Bangladesh-India relations: An analysis

Since the liberation of Bangladesh, a plethora of bilateral problems with India has piled up over the last 43 years. For this successive governments of both the countries, with the exception of Janata Dal of Prime Minister Morarji Desai of India, are responsible.
The departure of Indian troops from the soil of Bangladesh within a period of three months at the insistence of the Prime Minister of the newly-independent Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman,   was not swallowed with good grace by South Block of the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi. As a result, pressure was building up on the government of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
As an example, the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) was signed in 1972 by the Prime Ministers of Bangladesh and India, but implementation of the agreement was held up because India did not ratify the agreement on this or that pretext. After the lapse of four decades, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signed the protocol on Land Boundary Agreement during his state visit to Bangladesh in 2011; but the Indian parliament did not succeed to ratify it amid opposition by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2013.
Another significant irritant is related to the sharing of the waters of the Ganges, which is an international river. The joint declaration of the Prime Ministers of Bangladesh and India on  May 16, 1974, to arrive at a mutually accepted solution before operation of the barrage on the Ganges at Farakka in Murshidabad, India, was foiled when Delhi declared unilaterally the commissioning of the barrage as a test run.
There has been no gesture of compromise from the Indian side on the demarcation of sea boundary in the Bay of Bengal as per the Law of the Sea.
Exchange of enclaves between Bangladesh and India remains unimplemented, although Bangladesh had transferred Berubari enclave to India. India has long been demonstrating a dilly-dally attitude in resolving the exchange of the enclaves.
During the Liberation War, people of Bangladesh have suffered tremendously at the hand of Pakistan occupation army, while thousands lost their lives and houses, and other properties as well. The Bangladesh government of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman committed to the people that the Prisoners of War would be tried on Bangladesh soil for their atrocities, but the Indian government, headed by Indira Gandhi, held bilateral discussion with Pakistani President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto at Shimla, India, on July 02, 1972 and agreed to release the Prisoners of War and civilian internees with a view to establishing durable peace and having normalisation of relations. As a follow-up to the Shimla agreement between the Indian Prime Minister and the Pakistani President, a tripartite agreement was signed in April 1974, to release the Prisoners of War unconditionally. The Bangladesh government of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was placed in an awkward position, so to say. No war criminals' trial had taken place on the soil of Bangladesh. It was viewed by many as "high-handedness" of the Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi as she tried to develop relations with Pakistan at the cost of Bangladesh government. Indira Gandhi offered Zulfikar Ali Bhutto generous terms related to the return of some five thousand square miles of Pakistan territory seized by Indian troops, and the repatriation of ninety-three thousand Pakistani Prisoners of War then in the custody of India. Many Indians got startled by Bhutto's negotiation skill at Shimla.
Tension had been heightened during the government of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in the Chittagong Hill Tracts by the Chakma tribal people. They were led by Manabendra Narayan Larma. There was not any iota of doubt that they were being pampered   by the Indian authorities to keep Bangladesh government on the tenterhooks.
In the words of Professor Gary J. Bass, who wrote the book The Blood Telegram Nixon, Kissinger and Forgotten Genocide", India has separated itself from Bangladesh with armed guards at massive fences with barbed wire, running along most of the border. By March, 2012 India completed 2735 kilometres of barbed wire fencing along Bangladesh-Indian border which itself does not speak of friendly attitude of the Indian government towards Bangladesh. The Indian economy is not so robust that Bangladeshis would infiltrate into India for seeking jobs as claimed by Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, during the election campaign. Many Indians are employed in Bangladesh in private sectors.
Since independence of Bangladesh, both the countries have been squabbling about border enclaves without any tangible results. Territorial disputes constitute the most fundamental of all inter-state conflicts. For example, China and India fought in 1962 over the remote mountainous uninhabitable Ladakh, and India and Pakistan fought over Jammu-Kashmir.
Trade relationship is unbalanced between Bangladesh and India. It goes in favour of the latter. Therefore, there is every reason for Bangladesh to bargain with India to achieve as much as possible to maintain a friendly atmosphere for the benefit of both the countries.
While bargaining with India, Bangladesh should consider playing the China card. India needs friendly neighbours to develop its economy to compete with the growing economic and military power of China, with whom it has a big problem.
The writer is a retired Bangladesh diplomat. amjad.21@gmail.com