It pays to be friends with India. This is the message Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to send out to the neighbours. The buzz is that Modi will be generous and liberally open India’s purse strings when he visits Bangladesh on Saturday. The aim is to take relations with Bangladesh to the next level and make an example of what neighbours can gain by investing in good relations with India.
Old relationships
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has always been a loyal friend to India. One of her first moves, after coming to power in January 2009, was to be mindful of India’s security interests. She handed over scores of top United Liberation Front of Asom leaders, who had happily made their base in Bangladesh, back to Indian authorities. This helped the United Progressive Alliance government and Tarun Gogoi, the Congress chief minister of Assam, to initiate talks with the militant outfit. The ULFA is now a divided house, with one section opting out of talks, and the level of violence from the group has come down drastically. All this is thanks to the action taken by the Awami League administration soon after assuming office. Sheikh Hasina also cracked down on Jihadi Islamic groups and ensured that Pakistan’s spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, did not get a free run in Bangladesh.
During Khaleda Zia’s term in office, where she ruled with the Jamaat-e-Islami as one of her coalition partners, the ISI-backed anti-India terror modules used Bangladesh territory to launch attacks on soft targets in the Indian heartland. Despite the best efforts of the current government in Bangladesh, there are sleeper cells still in place.
Closer intelligence co-operation and working together to crack down on terror outfits will certainly be a major focus of Modi's visit. The jihadi outfits, the anti-India groups and the Jamaat have the common aim of toppling Sheikh Hasina and turning Bangladesh into a theological state. Unfortunately, the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party has also been playing footsie with them.
Land and water
The previous government in Delhi was also a friend of Sheikh Hasina and gave a credit line of $1 billion for 14 infrastructure projects in 2010. The amount was the largest India had given any country, at that time. It also announced duty free access to all Bangladeshi products. But despite its best intentions, the UPA was not able to deliver on either the Teesta Water Agreement or the Land Boundary Agreement. The Awami League had built up expectations for an interim Teesta agreement, which would be signed during former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s landmark visit to Dhaka in 2011. The visit turned out to be fiasco, considering the UPA’s political management was shaky and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who was to be part of Singh’s entourage not only dropped out of the trip but also opposed the agreement tooth and nail.
The Land Boundary Agreement protocol, though signed and sealed all over again by the two prime ministers (the first was in 1974 by Indira Gandhi and Mujibur Rahman), could not be ratified during the UPA term. The Bharatiya Janata Party as well as Mamata Banerjee and the Asom Gana Parishad all joined hands to oppose it. Without the required numbers, nothing moved, though the LBA was tabled in Parliament by the UPA government , it did not have the numbers to get it passed.
But Prime Minister Modi will be arriving in Dhaka on June 6 after having personally ensured that the boundary agreement was ratified by Parliament. Exchange of territory needs Parliamentary approval with a two-third majority. This was done even on the face of vehement opposition by the state unit of the BJP in Assam. What is more, a much mellowed Mamata Banerjee is accompanying the Prime Minister, raising hopes that the Teesta water sharing pact will get a push during the visit. Though no agreement is expected on sharing of river waters, it is hoped that the visit will see political direction being certainly given to start the process. The first step would be a joint hydraulic survey of the quantity of water in the Teesta. At the moment, no scientific survey has been done and unless both sides know the quantum of water involved, claims will remain contentious.
Strengthening ties
Modi’s efforts will be to strengthen ties with Bangladesh’s ruling Awami League. Considering the flak the party has received for standing by New Delhi all these years, it is time now for India to deliver on its promises to Bangladesh. "We must not let Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina down. India will have to deliver on its promises and walk the talk,’’ said former foreign secretary Lalit Mansingh. "In the past, India’s response to Hasina’s generosity has been less than adequate. Modi must show what India can do to transform relations with its eastern neighbour.’’
There is some concern among analysts that India is putting all its eggs in one basket in Bangladesh. In the past, New Delhi had tried unsuccessfully to court Khaled Zia. During her last visit in 2012, she made all the right noises but changed her tune the moment she landed back in Dhaka. Moreover her close association with the Jamaat makes it difficult for her to take a positive view of India. When Khaleda Zia came back to power in 2001, with the Jamaat-e-Islami, it resorted to "minority cleansing" on a scale that Bangladesh had never witnessed except for 1971. Bangladesh became a sanctuary for international Islamist terrorist groups. While New Delhi has no choice but to deal with whoever is in power in Dhaka, it is good to back India’s friends in the region.
