India highlights 'multifaceted' relations with Bangladesh

[bluesky]

On Republic Day, India highlights 'multifaceted' relations with Bangladesh
Senior Correspondent, bdnews24.com
Published: 2018-01-26 22:49:46.0 BdST Updated: 2018-01-26 22:51:50.0 BdST

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Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka Harsh Vardhan Shringla has highlighted the "multi-faceted" relations between Bangladesh and India on his country's 69th Republic Day.

"In the last nine years, India and Bangladesh have been able to make more progress in furthering bilateral relations than we could in the preceding years," he said while speaking at the reception on Friday hosted by the High Commission.

Ministers, MPs, political leaders of different parties including opposition BNP, members of the armed forces, businessmen and media were present at the reception.

The Republic Day is celebrated every year on Jan 26 to honour the date in which the Constitution of India came into effect in 1950, three years after independence.

"Today, our relations are multifaceted and cover cooperation in a wide spectrum of areas including security and border management; trade, commerce and investment; connectivity; energy and power; space; developmental projects; culture; and greater people-to-people exchanges, " he said before giving highlights of the relationship.

He said the visit of the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India in April 2017 added a new chapter to the relations, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi described as "heralding of a Sonali Adhyay or a Golden Era in our ties."

The Joint Statement adopted by the two prime ministers during the visit affirmed that the “relations between India and Bangladesh are based on fraternal ties and reflective of an all-encompassing partnership based on sovereignty, equality, trust and understanding that goes far beyond a strategic partnership."

During the visit of Hasina, the two countries concluded 36 agreements including 13 business agreements. Together with the 22 agreements signed during the visit of Modi to Bangladesh in June 2015, a total of 60 bilateral documents have been signed in a span of two and half years.

"It demonstrates the breadth and depth of our bilateral relationship and underlines the vast potential that exists for further cooperation," the envoy said.

He said the year 2017 saw several landmark developments in the areas of development cooperation, cross-border connectivity, and commencement of cooperation in new areas such as space and cyber-security.

With the extension of the third Line of Credit of 5 billion dollars, Bangladesh became the "largest development partner of India."

The two Prime Ministers jointly inaugurated two important infrastructure projects in Bangladesh, the second Bhairab railway bridge and the second railway bridge over Titas river completed under the first Line of Credit from India to Bangladesh.

In line with Modi's vision of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’ or ‘Collective Efforts Inclusive Growth', which encompasses neighbouring countries as well, "India remains committed to its role as a development partner of Bangladesh."

"It also fully supports Bangladesh's vision of becoming a middle-income country by 2021 and a developed country by 2041."

Giving further push to connectivity, he said, the two prime ministers also jointly flagged off a new passenger train service between Khulna and Kolkata the Bandhan Express and announced end-to-end immigration and customs facilities for passengers of the Maitree Express on the Dhaka-Kolkata route.

"The rail link between Radhikapur (India) and Birol (Bangladesh) was also restored, and with this, we have now revived four of the six rail links that existed between the two countries before 1965."

New bus service on the Dhaka-Khulna-Kolkata route also commenced operations last year.

The two prime ministers, along with the leaders of Afghanistan, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka, also jointly launched the South Asia Satellite in May 2017.

"We also continued to lay strong emphasis on strengthening people-to-people contacts by taking further initiatives to improve access to India visas for Bangladesh nationals. The number of visas issued by the High Commission of India has nearly doubled from 750,000 in 2015 to 1.4 million in 2017" he said.

The year concluded on a "high note" with the visits of India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to Bangladesh.

"Our external affairs minister underlined the importance India attaches to Bangladesh by stating that, in India’s Neighbourhood First policy, Bangladesh stood foremost," the high commissioner said.

"We have also had a good start to 2018 with the foreign minister of Bangladesh having visited India earlier this month at the invitation of our external affairs minister."

 

[idune]

here comes indian dalal @bluesky to push indian propaganda.

 

[bluesky]

here comes indian dalal @bluesky to push indian propaganda.

