Manmohan's Visit
Indian media for meeting Dhaka's concerns
Indian media seem to be highly optimistic about a positive outcome of Indian prime minister's Dhaka visit, expecting that the event would take bilateral ties to a new trajectory which would have an impact on regional cooperation.
Most of the major Indian newspapers carried a number of opinionated articles and editorials beside reports on the planned maiden Bangladesh visit by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh from September 6 to 7.
The writings visibly noted the expectation that the visit would help the two neighbours cement their ties particularly on political and economic fronts.
Senior columnists, high profile foreign relation experts and former diplomats opined that Bangladesh's gesture to India on several sensitive issues in recent years was the key.
This largely created an atmosphere where New Delhi should reciprocate in due manner to address Bangladesh's concerns and expectations, they said.
The Telegraph carried a signed article by former Indian foreign secretary Krishnan Srinivasan yesterday with a headline "HISTORY TO BE MADE". It advised New Delhi to discard the "protectionist lobbies and vested interests" to develop ties with Bangladesh.
The article reads, "Now is the right moment, for the Indian Prime Minister has to act out of character. He has to enforce his will on recalcitrant chief ministers, ministers, and bureaucrats.
“He has to brush aside Indian protectionist lobbies and vested interests in pursuit of a larger and wider vision.
"It is a rare chance for Manmohan Singh to earn the well-merited salutes of not only India and Bangladesh but the whole subcontinent . . . if he fails, he will be derided as a busted flush.”
Srinivasan strongly supported Bangladesh's demand for duty free access of its products to Indian markets. In this regard, he said, "If India gave duty-free access to all Bangladeshi products, it would hardly affect the current overall trade imbalance that is heavily in favour of India.”
The newspaper carried an interview of a high-profile Indian diplomat Deb Mukherjee who said, "Bangladesh is in many ways India's most important neighbour, and we haven't done quite enough to raise the relationship to a partnership level.
"I expect some kind of an agreement on the Teesta. I expect the border issues of demarcation, exchange of enclaves and adverse possessions to be resolved by then.
“And I hope Dr Singh would be able to carry a trade package with him to Dhaka."
The Hindu carried an article by former Indian high commissioner to Pakistan G Parthasarathy saying high trade deficit "on which Bangladesh has a legitimate grievance will hopefully be addressed" during Manmohan's visit.
"Bangladesh has been asking us to relax our garment import curbs. While the Commerce Minister, Mr Anand Sharma, demurred, one hopes Dr Singh will show accommodation on this score," the article read.
Noted researcher Sanjaya Baru in an article in Business Standard said if a new strategic partnership took the expected step forward, it could "herald a new beginning for the eastern sub-region of South Asia including Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and India."
"Indeed, the Dhaka visit could become this year's most important foreign policy initiative by Dr Singh," read the article headlined South Asian Crossroads.
Business Line in a story says, "If Mr Jyoti Basu played a key role in fashioning the 1996 Agreement for sharing the waters of the Ganges, Chief Minister Ms Mamata Banerjee will inevitably be a key player in taking forward the India-Bangladesh relationship in areas like border management and sharing of river waters."
The article by Biswajit Dhar of New Delhi-based Research and Information System for Developing Countries is titled “Making a Trade-friendly Border”.
There, Singh's visit assumes importance as it gives hope to redeem the pledges that the two countries made to promote bilateral economic relations during the January 2010 visit of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, it said.
Nepal-based journal Himal in a story said, "Now India needs to respond to what Dhaka desperately needs: the promise of adequate payment for transit through Bangladesh to reach the Indian Northeast, and the dropping of trade barriers so that the balance of trade - currently in New Delhi's favour - will correct itself.
"On the ground, beyond resolving the niggling border disputes, New Delhi must also put an end to the shootings at the frontier by Border Security Force (BSF), which continue to kill innocent economic migrants and householders.
"If New Delhi's political class can now look to India's long-term interests and rein in its sometimes rigid bureaucracy, and if Sheikh Hasina is successful in overriding knee jerk anti-Indianism - as looks likely - a new era of economic growth could well be in the offing in the Ganges - Brahmaputra (Padma-Jamuna) region.”
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