On the eve of their departure from India in 1947, British colonial power had a parting gift for the Indian sub-continent. They created a new state of Pakistan by partitioning India into three parts. Two of the three parts separated by a distance of nearly 1700 miles between them became the new State of Pakistan. Human history knows no more painful and disastrous punishment than this stroke of imperialism. Historically, geographically, linguistically and culturally, the two parts of this nascent state of Pakistan stood at two opposite poles. However, the wonder is not the cartographic engineering of the foreign rulers, the bigger wonder is that these two totally divergent parts remained together for nearly a quarter of a century before East Pakistan fought a heroic war and declared its independence in 1971, albeit after making unprecedented sacrifice for its freedom. Thus Bangladesh came into existence on the eastern fringe of the Indian sub-continent.
Strained relations between India and Bangladesh are essentially the fallout of Indo-Pak acrimony over the years and the poisonous culture of communalism spread by rabid Islamic extremist ideology of organizations like Jamaat-i-Islami. Dispute over delineation of border, sharing of the water of rivers flowing through the territories of both countries, migration of people and illegal infiltration and above all anti-social and anti-state elements finding safe havens across the natural border remained major irritants between the two countries. In later years, when religious extremists remained in power in Bangladesh, Pakistani intelligence tried to establish its moles among the Bangladeshis who would become spoil sport for Indo-Bangladesh cordial relationship. However, Bangladeshis generally rejected religious fanaticism and voted a moderate and secularist party to power under the leadership of Sheikh Hasina, the daughter of martyred Banga Bandhu, Sheikh Mujib-ur-Rahman, the outstanding Bangla leader and the pioneer of Bangladesh’s struggle for freedom from the tentacles of Punjabi dominated regime of West Pakistan.
Successive Indian Governments have endlessly tried to win over the people and the Governments in Bangladesh as friends and colleagues. A fundamental principle of India’s foreign policy has been that of establishing good-neighbourly and cordial relations with her immediate neighbours. Bangladesh being the part of original Indian province of Bengal, was not looked upon by India as a foreign country in real sense of the term, Even now after decades of becoming a sovereign state, Bangladesh has retained a large percentage of Hindu population while it has been effaced in West Pakistan. It is in the background of these relations that Prime Minister Modi has taken an initiative of infusing new life and vibration in the entire corpus of Indo-Bangladesh relationship. Fortunately, Bangladesh has a very outstanding, realistic and cooperative Prime Minister at the helm of affairs who realises the importance of her country’s friendly relations with India. She attended the oath-taking ceremony of Modi and received special attention of the Government of India not only as the head of the Government of an important member of SAARC but also as one whose political ideology and background carry commonality with that of the Indian Union.
We highly appreciate Prime Minister Narendra Modi giving a practical proof of India’s large heartedness in her relations with Bangladesh. The most impressive success of his visit to Bangladesh is the agreement between the two Governments to amicably and reasonably resolve the forty-one year long border dispute between the two countries. They have also resolved to exchange numerous enclaves dotting the large border line and the people inhabiting these enclaves had tremendous physical difficulties facing them to exist in conditions in which they were forced to fend for themselves. As many as 22 agreements were signed by the two sides during the visit of the Indian Prime Minister. Indian Prime Minister has offered a hefty amount of 2 billion US dollars by way of aid to Bangladesh for improvement of infrastructure and other developmental activities. There is much more in the pipeline and Bangladesh Prime Minister has thanked her Indian counterpart for India’s gesture of good will towards her.
The biggest achievement of Modi’s visit to Bangladesh lies in winning the goodwill and cordiality of Bangladesh as a respectful neighbourly country with whom we have deep and solid historical, cultural and trade relations. Strengthening of bilateral relations between two is a guarantee to peace and tranquillity in the region. Economic development can be achieved only in an atmosphere of peace. The example of Indo-Bangladesh friendship can be emulated by other SAARC countries which will ultimately contribute to the health and good going of the SAARC as a whole. Bangladesh, as a responsible state, has promised not to give quarter to the insurgents in some of the Eastern States of India who manage to find hideouts in parts of Bangladesh. In the same vein, Bangladesh will discourage illegal and clandestine migration or infiltration on both sides of the border. Equally significant is the agreement between the two heads of the Government to resolve the water sharing issue amicably. Some progress has been made in this area and some more remains to be made.
In final analysis, the visit of the Indian Prime Minister has been very satisfying and historic. It will convince the world that India does not harbour hegemonic designs over her neighbours just because she is big in size, population or economy. Bangladesh, with long border with India as well as China, is strategically very important for India. Bangladesh understands it and that is the reason why it also concedes India’s strategic concerns in the waters of the Bay of Bengal.
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