INDIAN premier Narendra Modi on Friday assured the Bangladeshi President of implementing the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) and sharing of Teesta water, but no distinct time frame was mentioned. LBA needs ratification by the Indian parliament which is in session now and is likely to end its winter session in a couple of days. Thus implementing LBA is again a far cry, it is working only on paper, not in reality. Surprisingly, the Bangladesh President who is more or less constitutionally a ceremonial figurehead is often frequenting the foreign capitals, busy with second channel diplomatic-drives, and is now on a six-day visit to Delhi. Presumably, the President may try hard to serve his party government which suffers from legitimacy crisis.
But not that much response from the Indian side is recognizable either on Land boundary deal or on sharing water of the Teesta. Though the government in power has already paid a huge gratitude to its big neighbour since 1971 by assuring India of the highest honour in exchange of its contribution to our Liberation War. But unfortunately, India is still boiling hope, raising assurances to ratify the LBA in the Upper House, but in effect it has still been a ‘delusion’ for Bangladeshis as well as the inhabitants of the enclaves who have to bear an identity of ‘stateless entity’.
Bangladesh and India signed the LBA to resolve border disputes in May 16, 1974. Dhaka ratified the agreement the same year, but New Delhi is yet to ratify it. The Congress-led UPA-II government had, however, managed to introduce the Constitution amendment bill in last December to facilitate the swap of enclaves between the countries amid high drama which witnessed members of Trinamool Congress led by Mamata Benarjee and Asom Gana Parishad along with the incumbent Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitly, an influential minister of the Modi Cabinet, trying to snatch copies of the proposed legislation from the then Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid.
The legislation is aimed at ratifying the LBA between India and Bangladesh under the Indira-Mujib Pact of 1974 to exchange areas and people on either side of the border. India will exchange 111 enclaves measuring 17,160 acres to Bangladesh and receive 51 enclaves covering 7,110 acres. Almost 51,000 people reside in these enclaves. The territories of Indian states involved in the exchange are in Assam, West Bengal, Meghalaya and Tripura. The Constitution amendment bill is required to be passed by both the Upper House (Rajya Shava) and the Lower House (Lok Shava) of the Indian parliament because it involves exchange of land. The bill is now pending in the Rajya Shava.
In our view, no knee-jerk foreign policy is capable of harnessing the national interest. While the government is subservient to other nations to secure legitimacy instead of relying on its people, then gaining mere assurance is no big deal from our powerful neighbour. If it does not happen, when Bangladesh has already fulfilled almost all of its commitments to India, then the bizarre action of the Indian counterpart is nothing more than buying time on any excuse.
