Pointer to Delhi’s disregard for sovereign equality
INDIA’S last-minute cancellation of its participation in the 38th meeting of the India-Bangladesh Joint Rivers Commission, which was scheduled to be held in the capital Dhaka on June 18 and 19, and has now become uncertain, appears to be more by design than by default. The ‘annual’ meeting, which has been on hold for more than three years, primarily because of India’s failure to make time, was scheduled to discuss, among other issues, the Teesta water-sharing treaty that New Delhi has deferred on one pretext or the other. According to a report posted in the online version of the Indian daily Business Standard on Sunday, New Delhi does not seem particularly happy with Dhaka’s refusal to allow its use of the Chittagong port until the Teesta issue is resolved. Simply put, India is not even willing to give Bangladesh its legitimate dues in exchange for what essentially is a privilege. Regrettably, however, if the state and the political establishment of India appear strange for their relentless exploitation and even extortion of Bangladesh, the successive governments in Bangladesh would seem even more so for shamelessly propagating the ‘friendly India’ myth.
Indeed, the people of Bangladesh have always been grateful to India for its support, both military and humanitarian, during their struggle for liberation from the Pakistani occupation forces in 1971. However, in the past four decades or so, India’s expectations, if not demands, have become increasingly burdensome for Bangladesh. Yet, successive governments in Bangladesh have literally bent backwards, albeit in varying degrees, making one concession to India after another, in exchange for virtually nothing. The incumbent AL-led government seems to have taken such kowtowing to an unprecedented level. In the past four years and a half, India has secured access to its land and river port, limited transhipment facility, transportation of oversized consignments without additional charges, a billion-dollar credit agreement that requires the debtor, i.e. the Bangladesh government to procure products and services from India for implementation of projects undertaken with the credit, a joint-venture project to set up a power plant that virtually requires no investment — the list could go on and on. In return, Bangladesh has seen New Delhi repeatedly default and dither on its promise to address its legitimate concerns, e.g. killing of Bangladesh nationals on the border by the Border Security Force, ratification of land boundary agreements, water-sharing treaties, tariff, non-tariff and para-tariff barriers to Bangladeshi products, so on and so forth.
In fact, it seems, sovereign equality, which lies at the core of the international laws and conventions that guide relations between states, has hardly had any role in the Bangladesh-India ties, with New Delhi playing the big brother and Dhaka only too happy to meet its whims and wishes. As such, the BSF continues to kill Bangladesh nationals on the border (a young man was killed in Chuadanga on Sunday, two days after the Indian border guards had apologised for killing two cattle traders in Jessore on June 12), the Tipaimukh Dam project, which poses serious economic, ecological and environmental disaster for Bangladesh, is still on the table.
With the AL-led government apparently unwilling to let go of the ‘friendly India’ myth and take a stance against what may very well be called India’s self-seeking enmity, the onus is on the conscious sections of society to mobilise public opinion and build up pressure on the incumbents so that assert Bangladesh’s sovereign equality and make India recognise and unconditionally deliver its legitimate dues.
Besides, it is important to mobilise the democratic sections of the Indian people to put pressure on Delhi to meet India’s obligation to meeting the legitimate demands of the people of Bangladesh.
http://www.newagebd.com/detail.php?date=2013-06-18&nid=53376
INDIA’S last-minute cancellation of its participation in the 38th meeting of the India-Bangladesh Joint Rivers Commission, which was scheduled to be held in the capital Dhaka on June 18 and 19, and has now become uncertain, appears to be more by design than by default. The ‘annual’ meeting, which has been on hold for more than three years, primarily because of India’s failure to make time, was scheduled to discuss, among other issues, the Teesta water-sharing treaty that New Delhi has deferred on one pretext or the other. According to a report posted in the online version of the Indian daily Business Standard on Sunday, New Delhi does not seem particularly happy with Dhaka’s refusal to allow its use of the Chittagong port until the Teesta issue is resolved. Simply put, India is not even willing to give Bangladesh its legitimate dues in exchange for what essentially is a privilege. Regrettably, however, if the state and the political establishment of India appear strange for their relentless exploitation and even extortion of Bangladesh, the successive governments in Bangladesh would seem even more so for shamelessly propagating the ‘friendly India’ myth.
Indeed, the people of Bangladesh have always been grateful to India for its support, both military and humanitarian, during their struggle for liberation from the Pakistani occupation forces in 1971. However, in the past four decades or so, India’s expectations, if not demands, have become increasingly burdensome for Bangladesh. Yet, successive governments in Bangladesh have literally bent backwards, albeit in varying degrees, making one concession to India after another, in exchange for virtually nothing. The incumbent AL-led government seems to have taken such kowtowing to an unprecedented level. In the past four years and a half, India has secured access to its land and river port, limited transhipment facility, transportation of oversized consignments without additional charges, a billion-dollar credit agreement that requires the debtor, i.e. the Bangladesh government to procure products and services from India for implementation of projects undertaken with the credit, a joint-venture project to set up a power plant that virtually requires no investment — the list could go on and on. In return, Bangladesh has seen New Delhi repeatedly default and dither on its promise to address its legitimate concerns, e.g. killing of Bangladesh nationals on the border by the Border Security Force, ratification of land boundary agreements, water-sharing treaties, tariff, non-tariff and para-tariff barriers to Bangladeshi products, so on and so forth.
In fact, it seems, sovereign equality, which lies at the core of the international laws and conventions that guide relations between states, has hardly had any role in the Bangladesh-India ties, with New Delhi playing the big brother and Dhaka only too happy to meet its whims and wishes. As such, the BSF continues to kill Bangladesh nationals on the border (a young man was killed in Chuadanga on Sunday, two days after the Indian border guards had apologised for killing two cattle traders in Jessore on June 12), the Tipaimukh Dam project, which poses serious economic, ecological and environmental disaster for Bangladesh, is still on the table.
With the AL-led government apparently unwilling to let go of the ‘friendly India’ myth and take a stance against what may very well be called India’s self-seeking enmity, the onus is on the conscious sections of society to mobilise public opinion and build up pressure on the incumbents so that assert Bangladesh’s sovereign equality and make India recognise and unconditionally deliver its legitimate dues.
Besides, it is important to mobilise the democratic sections of the Indian people to put pressure on Delhi to meet India’s obligation to meeting the legitimate demands of the people of Bangladesh.
http://www.newagebd.com/detail.php?date=2013-06-18&nid=53376