Thank you @idune for making me happy by criticizing my post. It was expected although I believe you are an Indian citizen. By the way, do not u believe relationship with India is good for BD? Your parents can sleep well in Sylhet because A/C works there, thanks to the electricity that India supplies to BD.

 

[MULUBJA]

Thank you @idune for making me happy by criticizing my post. It was expected although I believe you are an Indian citizen. By the way, do not u believe relationship with India is good for BD? Your parents can sleep well in Sylhet because A/C works there, thanks to the electricity that India supplies to BD.

Thank you very much for your nice post. relations between the two country are very important. We were same people of same nation before some Britishers paid goons separated two countries. Subsequently, Islamist and those who wanted to Justify the nation based on religion worked hard to justify it and so they inflicted radicalism in the mind of people which is visible here. These Jamatis will always treat you like this only. They do not know that whatever they are is because of the good people like you in country. If everybody becomes like @idune, country will parish.

 

[idune]

Recognizing india is enemy - is the biggest accomplishment for Bangladeshis

Recognizing india is enemy of Bangladesh - is the biggest accomplishment for Bangladeshis, that was the assessment made by popular English daily editor. Nurul Kabil who represent ultra-secular camp in Bangladesh made his observation when a TV talk show asked questions about india Bangladesh relation and latest visit of Hasina.

He clearly spelled out, india can keep few puppets but absolute majority of Bangladeshis see india as enemy. According to the editor, his observation is based on meeting and talking to people from cross section of Bangladeshi society – ordinary people, political leaders, professionals and youths. Renowned editor made case by case analysis how india made itself enemy to people of Bangladesh and to Bangladesh as a country.

1) India depriving Bangladesh from rightful share of water in common rivers using one pretext after another.

2) India blatantly interfered in Bangladesh election, installed an autocratic regime and destroyed democratic process.

3) Bangladesh is source of $15 billion dollars export and remittance earning for india. Yet, india prevent Bangladesh export of even few million dollars using tariff, para tariff and using other flimsy excuses.

4) India relentlessly killing Bangladeshis at border.

5) India gained corridor through Bangladesh using awami league regime, in virtually free of cost.

6) But india prevents Bangladeshi companies to do business with Nepal and Bhutan by putting condition and asking to do business through indian companies.

7) India blatantly interfered in Bangladesh election and installed an autocratic regime.

…….

https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/reco...ggest-accomplishment-for-bangladeshis.492127/

 

[SipahSalar]

Can someone give context to this whole dalals vs razakars thing. What do these terms mean where do they come from?

 

[idune]

Can someone give context to this whole dalals vs razakars thing. What do these terms mean where do they come from?

razakars = who collaborated with Pakistani defense forces in 1971
indian dalal = who collaborating with indians against Bangladesh.

Back on topic....

 

[MULUBJA]

1) India depriving Bangladesh from rightful share of water in common rivers using one pretext after another.

Which Rightful share by which agreement. We give Bangladesh water as per Gujaral Doctorine which is totally a good will gesture.

2) India blatantly interfered in Bangladesh election, installed an autocratic regime and destroyed democratic process.

India is helping BD in conducting free and fair elections. If India is capable of putting than why Khalida was elected with a big majority in BD?

3) Bangladesh is source of $15 billion dollars export and remittance earning for india. Yet, india prevent Bangladesh export of even few million dollars using tariff, para tariff and using other flimsy excuses.

India is giving BD a lots of trade concessions. Not only BD but we have given most favored nation status to even Pakistan.

4) India relentlessly killing Bangladeshis at border.

Lots of BD people has illegally migrated to India. We kill only criminals who do not surrender. You killed our 18 soldiers and we could have given befitting reply still keeping the friendship in view, we restrained. This is how we value the friendship.

5) India gained corridor through Bangladesh using awami league regime, in virtually free of cost.

6) But india prevents Bangladeshi companies to do business with Nepal and Bhutan by putting condition and asking to do business through indian companies.

Not true. Lies of Jamatis.

7) India blatantly interfered in Bangladesh election and installed an autocratic regime.

