Missing a historic chance

By Praful Bidwai

Monday, September 19, 2011 

Did India snatch defeat from the jaws of victory during its prime minister’s first visit to Bangladesh in 12 years? The answer is largely yes, although the visit also registered some gains. On balance, the Indian leadership squandered a historic chance to overcome mutual distrust and transform the India-Bangladesh relations to a point where they reflect the potential for exemplary cooperation between the two neighbours, with huge benefits to both and to the South Asian region.

The visit’s biggest vitiating factor was West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who adopted an unreasonable and parochial stand on sharing the waters of River Teesta and pulled out of the trip. Could her obstinacy and temperamental behaviour have been anticipated? Was enough groundwork done to prepare her for an equitable sharing of the river’s waters? There are two divergent accounts of this. One says Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s representatives, including National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon, tried hard to convince Banerjee that the interests of her state, in particular, the North Bengal districts, were being taken care of in the Teesta agreement with water shared in a 52:48 ratio between the two countries. Banerjee first agreed, but suddenly raised micro-level issues, such as sharing the flows during the lean season. During that season, West Bengal, she insisted, would concede no more than 25 percent of the flow at a barrage called Gazaldoba, which lies 90 km inside Indian territory. Menon took this proposal to Bangladesh for discussion.

But meanwhile, Banerjee abruptly decided to boycott the trip. She is reportedly extremely keen to build a base for her Trinamool Congress party in North Bengal, where the Left and the Congress are traditionally strong. According to the second account, the Central government failed to reassure Banerjee sufficiently, and could have done so had it worked harder on the larger picture. At that picture’s centre is the historic wrong India committed by unilaterally diverting the waters of the Ganga by building a barrage at Farakka in 1975. This was grossly unfair in and of itself. Worse, the diversion caused enormous losses of food and fisheries production in Bangladesh for almost two decades. According to Ashok Swain of Sweden’s Uppsala university, Farakka changed the river’s hydrology, “disrupted fishing and navigation, brought unwanted salt deposits into rich farming soil, [and] affected agricultural and industrial production ...”, causing an annual loss estimated at 2 to 2.5 percent of the GDP. This is equivalent to the effect of the entire Information Technology sector being taken out of the Indian economy! Even worse was the human tragedy, including large-scale displacement, destitution and forced migration.

Farakka became a symbol of Indian domination and stoked anti-Indianism in Bangladesh, which the Right cynically exploited. Anti-Indianism entered the mainstream. Banerjee could have been persuaded to understand the importance of undoing this blunder. She might even have comprehended the inequity of the current Teesta water-sharing pattern, under which India reportedly has access to about 32,000 cusecs (cubic feet per second) of water during the lean season for eight million people, while Bangladesh must make do with just 5,000 cusecs for 20 million. Unfortunately, such a focussed effort was not made. Even if it had been, it’s conceivable that Banerjee would still have been obstructionist – for wholly narrow, short-term political reasons. As a last resort, the Centre could have asked for more time to negotiate a satisfactory Teesta accord, and still tried to get Banerjee on board. That didn’t happen. The Teesta failure is a huge setback to the cause of radically reforming Indo-Bangladesh relations.

Singh’s Dhaka visit was billed as a game-changer, which would pave the way for a Bay of Bengal community, including Burma, and provide greater linkages with Nepal and Bhutan, thus promoting South Asian integration. It would also greatly facilitate transit and trade between India’s northeast and the mainland. Transporting 45 percent of all goods to the region through waterways, roads, rail and air links via Bangladesh would yield enormous savings in fuel and time. The advantages of developing this backward and restive northeast cannot be overstated. India must reverse the damage by negotiating fair and equitable agreements on all the shared rivers with Bangladesh as quickly as possible. India must acknowledge that Bangladesh has legitimate concerns about some Indian dam projects such as Tipaimukh in Manipur. These must be addressed in a cooperative spirit. The Bangladesh government has acted positively on India’s demands on transit and security. It has refused to provide sanctuaries to insurgent groups from the northeast, enabling the agreement now being reached with the United Liberation Front of Asom.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has gone out of her way to meet Indian requests, often at the risk of being branded unacceptably pro-Indian. India should do more than reciprocate all this. Indian policymakers need to remind themselves of the Gujral Doctrine, a worthy principle which held that India’s dealings with all her neighbours barring Pakistan must go beyond strict reciprocity, to generously unilateral gestures. (I would argue this should apply to Pakistan too, especially in trade and people-to-people exchanges, but that’s another matter.) The Gujral Doctrine created goodwill for India, and helped counter the charge that India has a Big Brother-like attitude towards its smaller neighbours and doesn’t hesitate to interfere in their internal affairs, as it did by sending troops to Sri Lanka, imposing an embargo on goods going to Nepal, and militarily intervening in the Maldives. It’s imperative that India rectify not just the image, but the object (its relations).

