Thaindian News

Dhaka, Jan 17 (IANS) In the face of criticism that Bangladesh gave “mega concessions” to India in deals signed during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to New Delhi last week, the government has defended the accords, saying they opened up new frontiers for the country in terms of much-needed connectivity in South Asia.
“The main focus was on connectivity. Bangladesh wants to move forward,” Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni said at a roundtable discussion Saturday.

She said the prime minister took up with her Indian counterpart issues like sharing of Teesta river waters, the Indian Tipaimukh dam project and maritime boundary dispute, which are crucial for the country’s development.

“After 1975, BNP was in power for 16 years but the issues were never raised,” she said.

On supporting India for permanent membership in the United Nations Security Council, Moni said the then government of Begum Khaleda Zia, now in the opposition, had done the same with Japan on July 14, 2005.

Even as foreign policy analysts, academics, former diplomats, military persons and heads of chambers of commerce and industry agreed that Hasina’s visit marked “a bold shift” in bilateral relations and that the country should engage more purposefully in implementing the deals, key advisors of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), who also participated in the discussion, differed with the majority opinion.

“Look at the Indian gains. There are too many gifts for India. The balance of the game was seriously skewed,” Reaz Rahman, Zia’s foreign policy advisor, said terming the move to open up Chittagong and Mangla ports to India as “mega concessions”.

He said Bangladesh made four “mega concessions” in bilateral security, connectivity, economic cooperation and “psychological game”.

“The concessions will have far-reaching implications,” Rahman said, criticising the government for neither examining the issues nor discussing them with the opposition.

The Daily Star newspaper that organised the roundtable said the participants felt that the three agreements and two memorandum of understanding (MoUs) signed during Hasina’s Delhi visit would “create new frontiers of economic activities if implemented properly”.

“For the first time, Bangladesh would be able to trade its service in the form of transportation of Indian goods and thereby reduce the huge trade gap between the two countries,” it said.

Noted economist Rehman Sobhan said the Bangladesh-India summit set the climate for negotiation on unresolved bilateral issues, including maritime, land boundaries and water-sharing issues. He, however, said critical issues cannot be solved in one summit.

“A summit is all about atmosphere and communication. Through this summit the climate has been set. We cannot expect the prime minister to come home with a bagful of goodies,” he said.

Former diplomat Farook Sobhan said if Bangladesh wants to accelerate its growth between eight and nine percent and achieve the status of a middle-income country, there is no other way but to build regional and sub-regional economic cooperation.

“The key to Bangladesh’s growth and development is connectivity,” he said.

Greater cooperation with India, Bhutan and Nepal would open up the opportunities, he said, adding that India has made a major concession in giving Bhutan and Nepal transit to Bangladesh.

Sobhan said the visit would also give a huge push for Indian investment in Bangladesh.

Irene Khan, secretary general of Amnesty International, termed the prime minister’s India visit “courageous”.

“India is an economic power and we need to follow the tail end,” she said.