Pros and cons of transit rights

FE Team | Published: August 18, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

M. I. Ali
AN Indian junior minister recently, while on a trip to Bangladesh, reiterated India's desire of securing transit rights through Bangladesh to its north-eastern territories. As in the past, this time too the response to the request was not positive, Bangladesh's rationale being that its request for transit rights to Nepal and Bhutan has not been honoured by India. India does not see the need for reciprocity since granting Bangladesh such rights will somewhat loosen the Indian stranglehold over these two land-locked countries and India would not be able to choke essential supplies if they fail to tow the Indian line.
India has made it clear time and again that it does not believe in multilateral relations among its neighbours and all issues involving it must be on bilateral basis. The best example of this Indian policy is SAARC, it is probably the most emasculated and ineffective regional forum in the world.
Bangladesh on the other hand does not have any hegemonistic aspirations over its neighbours, therefore granting India the transit rights will not have equal political importance except for some people in Bangladesh who believe that it may jeopardise the security of the country. For Bangladesh, the transit issue should not be addressed from the political point of view as it is most unlikely that India would use Bangladesh route to transport unauthorised cargo such as weapons and ammunition to arm its forces in the northeast. As for security threats to this country, India does not need transit rights for carrying out mischief here, there are lots of other options open to it. On the other hand, giving India the transit rights would help Bangladesh improve its much needed transport infrastructure as well as give a boost to its economy. India being the blue eyed boy of the West, all multilateral development and financial organisations are going to fall over each other to develop the infrastructure in this country to facilitate the implementation of the agreement.
The transit issue for Bangladesh is an economic one and should be evaluated on that basis. If giving transit to India is profitable for Bangladesh, then by all means it should be given and we should extract the maximum benefit from it. Due consideration should be given to the fact that roads of Bangladesh are already overcrowded with our own traffic.
Therefore, a complete new road system should be developed to accommodate the Indian traffic that will transit through Bangladesh. However, as this is the most densely populated country in the world and the new roadway system will displace a huge number of people who, in no way, can be resettled elsewhere in Bangladesh. After all land is extremely scarce in Bangladesh.
The only way this problem can be resolved in the short run is if India agrees to settle them temporarily in Arunachal or Assam, where land is in abundance, until industrial jobs are created for them in Bangladesh for their return. The population density in these states is very low and infusion of the temporary settlers, who are farmers, will help to boost agriculture there. Bangladesh can import these excess agricultural products so produced.
Here too India can help Bangladesh by encouraging its industrialists to invest in Bangladesh. The sooner the jobs are created the sooner the displaced persons can return to Bangladesh. Once the transit protocol is operational, raw materials can be brought from India, processed in Bangladesh using cheap energy and labour, and exported to countries abroad including India. Unlike India where the strong rupee is making exports expensive, Bangladesh has a stable currency and a disciplined labour force making it a better platform for setting up industries than India. Indian entrepreneurs will definitely seize the opportunity if conditions are conducive here.
India should also be allowed to use the Mongla port to facilitate international trade of eastern India including Bihar and West Bengal. Chittagong port should be reserved for Bangladesh as it is currently meeting the needs of most of our country and does not have excess capacity to meet India's requirements. Mongla should be developed as a regional entrepot port and the cost of such development should be borne by India as a gift to Bangladesh, with no strings attached. Unfortunately Mongla has a serious situation problem that must also be addressed by India. This can be done through the release of an adequate amount of water from Farakka Barrage to flush Mongla port of silt to keep it navigable throughout the year. India should stop diverting the Ganges waters to central India if it considers the use of Mongla port to be important to its economy and make that water available for flushing Mongla port.
Many economists and logistics experts have identified Bangladesh as the ideal transportation hub for north eastern India and south western China. However, when Bangladesh was punched out of the eastern region during the partition of India in 1947 the economy of the region was upset. Many political and economic pundits had predicted at that time that this country would fail to stand on its own and have to revert to status quo within a short period.
The opposite has happened and now the economic stability of the entire eastern India is at stake because the traditional lines of communication have been disrupted.
These lines were further disrupted following the 1962 Sino-Indian war when cross boarder movements became restricted. To become economically viable, the region has to be integrated as a near homogenous economic unit once again. This is in the interest of both India and Bangladesh, but more so in India's than Bangladesh's.