur Rahman
Nizami, are charged with war crimes by a government tribunal investigating alleged collaboration with Pakistan
during the 1971 independence struggle.
 2013 December - Supreme Court upholds death sentence on Islamist leader Abdul Kader Mullah of
the Jamaat-e-Islami party, who was convicted in February of crimes against humanity during the
1971 war of independence.

2014 January - Opposition BNP boycotts parliamentary elections, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
returns for third term in office.

2014 October - Jamaat-e-Islami Leader Motiur Rahman Nizami and another leading figure, Mir
Quasem Ali, found guilty of war crimes during independence war in 1971.

2015 February - Court sentences another senior Jamaat-e-Islami figure, Abdus Subhan, to death for
war crimes committed during independence war in 1971.

2015 May - Bangladesh bans Islamist militant group Ansarullah Bangla Team, which claims
responsibility for killing and assaulting several pro-secular public figures.

2015 November - Threats to Christians and Shia Muslims challenge government view that two years
of attacks on pro-secular public figures are the work of a violent faction of the opposition Jaamat-e-
Islami party, after the Islamic State armed group claims responsibility for attack on Shia mosque.
Jamaat-e-Islami senior figures Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury
executed on war crimes charges dating back to 1971.
 Political crisis
2016 January - Two students are sentenced to death for the 2013 killing of atheist
blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider.

2016 July - The Islamic State group claims an attack on a cafe in Dhaka's diplomatic
quarter in which 20 hostages, including 18 foreigners, are killed but the
government rejects the claim saying the militant group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen was
responsible.

2016 September - Business tycoon and senior leader of Bangladesh's largest

Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami, Mir Quasem Ali, is executed for war crimes
committed during the 1971 war of independence.

2016 November - UNHR says thousands of Burma's Bengali-speaking, Muslim

Rohingya minority have fled to Bangladesh in recent weeks after Burmese troops
allegedly carried out mass killings and gang rapes.

2017 January - Police arrest dozens of people in connection with attacks on

members of the Hindu minority.
 India
India, officially the Republic of India is a country in South Asia.

It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most

populous country (with over 1.2 billion people), and the most
populous democracy in the world.

It is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the
southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast.

It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west; China, Nepal,

and Bhutan to the northeast; and Myanmar (Burma) and Bangladesh to
the east.
In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives.
India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border
with Thailand and Indonesia.
 In 2015, the Indian economy was the world's seventh largest by
nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity.
Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became
one of the fastest-growing major economies and is considered
a newly industrialized country.
However, it continues to face the challenges
of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, and inadequate public
healthcare. A nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has
the third largest standing army in the world and ranks fifth in
military expenditure among nations.
India is a federal republic governed under a parliamentary
system and consists of 29 states and 7 union territories.
It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is also
home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats.
 Politics of India
India is the world's most populous democracy.
A parliamentary republic with a multi-party system.
it has seven recognized national parties, including the Indian
National Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and more
than 40 regional parties.
The Congress is considered center-left in Indian political culture and
the BJP right-wing.
For most of the period between 1950when India first became a
republicand the late 1980s, the Congress held a majority in the
parliament.
Since then, however, it has increasingly shared the political stage
with the BJP, as well as with powerful regional parties which have
often forced the creation of multi-party coalitions at the center.
 POLITICS IN INDIA