As India-Bangladesh relations go, it is not enough for New Delhi to rest on the small gains made through the various agreements signed in Dhaka on the land boundary, biodiversity conservation, economic cooperation, and a $750 million loan for trade infrastructure, etc. India must correct the huge imbalance in bilateral trade, with a deficit of $4.5 billion vis-à-vis a country that’s 15 times smaller in economic size. Readymade garments make up 80 percent of Bangladesh’s exports. In 2008, India started giving “duty-free” access to them, but still levied a countervailing duty of 4 to 12 percent, thus taking away with the left hand what was given with the right hand. The garment quota was raised from eight million pieces to 10 million last year, but Bangladesh exhausted this year’s quota in the first six months.

India still has 480 items on its “negative” trade list for Bangladesh. But if all these were to be given true duty-free access, it would cost India a paltry $5 million loss in revenue, according to a 2008-09 estimate by the Centre for Policy Dialogue in Dhaka. Such access would greatly boost investment, growth and employment in Bangladesh, with immense benefits for regional integration. India must develop imaginative strategies in trade, economic and cultural cooperation, education and action to combat climate change. Bangladesh is one of the world’s most climate change-vulnerable countries. Parts of India’s East Coast are equally vulnerable. Cyclone Aila, which devastated large swathes in Bangladesh and India’s Sunderbans, showed this in 2009.

As a precondition for this change of stance, India must stop seeing itself primarily as part of the global Big League and relate seriously to the South Asian region to which it belongs, geographically, culturally and strategically.

The writer, a former newspaper editor, is a researcher and peace and human-rights activist based in Delhi. Email: prafulbidwai1@yahoo.co.in

 http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=68341&Cat=9

Mamata Banerjee and our disappointment

Syed Badrul Ahsan

THE DAILY STAR, Wednesday, September 7, 2011

OP-ED

Ground Realities

There is little question of the pre-eminence Mamata Banerjee holds in Indian national politics, a place she has earned over the years through, first, her active role in the Indian National Congress and then in her own Trinamul Congress. She was a leading voice of dissent in West Bengal (recently renamed Paschimbanga) until she ran the Left Front out of power in the state in May this year. Equally significant has been her role in two union governments, in which she has served as minister for railways both times. Her present role as a crucial coalition partner in the UPA government in Delhi is a reality the powers that be in India do not ignore, for reasons which are only too obvious.

It was therefore only natural for everyone in Bangladesh to have been enthused by the thought that Mamata Banerjee would be on the team Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would lead to the talks with the Bangladesh government in Dhaka. As chief minister of a state with which Bengalis on this side of the political frontier have shared culture, indeed heritage and for a long time a state of unified politics (until the vivisection of the subcontinent in 1947), she certainly could have looked forward to a warm welcome from us. Now that she has decided not to be in Bangladesh with her nation's prime minister, we are truly saddened and genuinely surprised.

Our surprise is there because her refusal to be in Dhaka has given a sudden battering to our expectations. Where we had expected that Ms. Banerjee would play a major role in ensuring that the people of Bangladesh and the people of Paschimbanga shared the waters of the Teesta, as they have shared so many things throughout their long association in history, we are now left handling a situation where we must scramble to undo some of the damage she may have done to the future of India-Bangladesh relations. Clearly, the chief minister is unhappy at the way the Manmohan Singh government has been conducting negotiations with the Bangladesh government, with the probable terms of the deals Delhi and Dhaka mean to reach on key issues of common interest. By opting out of the trip to Dhaka, she has likely pushed back an opportunity for Bangladesh and India to inaugurate a new, more mutually beneficial relationship between each other.

We understand that Mamata Banerjee is miffed at the union government's failure to take her on board as it has sought to hammer out a deal with the Bangladesh government. The government, she has reasons to feel, would not have dealt with a Left Front administration (had it been in office) the way it has dealt with hers. She puts it across to people that the Indian prime minister has kept her in the dark about the negotiations in Dhaka. That, again, is rather a far-fetched idea, seeing that it would be politically naïve, even suicidal, on the part of the Delhi authorities to ignore a critical state, one with which Bangladesh shares much more than rivers and a border, as they go into hammering out a deal with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her government. The extent to which Ms. Banerjee's feelings may have been misplaced is borne out by the fact that the union government kept her fully apprised of what it meant to do in Dhaka. Senior government functionaries were in touch with her three times and kept her posted on the details of the draft agreements to be discussed with the Bangladesh authorities. That only upholds the collegial attitude the Manmohan Singh administration has adopted in governance. Where the Trinamul is concerned, the prime minister has been particularly careful, especially since he needs the Banerjee government's support on any deal with Bangladesh over the Teesta waters and especially again because the Trinamul Congress happens to be a key element in the ruling coalition in Delhi.

