Delhi lets Dhaka down

WITH Bangladesh parliament elections approaching the news from New Delhi are depressing. After high hopes of a new trajectory of good bilateral relations with India, Dhaka feels let down.
The monsoon session of Indian Lok Sabha has gone into recess on September 7. But the “Land Boundary Agreement” (LBA) of September 2011 could not be placed in Parliament for ratification.
Bangladesh was categorically assured by President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid that the LBA would be ratified during the monsoon session of Lok Sabha. The Bill could not even be introduced in Parliament because of noisy opposition from the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) MPs. The opposition BJP also refused to support the UPA government on the LBA.
The other extremely important treaty which has gone into the backburner is the Teesta Water Sharing Agreement. This too is due to the opposition from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The Treaty was due to be signed during Manmohan Singh’s Dhaka visit in September 2011.
What is surprising is that the UPA government made every effort and succeeded in convincing the opposition BJP to help pass two key bills at the last session — National Food Security Bill and the Land Acquisition Bill. But when it came to the LBA with Bangladesh, there was no initiative from UPA leaders to explain to the opposition why this bill was important. The Bangladesh Foreign Minister was in Delhi last July to persuade BJP to support the bill. She met with Arun Jaitley, the BJP leader in the Rajya Sabha. Jaitley did not commit any support for the LBA bill.
The other incident which has deeply outraged Bangladesh is the BSF court acquitting constable Amiyo Ghosh, who killed Felani. Border killings by BSF go on unabated despite repeated assurance from highest levels in India that such killing shall stop. Now there are threats that BSF will deploy “drones” to monitor the border areas. The Foreign Ministry is dismissive about these developments.
One had hoped that the government would be able to resolve the major problems that bedevil Dhaka-Delhi relations. The visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India in January 2010 and the Joint Communiqué had raised hopes that problems between the two neighbors would be resolved once and for all. There are several issues which, however, are viewed by the two capitals differently.
For Delhi the major issues are: a) security — eliminating insurgency in the North Eastern States. Bangladesh had been accused of giving sanctuary to separatist insurgents; b) Securing transshipment rights, from the Western parts of India to North Eastern States, through Bangladesh; c) Stop so-called illegal migration from Bangladesh.
From Dhaka’s point of view the major issues are: a) Water sharing of the common rivers; b) Trade concessions for access to Indian market; c) Land boundary demarcation and exchange of enclaves; d) Demarcation of maritime boundary with India in the Bay of Bengal.
For its part, Bangladesh has addressed two of the major concerns of India. Firstly, it has handed over ULFA Chairman Arvind Rajkhoa to India in January 2011. ULFA General Secretary Anup Chetia is currently awaiting extradition to India. Bangladesh and India have already signed an extradition treaty in January 2013 during the Indian Home Minister’s visit to Dhaka
Secondly, Bangladesh has also given India transshipment facilities through its territory. Bangladesh has allowed transshipment through Akhaura border of Over Dimensional Cargoes for the Palatana Power Project in Agartala. Last June, India also shipped 10,000 tons of food grains to Tripura from Kolkata through Chittagong port. Another 30,000 tons will pass through Bangladesh soon. While India was able to cut down the costs of transportation drastically using the Bangladesh route, Bangladesh had to spend considerable amount of money to upgrade the infrastructure at Akhaura to handle the Indian cargo.
Somehow India has not reciprocated the gestures shown by Bangladesh. Some naive Bangladesh leaders were hoping that Sheikh Hasina would visit Delhi this month, where she would sign the Teesta Treaty and return with the ratified LBA. That visit is now uncertain.
Why has Manmohan Singh failed to live up to his promises? One has to understand the mechanics of decision making in Delhi. The Congress-led UPA government is a coalition of several parties — some supporting it from within, some from without. It has only 222 seats altogether in the House of 543 seats. Simple majority requires 272, but Congress with 206 seats is constantly in a precarious position of being outvoted.
The decision making process in India has traditionally been dominated by the bureaucracy. On foreign policy matters the Ministry of External Affairs has the final say. It is hardly ever that the Prime Minister or External Affairs Minister will overrule decisions taken by the Ministry. Example: In July 2011, Manmohan Singh read out a Ministry — prepared document saying, “25% of Bangladeshis swear by Jamaitul Islami and they are very anti-Indian and they are in the clutches of the ISI”.
It appears that the relationship between the two countries was not handled by the two governments but by two parties — Congress in India and Awami League in Bangladesh. Congress has let down Awami League because Bangladesh Foreign Ministry failed miserably to understand the mechanics of decision making in Delhi.