India's neglected neighbours
G. PARTHASARATHY
India's neighbours have often complained that New Delhi is so obsessed with Pakistan that it tends to either ignore or miss opportunities to cooperate and expand ties with them.
There are legitimate concerns in Nepal about our diplomats in Kathmandu behaving like proconsuls. Even friends of India express dismay at what they consider crude Indian "meddling" in their internal affairs.
OPPORTUNITY IN BANGLADESH
In Myanmar, we are guilty of delaying, by over 15 years, the development of a 1500 MW hydroelectric project, and of losing access to natural gas owing to inertia over determining how the gas would be transferred to India. The same inertia may work against us in Bangladesh. We could lose a historic opportunity to put our relations with our eastern neighbour on a sound footing.
Showing immense courage, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has moved to get Bangladesh declared a secular Republic. Agreements with India on mutual legal assistance on criminal matters, transfer of sentenced persons, and in combating terrorism, have been signed.
Anti-Indian Islamists from groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Harkat-ul- Jihad-ul-Islami, apart from separatists like the ULFA's Arabinda Rajkhowa and the NDFB's Ranjan Daimari, have been quietly put behind bars. Pressures in Bangladesh have forced top ULFA leaders to flee to safe havens along the Myanmar-China border.
Sheikh Hasina's visit to Delhi earlier this year produced a road-map for future cooperation. The Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, visited Dhaka on August 7 and inked an agreement to extend a soft loan of $1 billion for 14 projects in Bangladesh.
The Line of Credit will finance projects ranging from railway lines and equipment to the dredging of rivers and the supply of buses. India has also agreed to supply 250MW from its grid to Bangladesh. Our image and credibility will be compromised if the promised electricity is not made available expeditiously.
Bangladesh has, for the first time, agreed to the transit of Indian goods across its territory to the north-east, for the Palatona power project. But, given the opposition to such transit within Bangladesh, India should improve the road network within Bangladesh to Tripura, before it is accused of damaging Bangladesh's roads for transit of its goods.
The Indian bureaucracy has shown little enthusiasm for upgrading border-crossing points in remote areas. This needs to be addressed.
The agreement that India would construct a bridge across the Feni River to facilitate trade would dilute former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia's anti-India rhetoric, as it would promote border trade through her constituency.
After agreeing to a long-pending request from Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh to accord transit rights to Chittagong and Mongia ports, India should fulfill its commitment.
India has adopted an overly protectionist attitude in its approach to SAARC neighbours like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, by placing key items of interest to these neighbours in a "negative list," denying them duty-free access. This is short-sighted, given that we have a trade surplus approaching $3 billion with Bangladesh. It would be statesmanlike if India were to move expeditiously to end restrictions on import of around 61 items of specific interest to Bangladesh. The Commerce Ministry should lift these restrictions before the end of this year.
We need to consider whether we are doing our own economic development any good by allowing inefficient rubber and spices producers in Kerala, or tea planters in the Nilgiris, to undermine a larger vision of regional economic integration.
Sheikh Hasina is facing domestic criticism, spearheaded by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party led by former Prime Minister, Begum Khaleda Zia, and the Jamat-e-Islami, for allegedly having sold out to India. She will have to show that relations with India are producing tangible benefits for Bangladesh.
Under the 1974 Indira-Mujib agreement, India is required to return around 111 enclaves to Bangladesh and in return get 51 enclaves from Bangladesh. It took us 18 years to lease a small corridor of land near Tin Bigha to Bangladesh, which we were required to do under the 1974 agreement. Barely 6.5 kilometres of the 4,096 kilometre land border remains un-demarcated. Measures need to be agreed upon so that the border is expeditiously demarcated.
The "Tin Bigha Corridor' gave access in perpetuity to the Dahagram-Angarpota Enclave. It was agreed during Sheikh Hasina's visit that while Bangladesh would provide electricity to the affected population, India would build a flyover for unfettered Indian use and Bangladesh would use the ground under the flyover for its nationals. India should fulfil this commitment, regarded as a litmus test of Indian sincerity, without any delay.
India has a vital interest in ensuring that Sheikh Hasina succeeds in building a secular and economically vibrant Bangladesh.
PUT PAKISTAN ASIDE
The time has come to realise that a policy of "benign neglect" together with low-key diplomatic engagement is the only realistic way to deal with Pakistan.
Our other neighbours need to be engaged more purposefully through platforms such as the now-dormant Bay of Bengal Multi-sectoral, Technical and Economic Cooperation, since Pakistan appears determined to undermine the entire SAARC effort for economic integration.
A Secretary-level inter-disciplinary team should explore imaginative ways to engage with the other neighbours, with the National Security Adviser and the Prime Minister overseeing its work.
The author is a former High Commissioner to Pakistan
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