Editorial
We have been let down
However, we remain hopeful
Bangladesh-India relations are far too important and goodwill between us far too precious for us to judge our ties on the basis of just one trip.
Even so, the critical importance attached to the Manmohan Singh visit cannot be lost on anyone. In the first place, it was the first bilateral visit by an Indian head of government to Bangladesh in twelve years. In the second, it followed a major initiative by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as manifested by a number of significant new openings she made during her trip to Delhi in early 2010. The initiative, as we recall, was hailed as historic by the Indian political leadership and various sections of Indian society and the media. In the third, the Indian leader's visit, coming twenty months after the summit in Delhi, was not a sudden happening and the two sides had ample opportunities to work on the issues involved. For its part, Bangladesh spontaneously addressed some major Indian concerns, especially security. These were bold steps which the Indian government cannot undervalue in any manner.
It is against this background that we in Bangladesh had expected an equally major reciprocity from India on its prime minister's visit. Obviously, one of the key issues where ground-breaking progress had been expected was a sharing of the Teesta waters. It was a crucial subject, seeing that serious, long-drawn talks on water-sharing had been going on. Despite Ms. Mamata Banerjee's reservations on the issue (and she had been consulted thrice by the Indian government on the details of the draft deal), we had reasons to expect a bold step from Delhi's side.
We welcome India's decision to have 46 Bangladeshi items removed from its negative list. While this zero tariff situation cheers us, we must reiterate Bangladesh's fundamental position, which is that India, being a large, economically powerful country, should go for sweeping steps towards allowing all our items into its markets rather than take a piecemeal approach to the issue. Why such a bold move has not been made yet remains a mystery for us.
The protocol on land boundary is welcome as it will greatly remove some of our sore points. The framework agreement will have to be more seriously examined by us before we comment.
We trust that the Teesta waters will be back on the agenda soon and that Delhi will be able to offer us a fair deal, remembering that anything else will not be acceptable to us.
The expectation of a historic breakthrough has not materialised. It will definitely cast a negative shadow on our ties. But we remain hopeful that India will reciprocate the vision and boldness that Bangladesh showed in January 2010.
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