JOIN USTeesta remains bugbear in Delhi-Dhaka ties
There were disappointingly no big bang deliverables for Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is hoping to lead her party to victory for a fourth consecutive term next year, during her visit to India last week.
Indeed, even when Hasina was still in India, questions were already being asked in Bangladesh on whether her India visit had yielded any significant outcomes. The reference clearly was to the Teesta waters sharing agreement that India has been unable to deliver to Bangladesh over a decade after it was finalised.
While India has not been able to ink this pact due to its domestic politics, Teesta remains a prickly issue for Hasina back home. It has given her critics reason to accuse her of being too accommodative of Indian interests while not getting adequate returns from New Delhi.
Teesta apart, Sheikh Hasina had an even more pressing concern on hand during the visit – the million-plus Rohingya refugees who fled persecution in Myanmar’s Rakhine state and crossed over into Bangladesh five years ago. She was hoping New Delhi would throw its weight behind Dhaka and urge Myanmar to take back the refugees, who are proving a huge burden on her country.
But India, with its own geo-strategic concerns, could only stick to its stated stand and once again merely express support for the Rohingyas’ return to Myanmar. Unwilling to antagonise Nay Pyi Taw, especially with China lurking in the background, New Delhi has adopted a cautious approach on the issue. It has preferred to create housing and conducive living conditions in Myanmar to facilitate their return, but their repatriation has remained a pipedream till now.
Bangladesh has repeatedly warned that the continuing stay of the Rohingyas in ghettoised camps in Cox’s Bazar on its territory is leading to their radicalisation, with Pakistan stirring the pot. This could have a fall-out in India, too. It’s time perhaps for India to redouble its backroom efforts to nudge Myanmar to take back the Rohingyas.
It’s noteworthy that neither Teesta nor the Rohingyas found any mention in the lengthy joint statement released a day after Hasina and Prime Minister Narendra Modi met on September 6.
During the visit, New Delhi and Dhaka did ink seven MoUs. But the only one that will find traction in Hasina’s domestic constituency is the one that will allow the sharing of the waters of another river, the Kushiyara.
Under this pact, India and Bangladesh will be sharing the waters of the “common border river Kushiyara”. It’s taken over 25 years for the two neighbours to sign a water-sharing pact after the Ganga Water Treaty way back in 1996.
Also Read: Welcome progress in Delhi, Dhaka ties
Hasina and Modi also announced three projects and inaugurated two. The 5.13 km-long Rupsha rail bridge was launched, while the first unit of the 1,320 MW Maitree thermal power plant, which is to come up in Rampal, Khulna, was inaugurated.
All this, however, would be of little consolation to Hasina. India’s inability to deliver the Teesta pact continues to cast a big shadow over bilateral ties between the two countries.
A recalcitrant West Bengal government (water being a state subject) has ensured that New Delhi and Dhaka are not able to sign the Teesta pact, which was on the verge of being inked in 2011. This is certainly not a happy situation for a leader who has been India’s most steadfast friend in the neighbourhood and mindful of its strategic interests.
India should find a way to resolve this festering matter, which continues to overshadow the remarkable cooperation the two neighbours have shown in other areas. This, when many countries in India’s immediate neighbourhood, be it Nepal, Sri Lanka or Maldives, have been only too eager to embrace China, unmindful of India’s security imperatives.
Hasina, on her part, once again assured New Delhi that “India is the most important, closest neighbour for Bangladesh”. While the Kushiyara pact is a step in the right direction, India as the upper riparian State needs to show a greater sense of urgency and initiate steps that will allow the harnessing of the waters of the transboundary rivers.
Teesta, in particular, remains an emotive issue in Bangladesh and helps fan anti-India sentiment.
Admittedly, the sharing of waters between regions or countries has always been a contentious issue. And water-sharing negotiations can be vexatious and long-drawn over several years.
Even so, it’s rather unfortunate that two neighbours who share 54 transboundary rivers and boast of close ties have been unable to reach an understanding on the sharing of their waters. It’s all very well for India to keep saying it believes in a policy of ‘Neighbourhood First’. But it needs to walk the talk, especially for its close friends and allies.
(The writer is a senior journalist)