The question, ours, is then simple: given the facts, why did the Paschimbanga chief minister pour cold water, in that clichéd manner of speaking, on a bright new promise that looked about to open up a shining new dawn for the people of Bangladesh and India? That matters had been discussed with her, that the political system India is governed by affords little room for the centre to bypass state governments on anything of either a domestic or international nature, is a truth that does not come into question. And yet Mamata Banerjee, clearly for reasons that she has not spelt out, reasons we suspect have to do with domestic Trinamul politics in her state, has now pushed the entire gamut of Delhi-Dhaka negotiations into a bad state of uncertainty. We cannot but reflect on whether Jyoti Basu or Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee would do what Mamata Banerjee has done. Basu remains a hugely loved figure in Bangladesh. Bhattacharjee has always been aware of the historicity of the links which have consistently kept the two Bengals in a state of firm bonding.

Our disappointment at Mamata Banerjee's withdrawal from the negotiations in Dhaka is deep. Even so, we keep hope going -- that Manmohan Singh and Sheikh Hasina will yet strike a deal which will reinforce the links between their countries, that they will give a new meaning to history through injecting new substance and impetus into its various and varied contours.

The writer is Editor, Current Affairs, The Daily Star. E-mail: bahsantareq@yahoo.co.uk

Agartala-Kolkata bus service via Dhaka

Mon, Jan 31st, 2011 4:17 pm BdST

New Delhi, Jan 31 (bdnews24.com) – Bangladesh may soon launch a direct bus service between India's West Bengal and its landlocked state of Tripura through Dhaka.

Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) may tie up with Tripura Road Transport Corporation for the bus service.

BRTC's director (admin and operation) S M Faisal Alam, now in West Bengal leading a delegation of senior BRTC officials to Agartala and Kolkata, told journalists that the trial run of the proposed bus service might start within two months.

They met transport officials of the Indian states and discussed the proposed direct bus-service between the two Indian cities through Dhaka.

A bus service between Agartala and Dhaka has been operational since 2003. The passengers travelling to Kolkata from Agartala have to change buses in Dhaka. But the bus service could not be popular and it became economically unviable as it takes too much time.

The Kolkata-Dhaka bus service has been operation since 1993.

Tripura transport minister Manik De said the travel time between Agartala and Kolkata would significantly come down if the direct bus service via Dhaka could be launched.

The BRTC delegation met Manik De and officials of the Tripura Road Transport Corporation in Agartala. Later, they traveled to Kolkata and held meetings with officials of the West Bengal State Road Transport Corporation.

Sources in the Indian government said New Delhi and Dhaka were discussing the possibility of simplifying visa regime, exclusively for the benefit of the passengers who would like to travel by buses between Kolkata and Agartala.

Dhaka and New Delhi are also exploring the prospects of BRTC's collaboration with its counterparts in West Bengal and Tripura state of India to launch tour packages to promote tourism.

bdnews24.com/corr/mr/1605h

ADB grants $100m loan for Indo-Bangla power line

Financial Express Report

VOL 18 NO 94 REGD NO DA 1589

Dhaka, Wednesday September 1 2010

 

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) Tuesday approved US$100 million loan for Bangladesh to install Indo-Bangla cross-border power transmission line in a bid to import electricity, officials said.

The Manila-based lender said its board of directors approved the loan for the Bangladesh-India 40-kilometre power grid installation project.

The government in early August completed negotiations for getting the loan. Bangladesh will install the 400-kilovolt cross-border power transmission line, investing Tk 10.40 billion ($150 million) by June 2012.

Power Division officials said the state-owned Power Grid Company of Bangladesh Ltd (PGCB) has already undertaken the project to build the line having the capacity of exchanging 500-megawatt electricity between the two nations.

About 100-kilometre cross-border power grid would connect Bangladesh's western Bheramara and India's eastern Baharampur in West Bengal.

The PGCB would install nearly 40-km grid from Bheramara to the border point, and the rest 60-km portion from the border point to Baharampur would be installed by the Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCI) by its own fund.

Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB) and PGCI on July 26 signed a 35-year power transmission agreement to import 500-mw electricity, starting from late 2012.

The agreement keeps the provision for Bangladesh to export power to India in the future, and the transmission system will have the capacity to exchange 500-mw of power soon after the system is launched.

The project marks a new era in energy cooperation in South Asia, and is likely to herald further power trading agreements, resulting to more effective use of energy resources in the region, said Sultan Hafeez Rahman, director general of ADB's South Asia Department.

"Connecting of the two grids demonstrates substantial economic benefits that come from enhanced regional cooperation, helping to address energy gaps across the region," he added.

The ADB's $100 million loan has a 32-year repayment period including a grace period of eight years, with 1.0 per cent interest per annum during the grace period and 1.5 per cent for the rest of the term.

Bangla to fulfil Basu wish- Barudi house to be turned into library and museum

By ANANYA SENGUPTA

The Telegraph: Thursday , August 19 , 2010

Dhaka, Aug. 18: The two-storey house on the Meghna’s banks where Jyoti Basu spent a part of his childhood and kept returning to in later life will be turned into a library and a museum in keeping with his wishes.

The plan, an initiative of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed, is now awaiting the approval of Basu’s family in Calcutta, whom the Bangladesh deputy high commissioner has been asked to contact.

“This is an excellent proposal,” the late communist leader’s son Chandan Basu said in Calcutta. “I had visited my ancestral home near Dhaka along with my father when Gen. H.M. Ershad was the (Bangladesh) President. I shall be delighted if the Bangladesh government goes ahead with its plans.”

Basu’s family lived in the house, set on 2.04 acres in Chowdhury Para in Barudi village, about 20km from Dhaka, till the early 1940s before moving to Calcutta. Basu was born and educated largely in Calcutta but seems to have been deeply attached to his ancestral home with its pond and leafy premises.

Local journalists said the veteran communist had visited the house during his last trip to Bangladesh in 1999 and expressed a desire to have it converted into a library.

Basu had spent some time at the house during his January 1987 and November 1997 visits too, and regularly asked about its condition till his death in January this year.

Soon after it came to power, the Awami League-led coalition government had decided to turn the house into a museum. The plan was to have Basu inaugurate it after its completion, but that was not to be.

The government’s move is expected to attract tourists and help the economy of Barudi village, where hundreds of Hindus and Muslims had gathered after Basu’s death to pray for the soul of a “great man of the subcontinent” who would speak to them “like a commoner”.

No blood relatives of Basu now live in Barudi, and caretaker Shahidullah, 75, and his family are the only current occupants of the house. Shahidullah’s mother Ayatunnessa once looked after Basu, the youngest of three siblings after Surendra Kumar Basu and Sudha Datta Basu.

Basu had charmed Barudi during his trips when he was Bengal chief minister.

“He spoke to ordinary villagers like us and asked about our welfare as though we were very close to him,” Mohammad Rafiq, a 60-year-old farmer, had said after his death. “He behaved as if he was a commoner like us; that’s how sincere he was.”

The house has two bedrooms and a drawing room on the top floor and two rooms and a meeting space on the ground floor. It has been taken over by the cultural affairs ministry and put under the care of the archaeology department.

BDR mutiny hits India-Bangladesh trade

Kolkata, Feb 27 : At least 500 trucks ferrying goods to Bangladesh, were stranded at the India-Bangladesh border in West Bengal’s Petrapole Friday as exporters feared a loss of Rs.2 billion ($38.83 million) following the mutiny by Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) troopers. “As of now, at least 500 trucks with both perishable and other goods are stuck at the border,” Raja Roy, general secretary, Calcutta Goods Transport Association, told mediaperson.

West Bengal Exporter Coordination Committee secretary Ujjal Saha said: “In north Bengal, there could be a loss of Rs.2 billion. Vegetables and fruits are becoming stale”. India shares a 4,095 km-long border with Bangladesh, of which the longest stretch - 2,216 km - is in West Bengal.

After the mutiny, vigil was stepped up all along the border. The Border Security Force asked people to keep distance from the border and the authorities restricted movement of vehicles. The administration on the Indian side suspended operations at the three land customs stations (LCS) in West Bengal - at Mehadipur in Malda district, Hili in south Dinajpur and Chengrabandha in Cooch Behar districts.

The international check post at Petrapole had remained closed for about six hours Thursday following fears that the Bangladesh army personnel could be arriving to take over the outposts at Benapole on the Bangladesh side from the BDR.

