India and Bangladesh must remain best friends

Publish: 10:05 PM, March 27, 2021 | Update: 10:05 PM, March 27, 2021

Indo-Bangladesh relationships ever since 1971 have been characterized by ups and downs. There was the very high period of that relationship forged during the liberation war with great understanding on two sides and mutual demonstrated friendliness. The same could be said as prevalent till the fall of the Mujib government in Bangladesh during August, 1975.

The bilateral relationships came under various forms of stresses and strains from that time till the formation of an elected government under the Awami League (AL) in the early part of the nineties. It soured again after that government was gone. But the mutual interest for building greater understanding and friendship seemed to appear with stronger force after another AL led government came to power from 2009.

There is a realization shared in the corridors of power in both countries today that they should be good neigbours inspired by principles of mutuality or give and take for the benefits of both countries. But there are also forces in both countries who are prone to eyeing each other suspiciously with concern. These parties or forces may also get elected and form governments in the two countries which are seen as not so well inclined to build and sustain yet better bilateral relationships.

The point is : whether political thoughts and actions should be allowed to be presented in a short-sighted manner to electorates or constituencies or whether all governments in the two countries regardless of their labels or philosophies or motivation, should find a common ground now in keeping the momentum towards improving relationships between India and Bangladesh.

For this needs to be the correct conduct on the whole for all : not to allow narrow views or misunderstandings to spoil Indo-Bangladesh relationships, to keep always the bigger picture in mind that the two countries need each other and neither will benefit from isolation in relation to the other. To give only one example, India needs Bangladesh to deal with its security problems in its the north-east and elsewhere and Bangladesh also needs to a higher degree India’s cooperation to get its share of 54 common rivers.

There are so many areas where cooperation and engagement and not isolation and turning away from each other is the imperative. Neither side can afford to do anything different. For example, again, Bangladesh had no water sharing treaty with India over the Ganges for a period in the eighties. It resulted in Bangladesh getting worst flows of the Ganges in the lean period at that time. But things improved substantially later on as a government come to power in Bangladesh and took the initiative to sign a treaty over the Ganges.

It is relevant to mention that Bangladesh continues to profit otherwise from the bilateral relationship. Bangladesh can import a great deal of its imported products for consumption and manufacturing cost efficiently from India. Importing from any other source would be significantly costlier with delivery time delayed. Indian markets are increasingly opening up to Bangladeshi products though Bangladesh wants more to happen in this direction. An Indian company is engaged in building a 1,300 mw power plant in Bangladesh. India also extended a loan of $ 1 billion to Bangladesh last year to build and develop its infrastructures. A sizeable amount from the loan has been turned into grant.

Bangladesh as well as India ought not to lose sight of the bigger picture which is what great benefits the two countries stand to reap from patiently and dedicatedly working to go on deepening and improving relations between them. This point was emphasised by successive Indian High Commissioner in their interactions with our journalists from time to time. They also underscored that there is a consensus in India about maintaining the present course of improving relations with Bangladesh in all respects.

The Indian Foreign Minister who visited Bangladesh recently also assured that his government remains seriously engaged in consultations with opposition political parties in his country so that the latter can understand the importance of withdrawing their opposition to the Teesta river water sharing formula.

There are skeptics in Bangladesh who may not agree with Indian High Commissioners’ views of a consensus in their country knowing that some powerful political parties and forces there are still not committed to giving Bangladesh its due. Indeed, there is still this challenge to bring them into the fold of the consensus that the High Commissioners mentioned. But whatever the realities on the ground, none can rationally ignore the merit of the view that both sides ought to only work and try to build better India-Bangladesh ties as an uninterrupted process for the benefit of both.