In the Republic of India's first three general elections, in

1951, 1957, and 1962, the Jawaharlal Nehru-led Congress
won easy victories.
On Nehru's death in 1964, Lal Bahadur Shastri briefly
became prime minister; he was succeeded, after his own
unexpected death in 1966, by Indira Gandhi, who went on
to lead the Congress to election victories in 1967 and 1971.
Following public discontent with the state of
emergency she declared in 1975, the Congress was voted
out of power in 1977; the then-new Janata Party, which had
opposed was voted in. Its government lasted just over
three years.
 POLITICS IN INDIA
Voted back into power in 1980, the Congress saw a change
in leadership in 1984, when Indira Gandhi was
assassinated; she was succeeded by her son Rajiv Gandhi,
who won an easy victory in the general elections later that
year.
The Congress was voted out again in 1989 when a National
Front coalition, led by the newly formed Janata Dal in
alliance with the Left Front, won the elections; that
government too proved relatively short-lived, lasting just
under two years.
Elections were held again in 1991; no party won an
absolute majority. The Congress, as the largest single party,
was able to form a minority government led by P. V.
Narasimha Rao
 A two-year period of political turmoil followed the general election of 1996.
Several short-lived alliances shared power at the center.
The BJP formed a government briefly in 1996; it was followed by two
comparatively long-lasting United Front coalitions, which depended on external
support. In 1998, the BJP was able to form a successful coalition, the National
Democratic Alliance (NDA). Led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the NDA became the first
non-Congress, coalition government to complete a five-year term.
In the 2004 Indian general elections, again no party won an absolute majority, but
the Congress emerged as the largest single party, forming another successful
coalition: the United Progressive Alliance (UPA).
It had the support of left-leaning parties and MPs who opposed the BJP. The UPA
returned to power in the 2009 general election with increased numbers, and it no
longer required external support from India's communist parties.
That year, Manmohan Singh became the first prime minister since Jawaharlal
Nehru in 1957 and 1962 to be re-elected to a consecutive five-year term.
In the 2014 general election, the BJP became the first political party since 1984 to
win a majority and govern without the support of other parties. The Prime
Minister of India is Narendra Modi, who was formerly Chief Minister of Gujarat.
 Government of India
India is a federation with a parliamentary system governed under
the Constitution of India, which serves as the country's supreme legal
document.
It is a constitutional republic and representative democracy, in which
"majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law".
Federalism in India defines the power distribution between the federal
government and the states. The government abides by
constitutional checks and balances.
The Constitution of India, which came into effect on 26 January
1950,states in its preamble that India is
a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic.
India's form of government, traditionally described as "quasi-federal"
with a strong center and weak states, has grown increasingly federal since
the late 1990s as a result of political, economic, and social changes.[
 Foreign relations of India
Since its independence in 1947, India has maintained cordial relations
with most nations. In the 1950s, it strongly supported decolonization
in Africa and Asia and played a lead role in the Non-Aligned Movement.
In the late 1980s, the Indian military twice intervened abroad at the
invitation of neighboring countries: a peace-keeping operation in Sri
Lanka between 1987 and 1990; and an armed intervention to prevent
a 1988 coup d'tat attempt in Maldives.
India has tense relations with neighboring Pakistan; the two nations have
gone to war four times: in 1947, 1965, 1971, and 1999.
Three of these wars were fought over the disputed territory of Kashmir,
while the fourth, the 1971 war, followed from India's support for
the independence of Bangladesh.
After waging the 1962 Sino-Indian War and the 1965 war with Pakistan,
India pursued close military and economic ties with the Soviet Union; by
the late 1960s, the Soviet Union was its largest arms supplier.
 Foreign relations of India
Aside from ongoing strategic relations with Russia, India has wide-
ranging defense relations with Israel and France. In recent years, it
has played key roles in the South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation and the World Trade Organization.
The nation has provided 100,000 military and police personnel to
serve in 35 UN peacekeeping operations across four continents. It
participates in the East Asia Summit, the G8+5, and other
multilateral forums.
India has close economic ties with South America, Asia, and Africa;
it pursues a "Look East" policy that seeks to strengthen partnerships
with the ASEAN nations, Japan, and South Korea that revolve
around many issues, but especially those involving economic
investment and regional security
 FOREIGN RELATIONS OF INDIA
China's nuclear test of 1964, as well as its repeated threats to intervene in
support of Pakistan in the 1965 war, convinced India to develop nuclear
weapons.
India conducted its first nuclear weapons test in 1974 and carried
out further underground testing in 1998.
Despite criticism and military sanctions, India has signed neither
the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty nor the Nuclear Non-
Proliferation Treaty, considering both to be flawed and discriminatory.
India maintains a "no first use" nuclear policy and is developing a nuclear
triad capability as a part of its "minimum credible deterrence" doctrine.
It is developing a ballistic missile defense shield and, in collaboration with
Russia, a fifth-generation fighter jet.
Other indigenous military projects involve the design and implementation
of Vikrant-class aircraft carriers and Arihant-class nuclear submarines
 ECONOMY OF INDIA
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Indian economy in 2015
was nominally worth US$2.183 trillion; it is the 7th-largest economy by market
exchange rates, and is, at US$8.027 trillion, the third-largest by purchasing power
parity, or PPP.
With its average annual GDP growth rate of 5.8% over the past two decades, and
reaching 6.1% during 201112,India is one of the world's fastest-growing
economies.
However, the country ranks 140th in the world in nominal GDP per capita and
129th in GDP per capita at PPP Until 1991, all Indian governments
followed protectionist policies that were influenced by socialist economics.
Widespread state intervention and regulation largely walled the economy off from
the outside world.
An acute balance of payments crisis in 1991 forced the nation to liberalize its
economy since then it has slowly moved towards a free-market system by
emphasizing both foreign trade and direct investment inflows.
India's recent economic model is largely capitalist. India has been a member
of WTO since 1 January 1995.
 POVERTY IN INDIA
Despite impressive economic growth during recent decades, India continues to
face socio-economic challenges.
In 2006, India contained the largest number of people living below the World
Bank's international poverty line of US$1.25 per day, the proportion having
decreased from 60% in 1981 to 42% in 2005;under its later revised poverty line, it
was 21% in 2011. 30.7% of India's children under the age of five are underweight.
According to a Food and Agriculture Organization report in 2015, 15% of the
population is undernourished.
The Mid-Day Meal Scheme attempts to lower these rates. Since 1991, economic
inequality between India's states has consistently grown: the per-capita net state
domestic product of the richest states in 2007 was 3.2 times that of the poorest.
Corruption in India is perceived to have increased significantly, with one report
estimating the illegal capital flows since independence to be US$462 billion.
India has the highest number of people living in conditions of slavery, 18 million,
most of whom are in bonded labor.
India has the largest number of child laborers under the age of 14 in the world
with an estimated 12.6 million children engaged in hazardous occupations.
 AFGHANISTAN
Afghanistan officially the Islamic Republic of
Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located
within South Asia and Central Asia.
It has a population of approximately 32 million, making
it the 42nd most populous country in the world.
It is bordered by Pakistan in the south and east; Iran in
the west; Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan in
the north; and China in the far northeast.
Its territory covers 652,000 km2 (252,000 sq mi),
making it the 41st largest country in the world.
AFGHANISTAN