Indo-Bangladesh relations - time for a new begining

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be in Dhaka for a 2 day visit on Sep 6, and commentators on both sides are optimistic. There is a range of issues that are on the plate, as columnist Haroon Habib says in The Hindu today..


Importantly, for a govt bruised by its mishandling of the Anna Hazare issue, and widely perceived to have become lame duck prematurely, this presents a great opportunity to display energy in policy initiatives.


The big bang policy initiative would really be to resolve the enclaves issue, once and for all. It would involve a small notional (not real) loss of territory to India, but would end a needless issue once and for all.


The other big bang, if the govt shows imagination, would be to start work on a work permit system for Bangladeshi workers in India. In one stroke, it would create a vested interest in Bangladesh for a legal structure, as opposed to the tacit accpetance of illegal immigration today. As the experience with all states sharing borders with less prosperous countries show, economic immigration is almost impossible to stop through physical barriers. The best outcome is to manage the flows through creation of cooperative structures..

If the above is still some distance away in terms of imagination, what is clearly on the agenda is the larger issue of transit. By expanding the issue from a simple Indian access to its North East via Bangladesh to one of regional connectivity, encompassing Bhutan and Nepal, credit goes to Bangladesh and Sheikh Hasina for showing imaginative leadership. A larger regional cooperative structure establishes many more nodes of political support, expands the game, and importantly, diminishes the virulence of opposition from parties in Bangladesh that react impulsively to any Indian deal.

The PM would do well to address the fundamental point there though. In the last 2 decades, India's Bangladesh policy has been hostage to who is in power there. Given that Sheikh Hasina isnt on the throne for life, it is mighty important for us to build bridges across the spectrum. This visit would as good a time as any to start the process.