The stalemate continued till 3 p.m., and even the two Dhaka-bound buses from Kolkata had to wait. Later on, the buses were allowed to cross over to Bangladesh. “But till now trucks are not being allowed to go by the customs authorities,” Roy said, adding he hoped something positive will happen in a day or two and the normal pace will be restored. As per a rough estimate, trade worth Rs.3 billion takes place with Bangladesh through West Bengal daily.

An official at Mehadipur said 200 trucks carrying perishable goods were still stranded at the border. Gunfights broke out inside the BDR headquarters in Dhaka Wednesday morning as BDR troopers mutinied to protest poor wages and frequent transfers.

The government held talks with a delegation of the mutineers Thursday and an agreement was reached but by that time, the mutiny spread to other BDR camps located all over the country. The revolt ended in the face of an imminent attack by the Bangladesh Army which moved tanks into position outside the BDR headquarters. The mutineers then laid down their arms.

Hasina seeks Basu's blessings to realise Sonar Bangla dream

Kolkata, Wednesday, February 18, 2009: Newly elected Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina has sought nonagenarian Marxist and former West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu's blessings for a successful tenure at the helm in Bangladesh.

In an emotional letter written to Basu in Bengali, (a copy of which is available with us), Hasina writes, "Bless me so that we can fulfil the duties set upon us, honour the verdict of the people and truly work for developing my country as the Shonar Bangla (Golden Bengal)."

Hasina also expressed concern over the failing health of Basu, 94. "I am quite worried to know that you are ill. I wish you quick recovery and am looking forward to meet you in future," Hasina wrote to the longest-serving chief minister of West Bengal.

She also expressed confidence that the friendship between India and Bangladesh would be strengthened in the coming days.Basu had openly congratulated Hasina immediately after the Awami League's landslide victory some time ago.

In a congratulatory speech, Basu recalled the role of Hasina's father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and described him as the architect of Bangladesh. He also recalled his association with Hasina during her earlier tenure as prime minister of Bangladesh.

The two leaders had last met in 2006, when Hasina, then opposition leader in Bangladesh, visited Basu's house in Kolkata. They met for around 40 minutes, where Hasina thanked Basu for his role in signing the Indo-Bangladesh Ganges water sharing accord.

LF congratulates Awami League for massive mandate in Bangla

Kolkata, Jan 1: The Left Front in West Bengal today congratulated the people of Bangladesh for electing a 14-party coalition, led by the Awami League, with a massive mandate in the recently-held general election. Speaking at a meeting of the LF today, Left Front chairman Biman Basu expressed hope that the restoration of democracy in that country would further strengthen the Indo-Bangla friendship.

Jyoti Basu hail Sheikh Hasina's landslide victory

Kolkata, Dec 30 : The former Chief Minister of West Bengal, Jyoti Basu, has hailed the win of Sheikh Hasina and wished the people of Bangladesh well. The veteran politician, who was on very good terms with Ms. Hasina during her previous tenure in the mid-90s, said: “I congratulate Sheikh Hasina and her party the Awami League, and my good wishes for the people of Bangladesh.”

“I knew the late Mujibur Rahman (father of Sheikh Hasina and chief architect of Bangladesh) from the days when he was involved in student organisations and I had very cordial relations with him,” the nonagenarian leader said. “She called on me at my residence when she came visiting to India,” he said.

He reminisced that he has known the Awami League leader for long – “since the days when she was the Prime Minister of Bangladesh.” He also talked on the India-Bangladesh Water Treaty signed during those times.

It may be mentioned that the treaty on sharing of Ganga Waters at Farakka in West Bengal was described by India as a landmark in the bilateral relations between the two countries. The role played by Mr. Basu too was lauded in a suo motu statement in the Rajya Sabha made by External Affairs Minister I.K. Gujral on December 12, 1996, on the visit of Sheikh Hasina and the signing of the treaty. Mr. Gujral had placed on record the Centre’s appreciation and the “very constructive role played by the Chief Minister of West Bengal and his Cabinet colleagues in bringing about an improved atmosphere in which the treaty between India and Bangladesh has become possible.”

Mr. Basu also spoke about the bus service introduced between India and Bangladesh three years later (in 1999), linking Kolkata and Dhaka. This was the first such link between the two countries and was seen as restoration of commercial road transport between the two major cities. “I had also gone with the then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to Dhaka at that time,” Mr. Basu said

West Bengal ruling Left Front chairman Biman Basu also hailed the victory of the Awami League. Basu said Hasina was able to rally behind her maximum number of people of Bangladesh for the restoration of democracy in that country.