There are others in India, critical of Sheikh Hasina for conducting "undemocratic elections’’ in 2014. The national election was boycotted by the BNP. But the Awami League went ahead with the election that was seen as one-sided battle, with no doubt about the winner. The BNP, together with the Jamaat-e-Islami, let loose its foot soldiers, mainly the Jamaat cadres, on the streets. This led to unprecedented violence and frequent shut- downs. The United States and most Western democracies slammed Hasina and her government. She was also attacked for what the West dubbed as kangaroo court trials of those responsible for the massacre of civilians during the 1971 liberation war. These leaders, many of them from the Jamaat, were against separation from Pakistan and had carried out a reign of terror against both minority Hindus and supporters of the Awami League.
When Sheikh Hasina returned to power in 2009 with a massive mandate, she promised those who had lost family members that they would get justice. The trial and death sentences that followed have been criticised by the US and others. But for those who had seen family members brutalised, this was a closure they had waited for. The US, which had at that time, supported Pakistan and tried to intimidate India by sending its Seventh Fleet to the region, has never had warm ties with the Awami League. Now however, Washington has warmed to Hasina and has stopped making public statements about the flawed elections of 2014. India had batted for the Awami League in the past and continues to do so.
Increasing connectivity
"The prime minister wants our neighbours to be part of India’s growth story, so the economy will be high on the agenda. Special emphasis will be on connectivity,’’ said Veena Sikri, former Indian High Commissioner to Dhaka.
Multi-modal rail, river and road transport is high on the agenda. The idea is to go back to the days before independence, before East Bengal became a part of Pakistan, when there was seamless travel between India’s North East and present Bangladesh. In the old days, jute, timber and other commodities were sent out from the North Eastern states through the inland waterways to factories along the Hooghly in Bengal. Railheads also connected the North East India to Chittagong and the Calcutta port. There is hope now for transit through Bangladesh for India’s land-locked North Eastern region, which is now connected to mainland India by a tiny strip of chicken's neck in Siliguri.
A landmark initiative for road linkage between Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal is expected to be launched. Once implemented, vehicles from all four countries will be able to transit each other’s territories via transport corridors. The move is bound to provide a fillip to trade.It is also a thumbs down for Pakistan, which has held up the SAARC Motor Vehicles initiative. The Kolkata-Dhaka-Agartala and Guwahati-Shillong-Dhaka bus services is expected to become a reality soon.
Border management is another critical issue. Delhi and Dhaka have to work out better ways to ensure that there is no indiscriminate firing along the over 4,000 kilometres of porous border between the two countries. The Indian side will certainly raise the issue of illegal migration of Bangladeshi nationals to India, a political hot potato in the North Eastern states, and one which the BJP had ironically championed while in opposition.
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Old relationships
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has always been a loyal friend to India. One of her first moves, after coming to power in January 2009, was to be mindful of India’s security interests. She handed over scores of top United Liberation Front of Asom leaders, who had happily made their base in Bangladesh, back to Indian authorities. This helped the United Progressive Alliance government and Tarun Gogoi, the Congress chief minister of Assam, to initiate talks with the militant outfit. The ULFA is now a divided house, with one section opting out of talks, and the level of violence from the group has come down drastically. All this is thanks to the action taken by the Awami League administration soon after assuming office. Sheikh Hasina also cracked down on Jihadi Islamic groups and ensured that Pakistan’s spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, did not get a free run in Bangladesh.
During Khaleda Zia’s term in office, where she ruled with the Jamaat-e-Islami as one of her coalition partners, the ISI-backed anti-India terror modules used Bangladesh territory to launch attacks on soft targets in the Indian heartland. Despite the best efforts of the current government in Bangladesh, there are sleeper cells still in place.
Closer intelligence co-operation and working together to crack down on terror outfits will certainly be a major focus of Modi's visit. The jihadi outfits, the anti-India groups and the Jamaat have the common aim of toppling Sheikh Hasina and turning Bangladesh into a theological state. Unfortunately, the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party has also been playing footsie with them.
Land and water
The previous government in Delhi was also a friend of Sheikh Hasina and gave a credit line of $1 billion for 14 infrastructure projects in 2010. The amount was the largest India had given any country, at that time. It also announced duty free access to all Bangladeshi products. But despite its best intentions, the UPA was not able to deliver on either the Teesta Water Agreement or the Land Boundary Agreement. The Awami League had built up expectations for an interim Teesta agreement, which would be signed during former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s landmark visit to Dhaka in 2011. The visit turned out to be fiasco, considering the UPA’s political management was shaky and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who was to be part of Singh’s entourage not only dropped out of the trip but also opposed the agreement tooth and nail.
The Land Boundary Agreement protocol, though signed and sealed all over again by the two prime ministers (the first was in 1974 by Indira Gandhi and Mujibur Rahman), could not be ratified during the UPA term. The Bharatiya Janata Party as well as Mamata Banerjee and the Asom Gana Parishad all joined hands to oppose it. Without the required numbers, nothing moved, though the LBA was tabled in Parliament by the UPA government , it did not have the numbers to get it passed.
