JOIN USTeesta dampens PM visit to Bangladesh
A day after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee pulled herself out of the prime minister’s entourage to Dhaka following differences between the Centre and her government on the quantum of Teesta waters to be shared with Bangladesh, New Delhi made it clear that no deal would be signed with the neighbouring country without her consent.
As Mamata upped the ante on the Teesta deal, the prime minister, however, sought to draw attention to a larger strategic significance of a friendly relation between India and Bangladesh.
“Our partnership with Bangladesh is important for the stability and prosperity of our own northeast region. It is a partnership which can have a profound positive impact on the South Asian region as a whole,” Singh said in a statement on Monday.
Late in the night, he called Mamata Banerjee and assured her that nothing will be done on the Teesta river water sharing issue with Bangladesh that will harm the interests of the state. The interests of West Bengal will be kept in mind and consultations with her will continue on the issue, Singh told Banerjee, a close aide of the Trinamool chief said.
Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai, while briefing journalists on the prime minister’s two-day visit to Dhaka set to commence on Tuesday, echoed that view.
Singh is travelling to Dhaka at the invitation of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, whose visit to New Delhi in January 2010 commenced a paradigm shift in the bilateral relation between the neighbours.
This is the first bilateral visit by an Indian prime minister to Bangladesh after a gap of 12 years. In July 1999, the then prime minister A B Vajpayee had gone to Dhaka to inaugurate a bus service to Kolkata.
The Teesta originates from Tso Lhamo Lake in Sikkim. The river is known as a lifeline for Sikkim and several districts in West Bengal. The 315-km long river joins the Brahmaputra after entering Bangladesh.
India and Bangladesh have since long been discussing an agreement for sharing the waters of the Teesta.
Though the water resources secretaries of the two countries finalised the principles for water sharing earlier this year, the countries were expected to sign an interim deal during Singh’s visit to Dhaka.
But Mamata expressed her unhappiness on Sunday, when she got it conveyed to the prime minister that she would not be able to accompany him to Dhaka.
Mamata is understood to be unhappy with the final draft of the deal, which, she believes, will not be in the interests of her state. Singh had invited Mamata to join him on his visit to Dhaka. The prime minister had sent similar invitations to chief ministers of Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya and Mizoram.
Though Mamata opted out, the four chief ministers of the northeastern states are likely to accompany him to the capital of Bangladesh on Tuesday. Mamata ’s snub to the prime minister is likely to result in the latest hitch between her Trinamool Congress and the Congress — both constituents of the ruling UPA at the Centre. Mathai on Monday did not directly reply to a question if New Delhi would refrain from signing any deal with Dhaka for sharing the waters of the Teesta.
He, however, said a similar agreement on the river Feni, which flows through Tripura before entering Bangladesh, was on the cards. The two countries may also sign a deal to settle land boundary disputes, he added.