Is BD democracy so flimsy that we can put whatever government we want? If it is so than BD is not worth being a sovereign nation.

 

[idune]

Which Rightful share by which agreement. We give Bangladesh water as per Gujaral Doctorine which is totally a good will gesture.


India is helping BD in conducting free and fair elections. If India is capable of putting than why Khalida was elected with a big majority in BD?

India is giving BD a lots of trade concessions. Not only BD but we have given most favored nation status to even Pakistan.



Lots of BD people has illegally migrated to India. We kill only criminals who do not surrender. You killed our 18 soldiers and we could have given befitting reply still keeping the friendship in view, we restrained. This is how we value the friendship.


Not true. Lies of Jamatis.



Is BD democracy so flimsy that we can put whatever government we want? If it is so than BD is not worth being a sovereign nation.

we have heard these indian trash before and belong to trash bin.

 

[bluesky]

2) India blatantly interfered in Bangladesh election, installed an autocratic regime and destroyed democratic process.

The Islami Bank owned by Jamaat, and Begum Zia herself are very rich. But, Jamaat spends the money on creating terrorism and Begum Zia stacked $22 billion in foreign Banks and in real estates in Malaysia and other countries. BNP-Jamaat can control a part of election outcome in India if they uses their funds properly. Why do you complain when you do not make proper use of your ill-gotten money?

 

[idune]

 

[bluesky]

@idune, please read the following and answer accordingly. But, you are a gutless person.

- Many countries will denounce BD as ingrate if we try to create trouble with India because it gave shelter to our 9 million people in our time of dire need when PA troops expelled them.
- Those days when Indian ill motive worried us are gone after Ziur Rahman came to power in 1975 November. Today, BD is a stable country with a huge quantity of export. An amicable relationship with India will certainly not harm us any more.
- Who wants a PM who steals money from an Orphanage Trust? Bring back our $22 billion dollar.

 

[idune]

Indian high commissioner’s good tidings for Bangladesh elections

by M Serajul Islam | Published: 00:05, Jun 08,2017

THE Indian high commissioner Harsh Vardhan Sringhla, in a recent address to the Diplomatic Correspondents Association of Bangladesh, said something extremely significant. He stated that India has no intention of getting involved in the next general elections in Bangladesh that was music to the ears of the majority of the people of the country. The reason is quite a simple one. Bangladeshis in the overwhelming majority who have been disenfranchised by the way the last elections were held believe that one of the major ways to hold free and fair elections in Bangladesh is for India to keep out of it.

One must wonder what prompted the high commissioner to make such a statement. He was neither asked nor provoked. Perhaps, the high commissioner was reflecting on what had happened in Bangladesh leading to the controversial January 5, 2014 elections while addressing the journalists. Or perhaps he was thinking of the past, in particular of the visit of then Indian foreign secretary Sujata Singh to Bangladesh just days before the elections and her extremely controversial meeting with the former president HM Ershad while preparing his speech for the occasion.

The former president’s Jatiya Party was unwilling to participate in the 2014 elections that would have made it impossible for the ruling Awami League government to hold any elections at all, not even the one it eventually held. The Indian foreign secretary met HM Ershad in his residence and without mincing words and unbelievably undiplomatically told him that the Jatiya Party must take part in the elections in order to keep the BNP/Jamaat from coming to power!
That was the most blatant example of any country interfering in another country’s internal affairs. Ershad exposed the attempted interference by the Indian foreign secretary in a dramatic way. No sooner had she left his residence, he held an impromptu press briefing and reproduced almost verbatim what transpired at the meeting. That meeting will remain as the blackest day when the history of Bangladesh-India relations is written truthfully.

It was not just that. The meeting also reflected a deterioration of India’s widely acknowledged high standard in the conduct of diplomacy. It was common knowledge in Bangladesh and to the Indian High Commission in Dhaka at the time of the meeting of the Indian foreign secretary and HM Ershad that the latter was the least trustworthy politician in Bangladesh. They had a past experience about Ershad’s unreliability and dubiousness as well as his anti-India bias that dated back to the 1988 floods in Bangladesh that were the most devastating in its history.

