The Foreign Ministry has been a different one since the Awami League (AL) returned to power in January 2009 compared to what it was in the AL's term of 1996-2001. In the 1996-2001 term, there were two major achievements in bilateral relations. The AL-led government signed Ganges Water Sharing Agreement in 1996 within just a few months of assuming power and the following year, it signed the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) Accord where the Indians assisted significantly. In fact, without Indian assistance that Accord would not have been possible. That AL-led government was even involved in a border skirmish with India, which embarrassed New Delhi as 16 BSF soldiers were killed at the hands of the Bangladesh Rifles that lost three of its personnel.
In bilateral relations with India during AL's 2009-2013 term and what little has happened in the last two months, the advantage has gone mostly to India unlike during 1996-2001 period. During 2009-2013, Bangladesh delivered on India's critically important security concerns in a blank cheque. It had almost signed another blank cheque allowing India land transit but refrained from completing the process fearing public opinion when New Delhi withdrew the Teesta deal. Bangladesh, however, allowed India to build the 700MW Palatana plant in Tripura by using land transit on a trial basis for which its roads and rivers had to take a battering.
The Indians promised repeatedly since September 2011 when the Teesta deal was withdrawn from negotiations and the LBA (Land Boundary Agreementt) got stuck thereafter in the ratification process that the deals would be delivered "soon." That "soon" was not soon enough. In the sidelines of the BMSTEC Summit in Myanmar last month, Indian Prime Minster Manmohon Singh finally drew the curtain over the deals. At the meeting, he informed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina that Bangladesh would have to wait until a new government was in place in India for the Teesta and the LBA deals. After five years during which India accepted Bangladesh's concessions, India gave Bangladesh a "rain check" and that too on somebody else's expense! Bangladesh did not complain in any manner that India had failed to deliver what it had promised that raised many eyebrows in the country.
The three negotiators who had strongly defended that New Delhi would not default on the deals distanced themselves after Manmohon Singh conveyed the news to Sheikh Hasina although one, Dipu Moni is no longer in office. Instead, the government decided to send the foreign secretary to New Delhi at a time when India is on election mode and the government in no position to do anything except carry out routine functions. In fact, a government should not do the same and should, instead, abstain from sending a high official as a Foreign Secretary to hold bilateral consultations with a government that is on its way out.
Therefore there must have been a reason why the foreign secretary went to New Delhi. He was sent, as some reports in the media have speculated, with a message from the Bangladesh Prime Minister to her Indian counterpart. The specific nature of the message has not been spelt out in these reports. Nevertheless, these reports have quoted Foreign Ministry sources to suggest that so far as the Teesta agreement is concerned, there is no constitutional hurdle to sign it. These reports have further stated that if the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) were to form the next government, Bangladesh could expect the Teesta Agreement to be implemented, as the new government would like to start relations with a very important neighbour with which it has strategic interests favouring it. So, the visit was intended to reassure the people of Bangladesh that a change of government in New Delhi would not be an obstacle for the deals to be delivered and the paradigm shift in bilateral relations that Sheikh Hasina had initiated to be carried forward by the new government.
If that was the intention of the visit, then Congress-led government did what the Bangladesh Prime Minister wanted. The Indian Foreign Secretary gave plenty of such assurance to the foreign secretary in their bilateral consultations. The Bangladesh Foreign Secretary did not embarrass New Delhi in any way. He said developments of bilateral relations have achieved new heights in the last five years and "these developments have been immensely contributing to the improvement of quality of lives and livelihood of millions of people of both the countries." On the sensitive issue of border killings, the Bangladesh foreign secretary appreciated Indian efforts of restraint and hoped the killings would come down to zero. The soft approach by the Bangladesh foreign secretary was paid back, but only in words, by the Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid. He said: "Bangladesh is an important and valuable neighbour. We are very grateful to the Bangladesh government for its support to India. We are extremely supportive of Bangladesh government."
The Bangladesh Foreign Office sources revealed to the media, without being quoted, that there would be no problem for a new government in New Delhi to hand the Teesta Deal to Bangladesh because on international agreements, the centre is not obliged to consult the state. These sources further stated that Manmohon Singh had done so because he wanted to try out the US way of conducting centre-state relations! These sources also explained that a BJP government that had objected to the LBA ratification would not do so if it came to power because it would want to start its tenure by favouring an important neighbour in which India had serious strategic interests!
The spins are, of course, too wishy-washy to be taken seriously. In fact, while the Bangladesh foreign secretary was in New Delhi, Mamata Banarjee not only reiterated her serious objections to the Teesta deal but also accused the centre of secretly giving Bangladesh more water than agreed in the Ganges Agreement! The Foreign Secretary did not meet any BJP leader in New Delhi. Instead, Foreign Office sources have relied on the Congress leaders and the bureaucrats who kept Bangladesh on false promises to spin their spins. In fact, the way the foreign secretary conducted talks in New Delhi and the information revealed in the media about the talks have surprised many in Bangladesh that the failure of India to deliver the Teesta and LBA deals was not registered strongly. The passive nature of his talks with the leaders/bureaucrats he met has also raised many eyebrows and questions.
The writer is a retired career Ambassador. [email protected]
© 2024 - All Rights with The Financial Express
