Remove The Wedges In India-Bangladesh Ties

Context: India-Bangladesh relations have been gaining positive momentum over the last decade.

Bones of contention

• Unresolved Teesta water sharing issue
• Border killings yet to stop: 2020 saw highest number of border shootings by Border Security Force.
• Questions on proposed National Register of Citizens: No clarity on deportation of illegal Muslim immigrants.
• Chinese factor: Bhutan’s withdrawal from BBIN and increasing Chinese influence in the region through cheque-book diplomacy.
• Red tapism and slow project implementation: In eight years until 2019, only 51% of first USD 800 million line of credit has been utilised.

India-Bangladesh Relations: A brief overview

• India’s political, diplomatic, military and humanitarian support during Bangladesh’s Liberation War played an important role in Bangladesh’s independence.
  • 3,900 Indian soldiers gave up their lives, and 10 million refugees took shelter in India.
• Positive developments since 1990 (when Bangladesh returned to parliamentary democracy): Moving beyond historical and cultural ties to assimilation in areas of trade, connectivity, energy, and defence.
  • Towards peaceful borders:
    • By ratifying the Land Boundary Agreement in 2015, where enclaves were swapped, allowing inhabitants to choose their country of residence.
    • Bangladesh uprooted anti-India insurgency elements from its borders.
  • Flourishing trade: Bangladesh today is India’s biggest trading partner in South Asia, with exports to Bangladesh in FY 2018-19 at $9.21 billion and imports at $1.04 billion.
  • Deepening development cooperation: With India extending three lines of credit to Bangladesh in recent years, amounting to $8 billion for construction of roads, railways, bridges, and ports.
  • Tourism prospects: One in every five tourists visiting India a Bangladeshi.
    • Medical tourism: Bangladesh accounts for more than 35% of India’s international medical patients and contributes more than 50% of its revenue from medical tourism.
  • Connectivity boost: Direct bus service between Kolkata and Agartala (passing through Bangladesh), passenger and freight routes restored, Maitri Setu bridge inaugurated etc.

Way forward: To make recent gains irreversible, both need to continue working on three Cs, cooperation, collaboration, and consolidation.

• Remove non-tariff barriers: From the Indian side for the trade to be more balanced.
• Tackling border crimes: Work towards the shared objective of no crime-no death border.
• Generosity and decisiveness: In handling water-sharing treaty.