LATEST NEWS India no longer relies on 1 party in Bangladesh: Moudud
Friday, November 2, 2012
India no longer relies on 1 party in Bangladesh: Moudud
India no longer relies on 1 party in Bangladesh: Moudud
Moudud Ahmed
UNB, Dhaka
BNP standing committee member Moudud Ahmed on Friday said India does not rely anymore on a single party in Bangladesh to maintain good relations with its neighbour.
“There was a gap in the past between us (BNP and Congress) for the policy of previous Congress governments which had wanted to rely on a single party in Bangladesh instead of trusting people. Now their policy is changing. India no longer wants to depend on a particular party,” he said.
Moudud was addressing a roundtable meeting organised by Swadesh Manch, a pro-BNP civil platform, at the Jatiya Press Club.
He pointed out that the change in the attitude of the Congress towards Bangladesh was first visible when Indian President Pranab Mukherjee during his last visit to the country as a foreign minister of the Congress-led government met opposition leader Khaleda Zia and invited her to visit India.
Now, he said, they have realised that to maintain good relations with the people of the neighbouring country, they do not have to depend on a single political party. “They’ve come one step forward towards us (BNP) and we’ve also moved one step forward…”
“BNP wants to protect the national interest through maintaining good relations with them (India),” Moudud said, adding that in today’s world nothing can be achieved with a ‘warlike’ attitude with a neighbour.
“The only way is to talk to each other and build a relation of faith and confidence…I hope the change in the Indian policy will improve the Bangladesh-India relations, and will bring about far-reaching results to people,” he said.
About various disputes between Bangladesh-India, including the water sharing of the common rivers and Tipaimukh Dam, Moudud said, “We’ve major challenges of resolving the issues with India. Ensuring water rights is our dire need. India is building 33 small and 12 mega dams on the upstream of the 54 common rivers flowing across the two countries. More worrying is they’re also implementing a mega river linking project on the upstream.”
“Construction of Tipai dam and the water sharing of the Teesta river involves the existence of Bangladesh. We need to resolve these with the neighbour, but through maintaining a good relation at the same time,” he said.
Moudud also slammed the ministers of the Awami League government for criticising Khaleda’s ‘successful’ visits to China and India. “They’ve failed to show their wisdom. Why are you feeling so nervous,” he questioned.
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