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Mainstream, VOL XLIX, No 38, September 10, 2011

PM’s Productive Dhaka Visit

Tuesday 13 September 2011

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COMMENTARY

The first visit of an Indian PM to Bangladesh in 12 years has doubtless been a major success despite the fact that the Teesta water-sharing deal could not be inked (due to the West Bengal CM’s veto—in deference to that State’s interests—on the details worked out in the proposed draft agreement) and the transit issue (which involves overland access for Indian goods across Bangladeshi territory to the landlocked North-Eastern States) still needs to be resolved. In fact what has been achieved is indeed historic. This can be truly said about the land boundary agreement that has been concluded to both sides’ satisfaction. That accord was in fact the most significant of the seven agreements signed between the two countries during this trip of Dr Manmohan Singh for whom the red carpet was rolled out by his Bangladeshi couterpart, Sheikh Hasina, when he landed in Dhaka on September 6.

The accord has helped to demarcate the entire land boundary between India and Bangladesh (an issue hanging fire for 40 years, that is, since the emergence of our eastern neighbour as a sovereign and independent state free of Pakistani domination). More importantly, it has ensured that thousands of people residing in 162 adversely held enclaves (that is, 20,000 living in 51 Bangladeshi enclaves covering 7000 acres in Indian territory and around 31,000 living in 111 Indian enclaves measuring 17,000 acres in Bangladesh) get citizenship rights and thereby access such basic rights as education and healthcare. This is a landmark agreement—way back in 1974, that is, barely three years after the liberation of Bangladesh, the Indira-Mujib pact had declared the intention of both states to settle the problem of enclaves but it took 37 years to translate that intention into reality, thanks to the political will displayed by the two governments headed by Dr Manmohan Singh and Sheikh Hasina; and it definitely marks an “enormous humanitarian achievement” of the Indian PM’s visit, as underlined by The Indian Express.

Furthermore, the PM’s announcement of quota-free access of 46 Bangladeshi textile products as well as 15 other items to the Indian market has been widely greeted by political and business circles in Bangladesh.

In real terms the visit has helped to reduce, in some measure, the prevailing trust deficit between the two countries. Of course, the inability to sign the Teesta water-sharing accord has been sought to be exploited by the anti-India elements in Bangladesh to muddy the waters. However, once the Teesta water-sharing and transit deals are successfully concluded to the satisfaction of all sides and Bangladesh allows India to use the Chittagong and Mangla ports for its goods, the bilateral ties would register genuine advance for the benefit of both the states.

There is no gainsaying that the PM’s trip has opened up distinct prospects of such a possibility in the near future.

September 8 Observer

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