Smruti S. Pattanaik replies: India's decision to provide grant and loan is going to benefit both India and Bangladesh. These grants and loans are for building roads and other communication networks that would facilitate transit to the north-eastern parts of India. Transit through Bangladesh has been a long standing request from India.
Under Awami League regime, action against anti-India activities has been taken. Some insurgent leaders have been arrested and handed over to India. Both the countries are working out mechanisms to address the issue of illegal migration as it includes illegal trafficking of women and children. Illegal migration affects India’s security and economic and social stability. In the absence of any mechanism to address this, the two governments agreed for joint border patrol which started last year in July. Apart from this, the BSF needs to be more vigilant to prevent unauthorised migration.
This book brings out perspectives from India and Bangladesh on various important issues of bilateral cooperation. Bringing together scholars from two premier think tanks in India and Bangladesh who play an important role in providing policy inputs, generating informed debates and discussion and act as an interface between policy makers and the people, this is the first effort of its kind.
Anand Kumar: Illegal migration from Bangladesh is a serious threat to security of India. It can be checked only if central and state governments decide to act in tandem. At present there is little political will. Also, there is less focus on the issue because its impact is seen in the long-term. Moreover, the illegal migrants are now spread all over India. As a result, they no more provoke the kind of agitation that was seen earlier in states like Assam.
Trafficking of drugs takes place overwhelmingly through land borders followed by sea and air routes. Given the vulnerability of the borders to drug trafficking, India has tried to tackle the problem through the strategy of drug supply and demand reduction, which involves enacting laws, co-operating with voluntary organisations, securing its borders and coasts by increasing surveillance, as well as seeking the active cooperation of its neighbours and the international community.
In order to obviate myopic policies that could jeopardise the bonhomie in India-Bangladesh relations, the technical underpinnings of the project need to be jointly undertaken by both countries.
Anand Kumar replies: The previous BNP-led government in Bangladesh was opposed to the construction of Tipaimukh Dam. The present Sheikh Hasina government is currently in discussion with the Indian government over the construction of this dam. As a result, its stand so far is not clear. India, on the other hand, is not opposed to the construction of this dam which is run-of-the-river project. Hence, no water will be diverted and construction of this dam would not harm Bangladeshi interest.
India should implement its agreements with Bangladesh in a time bound manner, fast track trans-border infrastructural developmental schemes and address the interests of the common people of Bangladesh.
India should earnestly try to accommodate and address the legitimate concerns of Bangladesh by agreeing in principle that it will not let water flows go below a mutually agreed upon level.
India shares 4095 kilometres of land and river boundaries with Bangladesh. The border is porous, criss-crossed by rivers and hilly and mountainous terrain which has made the guarding of this border extremely difficult. Border is a political construction. People living in the villages adjacent to the border do not subscribe to any concept of nationality or recognise the boundaries of the nation state. For the people living in the ‘borderlands’, a non-existent line bars them from leading the natural existence they have led for centuries.
The people-to-people connectivity has the potential to actually transform the relationship between India and Bangladesh and take it to a higher level of cooperation and understanding.
Tipaimukh Dam: Some Myths, Some Facts
In order to obviate myopic policies that could jeopardise the bonhomie in India-Bangladesh relations, the technical underpinnings of the project need to be jointly undertaken by both countries.