But Prime Minister Modi will be arriving in Dhaka on June 6 after having personally ensured that the boundary agreement was ratified by Parliament. Exchange of territory needs Parliamentary approval with a two-third majority. This was done even on the face of vehement opposition by the state unit of the BJP in Assam. What is more, a much mellowed Mamata Banerjee is accompanying the Prime Minister, raising hopes that the Teesta water sharing pact will get a push during the visit. Though no agreement is expected on sharing of river waters, it is hoped that the visit will see political direction being certainly given to start the process. The first step would be a joint hydraulic survey of the quantity of water in the Teesta. At the moment, no scientific survey has been done and unless both sides know the quantum of water involved, claims will remain contentious.
Strengthening ties
Modi’s efforts will be to strengthen ties with Bangladesh’s ruling Awami League. Considering the flak the party has received for standing by New Delhi all these years, it is time now for India to deliver on its promises to Bangladesh. "We must not let Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina down. India will have to deliver on its promises and walk the talk,’’ said former foreign secretary Lalit Mansingh. "In the past, India’s response to Hasina’s generosity has been less than adequate. Modi must show what India can do to transform relations with its eastern neighbour.’’
There is some concern among analysts that India is putting all its eggs in one basket in Bangladesh. In the past, New Delhi had tried unsuccessfully to court Khaled Zia. During her last visit in 2012, she made all the right noises but changed her tune the moment she landed back in Dhaka. Moreover her close association with the Jamaat makes it difficult for her to take a positive view of India. When Khaleda Zia came back to power in 2001, with the Jamaat-e-Islami, it resorted to "minority cleansing" on a scale that Bangladesh had never witnessed except for 1971. Bangladesh became a sanctuary for international Islamist terrorist groups. While New Delhi has no choice but to deal with whoever is in power in Dhaka, it is good to back India’s friends in the region.
There are others in India, critical of Sheikh Hasina for conducting "undemocratic elections’’ in 2014. The national election was boycotted by the BNP. But the Awami League went ahead with the election that was seen as one-sided battle, with no doubt about the winner. The BNP, together with the Jamaat-e-Islami, let loose its foot soldiers, mainly the Jamaat cadres, on the streets. This led to unprecedented violence and frequent shut- downs. The United States and most Western democracies slammed Hasina and her government. She was also attacked for what the West dubbed as kangaroo court trials of those responsible for the massacre of civilians during the 1971 liberation war. These leaders, many of them from the Jamaat, were against separation from Pakistan and had carried out a reign of terror against both minority Hindus and supporters of the Awami League.
When Sheikh Hasina returned to power in 2009 with a massive mandate, she promised those who had lost family members that they would get justice. The trial and death sentences that followed have been criticised by the US and others. But for those who had seen family members brutalised, this was a closure they had waited for. The US, which had at that time, supported Pakistan and tried to intimidate India by sending its Seventh Fleet to the region, has never had warm ties with the Awami League. Now however, Washington has warmed to Hasina and has stopped making public statements about the flawed elections of 2014. India had batted for the Awami League in the past and continues to do so.
Increasing connectivity
"The prime minister wants our neighbours to be part of India’s growth story, so the economy will be high on the agenda. Special emphasis will be on connectivity,’’ said Veena Sikri, former Indian High Commissioner to Dhaka.
Multi-modal rail, river and road transport is high on the agenda. The idea is to go back to the days before independence, before East Bengal became a part of Pakistan, when there was seamless travel between India’s North East and present Bangladesh. In the old days, jute, timber and other commodities were sent out from the North Eastern states through the inland waterways to factories along the Hooghly in Bengal. Railheads also connected the North East India to Chittagong and the Calcutta port. There is hope now for transit through Bangladesh for India’s land-locked North Eastern region, which is now connected to mainland India by a tiny strip of chicken's neck in Siliguri.
A landmark initiative for road linkage between Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal is expected to be launched. Once implemented, vehicles from all four countries will be able to transit each other’s territories via transport corridors. The move is bound to provide a fillip to trade.It is also a thumbs down for Pakistan, which has held up the SAARC Motor Vehicles initiative. The Kolkata-Dhaka-Agartala and Guwahati-Shillong-Dhaka bus services is expected to become a reality soon.
Border management is another critical issue. Delhi and Dhaka have to work out better ways to ensure that there is no indiscriminate firing along the over 4,000 kilometres of porous border between the two countries. The Indian side will certainly raise the issue of illegal migration of Bangladeshi nationals to India, a political hot potato in the North Eastern states, and one which the BJP had ironically championed while in opposition.