Bangladesh had accepted four helicopters from India for dealing with the devastations and those helicopters had rendered extraordinary service in dealing with the post-flood disaster management. However, HM Ershad’s military felt that as the Indian pilots were flying their helicopters freely over the country’s skies, they were having access to country’s security as well. Under pressure from the military, the foreign ministry was asked to call the Indian high commissioner to the foreign ministry, thank India for the helicopters and request that the helicopters be taken back because Bangladesh had managed to deal with the post-flood disaster management.

The Bangladesh side had unfortunately overlooked what the Indian high commissioner curtly pointed out when he was called to the foreign ministry. He reminded the additional foreign secretary, who had received him, that the previous night, president HM Ershad had said on the national television that Bangladesh had requested China for helicopters and, therefore, that Bangladesh did not need the Indian helicopters was not true. The Chinese helicopters had arrived soon after the Indian helicopters were returned.
Therefore, New Delhi knew better than the people of Bangladesh that HM Ershad was not trustworthy. Hence, the last thing that the Indian foreign secretary should have done was to have met him and asked him something that if revealed would have been seen, as New Delhi’s uncalled for interference in Bangladesh’s internal politics. In fact, a great many people in Bangladesh had expected New Delhi to encourage the Awami League through its foreign secretary’s visit to make efforts so that the elections would be held with all the parties. Instead, the Indian foreign secretary left no doubt to anyone in Bangladesh that New Delhi was interested only in bringing the Awami League back at any cost.

Thus for good reasons, there is a very deep-rooted perception in Bangladesh that as long as New Delhi backs the Awami League as it did in the 2014 elections, there is no way for any other party to come to power in Bangladesh. There is also many other perceptions about India arising from what people believe are its intentions to see the Awami League in power that are neither good for Bangladesh-India relations nor for India itself and its rightful ambitions to emerge as a respected regional and world power.

These perceptions, real or otherwise, also come in the way of two extremely important dimensions in Bangladesh-India relations. First, it stands in the way of the people of Bangladesh from expressing their indebtedness to India for its help in looking after 10 million Bangladeshis who had fled to India to save themselves from the Pakistani genocide in 1971 and, more importantly, for assisting Bangladesh to win the war of independence against the Pakistani military.

Therefore, for a variety of important reasons critical to Bangladesh and Bangladesh-India relations and, in fact, for India too, the statement of the Indian high commissioner augurs well for the people of Bangladesh because less than 10 per cent of them were able to vote in the last elections. Thus they are looking at the next elections to let them regain their right to vote and in that context, the high commissioner’s statement is the best news in politics that they have heard for a very long time.

The high commissioner’s statement left some to wonder why the Indian high commissioner had to assure Bangladesh about its intentions if it had no worries about its interference in past elections, particularly the January 5, 2014 one. It was like the priest suspecting someone was inside the temple eating the sweetmeat and the fruit shouting from the outside if anyone was inside and the thief inside answering loudly that he was not eating the sweetmeat or the fruit!

Nevertheless, the high commissioner’s assurance has created hope in Bangladesh that the next elections could perhaps not be a repeat of January 2014 elections for if India were not to interfere, the chances of free and fair elections in Bangladesh would be immensely bright. In addition, if New Delhi acts as the high commissioner has said it would, the two countries could expect a new direction in their bilateral relations where not just their governments but also their peoples would become the stakeholders and the beneficiaries.
Postscript: Prime minister Narendra Modi sacked Sujata Singh in January 2015, the first foreign secretary to be removed unceremoniously following that of AP Venkatswaran in 1987 by then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

M Serajul Islam is a former career ambassador.

http://www.newagebd.net/article/172...sioners-good-tidings-for-bangladesh-elections

 

[Nilgiri]

Indian high commissioner’s good tidings for Bangladesh elections

Hehehehe. Good tidings we bring for you and your kin, we wish you a merry elections and a happy new term