Visit of Sushma Swaraj: No silver lining?

Indian Minister for External Affairs, Sushma Swaraj, the first woman foreign minister of the largest democracy of the world, visited Bangladesh recently. Bangladesh was the first country for her to pay a visit following the formation of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It gives an impression that the Indian ruling party intends to attach much importance to the country's relations with its close-door neighbour in South Asia.  During her three-day visit, Sushma Swaraj had bilateral talks with her counterpart A.H. Mahmood Ali, paid courtesy calls on President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, apart from her meetings with present Leader of the Opposition in Parliament Raushan Ershad and the chairperson of the Bangladesh Natioonalist Party (BNP) Begum Khaleda Zia. She also gave a lecture at the Bangladesh Institute of International Strategic Studies (BIISS).
Two important aspects of the 'goodwill' visit by the Indian External Affairs Minister to Bangladesh were worth noting. There was no official dinner by the Bangladesh Foreign Minister in her honour nor was there any press briefing by her. The official spokesman of the Indian External Affairs Ministry, however, briefly talked to the press at the end of her visit.
It is clear that Prime Minister Narendra Modi attaches importance to the development of relations with member-states of the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation), as was evident from his invitations to all South Asian heads of government to attend his swearing-in ceremony in New Delhi on May 26. As a part of that policy, Sushma Swaraj had been to Bangladesh on a goodwill visit. She in fact did make her views clear while giving the lecture at the BIISS wherein she had stated that "democracy requires building strong institutions and promoting culture of tolerance, inclusion and respect for differences". This basic concept of democracy, as stated by the Indian External Affairs Minister, is unfortunately absent in Bangladesh. To this writer's mind, the visit to Bangladesh by Sushma Swaraj appeared to be of a fact-finding nature to know the pulse of political leaders, bureaucrats and intellectuals in the country about Indo-Bangladesh relations.
The Bangladesh government can not expect a 'honeymoon' with the BJP. The election manifesto of the BJP raised concerns for Bangladesh as it made a pledge to implement the river-linking project based on its feasibility. This pet project of the BJP was abandoned by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) led by the Congress which came to power in 2004. It was a unilateral decision of the BJP government in 2001 to adopt the river linking project with a view to diverting waters from the Ganges and the Brahmaputra rivers to west and south India by creating artificial reservoirs. The main linkage would be between the Ganges and the Kaveri rivers. If the project is implemented, it would have devastating effects on Bangladesh.  Bangladesh should take up the issue with the BJP government immediately before the feasibility study is completed.
Bangladesh is also deprived of its due share of waters during lean period from the Ganges, as agreed upon in 1996 treaty. India should consult the Bangladesh government with regard to sharing the water of common rivers in accordance with Article 9 of 1996 Ganges water-sharing treaty.
 As part of its manifesto, the BJP is also committed to complete all pending fencing works along the Indo-Bangladesh border with a view to stepping up border security and stopping infiltrations. By 2012, India completed 2,735 kilometres of barbed wire fencing along the Bangladesh-India border which itself does not speak of friendly feelings towards Bangladeshis.
Another irritating problem between Bangladesh and India is push-in of alleged illegal Bangladeshis from India. Although the push-in did not appear in the election manifesto this time (which was included in BJP's manifesto in 1999), Narendra Modi as a candidate had spoken in Assam and Paschimbanga about the alleged presence of illegal Bangladeshis in India. He said they would be driven out of India if the BJP was voted to power. Having been elected, Modi instructed the Ministry of Home Affairs to open a special cell to compile a list of illegal Bangladeshis in India.
For the knowledge of the Indian authority, we would like to quote from the Silicon India which revealed in May, 2013 that about 500,000 Indians from West Bengal, Assam, Tripura and Mizoram are working illegally in Bangladesh. On the other hand, we find no earthly reason for Bangladeshis to go to India.
Viewed from these perspectives, there seems to be difficulties ahead of the Bangladesh government to improve relations with India in view of the fact that the present government cannot bargain on any issue from a position of strength (as evident from the controversial January 05 elections) or does it have any card to play.
The writer is a retired diplomat             from Bangladesh. amjad.21@gmail.com