Unless we stop…

“She stayed for 8 minutes!”
“No, she stayed for 3!”
“They thanked her for her almost-a-visit!”
“No, they did not!”
While we are incessantly discussing about failure of courtesies and indulging on how many minutes our Prime Minister stood near the gate of the Mrs. Zia's office while digging out past instances of who visited who when someone had died at some point, the rest of the world is moving on. The 'rest' includes our next-door neighbour, India, which has just celebrated its sixty-eighth year as a Republic on the 26th of January 2015, which marked the day when the Constitution of India came into force on 26 January 1950.

It was a day when the Prime Minister of India was seen sharing with President Obama how he had once survived a crocodile attack, how he once climbed a tree to free a bird entangled in a kite, and how a cup of tea or coffee in the garden can change someone's spirits, while we, in Bangladesh were busy with bickering amongst our own selves. While we, in our country ponder on what food or drinks are being served to Mrs. Zia in her office, Modi was seen busy serving Obama a spicy kebab (Nadru Ke Goolar) made with lotus stem (which is India's national flower and also the symbol of BJP) with gajar-ka-halwa (carrot pudding) laced in orange, the BJP colour. While we talk about how many hours Mrs. Zia dedicates to her sleep-time, busy Modi was seen telling Obama how he could survive with 3 hours of sleep at night while Obama needed 5. Modi even beat President Obama and his wife in outfit. While President Obama's wife landed wearing an outfit designed by her favourite Indian-American designer, Bibhu Mohapatra, Prime Minister Modi wore paisleys on a saffron shawl. To top it all, the stripe suit that Modi wore during his talks with Obama had his name all over his $8100 dollar suit tailored by Jade Blue in Ahmedabad in the prime minister's home state of Gujarat. Economic diplomacy for Modi obviously comes with fashion statement, cuisine, style and pledges of utter flexibility.

There's a point of warning here for all of us. While our neighbour moves on, our own reality is edging towards despair. If we, in Bangladesh, continue burning our soil with killing innocent people, adopting undemocratic means, filling our productive time with our squabbles, we need to understand that while our neighbour India marches forward, we will be pushing ourselves to a position close to that of a failed state.

We need to learn lesson from History, which always stands witness to events, which push nations to the brink of failure. Pakistan could be one such example to pay heed to. Can we afford to ride on Pakistan's track? Can we afford to end up being a failed state? Certainly not…

At 68, Pakistan is way behind India while once upon a time it was closest to India in terms of prosperity. After 1947, while India opted for democracy, Pakistan chose an unhealthy mix of dictatorship and democracy. India ranked 55th and Pakistan 57th in terms of per capita income as per a UN study of national income published in 1949. By 2007, positions were reversed. India was ranked 122 with $1012 in World Bank's per capita income ranking while Pakistan stood at 131 with $884.Today India has a Gross National Income of $477 billion, while Pakistan is at $60 billion. India's exports stand at $301billion, Pakistan's stands at $25 billion.

Apart from economy, if we bring ourselves into the picture, in Human Development Index 2013 report from the UN, Bangladesh's HDI value for 2012 is 0.51 in the low human development category, positioning us at 146 out of 187 countries and territories. Unfortunately we share the rank with Pakistan. India is at 135. In terms of the Gini coefficient, which measures inequality, India is ranked at 100th position with 0.418, Pakistan at 108th with 0.398 and Bangladesh at 103rd with 0.396. We are only 0.002 away from Pakistan.

Let us not forget that both Pakistan and India have nuclear capabilities, yet there are 43% children in India who are below 5 years of age while in Pakistan the number's 31%.Truth is also that both India and Pakistan have neglected their human resources by failing to provide heath, education or even basic sanitation. Yet both countries take pride in sophisticated defense arsenal.

As an independent nation, Bangladesh today stands poised to take off. Potential of export is unlimited; possibility of remittances increasing from our very own Non-Resident Bangladeshi super heroes is a reality. As a proud state, we also have progressed better than many in South Asia in terms of MDG goals. The only thing that we need now is to make sure that use our resources and choose human welfare over ambitious, undemocratic political positioning. While Narendra Modi promises Obama the ease of doing business in his land and secures a $4 billion dollar pledge from the latter, we need to immediately assure the rest of the world that real people won't anymore lose lives in this land, buses won't anymore be burnt, and mutual demonization of the leading political parties will come to an immediate halt. Unless this happens, Bangladesh just stands to lose a lot more than all of us put together can imagine.

The writer is Managing Director, Mohammadi Group.