Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to start for Delhi on June 21, for Indo-Bangladesh bilateral summit meeting. This will be her second visit to Delhi within 11 days as she concluded her last trip to Delhi on June 10.
According to diplomatic circles, such visit within such a short span of time is rare. Of course, this reflects the closeness of ties between the two neighbours which is often termed a 'unique' relationship.
However, people in general are eager to see what benefits Bangladesh can derive from such a strong bilateral relationship.
In her last three tenures since 2009, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina walked extra miles to strengthen ties with the biggest neighbour of the country. Transit and trans-shipment were provided, a band of insurgent leaders were handed over to India and tough stance was taken to ensure that Indian insurgents cannot use any part of Bangladesh as hideouts.
Once there was bold opposition among many Bangladeshis against providing India the transition and transshipment facilities, which have brought out a sea change in the transportation of goods and people between the two wings of India. But against all odds, Hasina took this phenomenal step.
However, it is widely believed that Indian political leadership has failed to reciprocate the very generous gesture of Bangladesh. The first example is its failure to ink the deal on the water sharing of Teesta River.
The deal was agreed by both sides and was supposed to be signed during the then Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Dhaka in 2011.
But at the last minute, India backed out citing opposition from the West Bengal government. Despite promises that the deal would be concluded 'very soon', it remains unfulfilled till now and there is no sign of materialising it in the near future.
Next comes the issue of border killing. Every year a good number of Bangladeshi people are killed by the Birder Security Forces (BSF) of India.
In every bilateral meetings, the Indian leadership promised to put an end to such killing of unarmed civilians by the BSF. And on several occasions both sides agreed to stop the use of lethal weapons by the border guards, but to no avail.
In no other parts of the world, border guards of a country kill unarmed civilians of its neighbours.
The BSF claim that they are compelled to shoot when they themselves are attacked by 'criminal elements' from Bangladesh. It is no secret that crime like smuggling or human trafficking is not a one-sided affair.
People from both sides are involved in such criminal activities. Even involvement of border forces of either side is often revealed in several reports. In any case, killing of civilians is not acceptable. And it is a major barrier to creating a true and lasting friendship between the people of the two countries, who have a long history of shared struggle and prosperity.
It is widely believed that an appropriate step from Delhi's political leadership is enough to stop such border killings. India recently took some steps to resolve the age-old disputes that include signing of the Land Boundary Agreement and lifting of export ban on essential commodities like onion. But people of Bangladesh expect that Indian leadership will also go the extra mile for resolving issues like border killing and water sharing.
Let us hope that during the upcoming visit, there will be a significant outcome in this regard.
mirmostafiz@yahoo.com