Is any hope for enclaves?

There are 162 enclaves between Bangladesh and India -111 Indian enclaves in Bangladesh side and 51 Bangladesh enclaves in India. The 111 Indian enclaves are spread over 17,203 acres of land in four districts - Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari and Panchagarh. The 51 Bangladesh enclaves, all located in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal, are spread over of 12,899 acres of land. In the past, several deals, including the Nehru-Noor treaty of 1958 and Indira-Mujib treaty (1974), were inked with a view to resolving the problem. But the contentious issue could not be resolved due to opposition from various political parties and the Paschimbanga government.
There are historical reasons behind the situation of enclaves in Bangladesh and India. There was the legacy of peace treaties between the Mughals and Cooch Behar king in 1713 which froze in place territories captured by either side. The East India Company, and later the British Raj, maintained the boundaries as a buffer against Bhutanese incursions. The 1947 partition of the Subcontinent brought the enclaves into a larger game of brinkmanship. India's 1992 decision to fence the 4100km border compounded the problems of the residents of the enclaves.
The obscure remnants of the eighteenth century tax arrangements, these enclaves (Chhitmahals) have long challenged India-Bangladesh relations. Bangladesh and India signed an agreement in Delhi on May 16, 1974, concerning the demarcation of the land boundary between the two countries and related matters, better known as Mujib-Indira Land Boundary Agreement (LBA).  In this treaty, article 1 states that "The Indian enclaves in Bangladesh and Bangladesh enclaves in India should be exchanged expeditiously, excepting the enclaves mentioned in paragraph 14 without claim to compensation for the additional area going to Bangladesh." In 2011, the governments of Bangladesh and India signed another treaty that will eventually get rid of all the exclaves, draw a nice clean line between the countries, and allow people living within the enclaves to choose which nationality they'd like to have. This agreement was signed by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and BangladeshiPrime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Manmohan Singh re-stated his country's commitment to implementing the accord in a visit to Bangladesh in 2011. That promise has not still been fulfilled. Opponents in India especially, Paschimbanga Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, say they are against the LBA's implementation because their country would not be compensated for its net loss of some 40 square kilometers of territory to Bangladesh. However, Mamata Banerjee chief minister of the Indian state of West Bengal, said recently that her government could agree to the exchange of enclaves between India and Bangladesh, provided there were no problems from "the other side". Her comments came at a time when the newly-elected Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had already said his government would agree to the exchange of enclaves between the two countries. Can it bring hope to the residents of the enclaves?
The writer is an M. Phil researcher at the University of Dhaka and an adjunct faculty of a private university.  [email protected]