Kamran Ahmed
The Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohon Singh is scheduled to visit Bangladesh next month. A number of treaties are expected to be signed between the two countries during the visit.
The visit of the Indian Prime Minister will take place at the invitation of Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, who travelled to India last year. She had then extended an invitation to the Indian PM to visit Bangladesh. The return visit is taking place after more than one and a half years' time.
During Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to New Delhi, a number of accords were concluded with India in areas of great interests for both the countries. The understanding reached then for providing transit facilities to India has aroused a great deal of interest, particularly among the people in Bangladesh, including also some "suspicious" among sections of them, rightly or wrongly. Such suspicious could have been largely removed, if the full details of accords and understanding that were reached between the two sides would have been made public. This would also have conformed to a Constitutional requirement in Bangladesh that all treaties of national importance -- specially of interest to the people of Bangladesh for varied reasons -- would be submitted in parliament for open discussion, scrutiny, debate and information. However, this requirement is not seen yet fulfilled.
Not that this was for the first time that such a lapse or omission or commission -- whatever way one may prefer to call it -- was made or committed. One would recall here that during the tenure of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in early 1990s, a memorandum of understanding was reportedly signed between India and Bangladesh during the visit of the then Prime Minister Khaleda Zia to New Delhi. Under that MoU, the then BNP government, as it was reported then and also subsequently in the media, gave its consent to the 'push-back' more by India of the so-called Bangladeshis, living illegally in New Delhi and other places in India, to Bangladesh. That MoU was not also placed before the then parliament.
It is in the national interests that the government - it does not matter whichever party is in power - place all agreements and accords reached with foreign countries in parliament which is a sovereign body. These must not be cloaked in secrecy which, if done so, would only provide grounds, rightly or wrongly, to the people to consider them as being detrimental to their best interests and also to those of the country.
It has been reported in the media that the government of Bangladesh would sign a full-fledged formal transit agreement with India during the upcoming visit of the Indian Prime Minister to Bangladesh. Since there is exceptional interest in this matter among people in Bangladesh, it would be wiser on the part of the government to let the people know fully well, in time, about the contents and terms of that deal.
Given the track record of relations between India and Bangladesh, there is every reason, on the part of the people here, to show their interest in knowing everything about this accord. If the people take a positive note about the forthcoming deal on the basis of their understanding about it for ensuring a win-win situation for both sides, that will definitely provide a strong ground for its smooth implementation. The broad sections of the people of Bangladesh are no fools. If they find that the proposed deal with India will, in no way, harm their best interests in the political, economic, and geopolitical senses, they will have no reason to disfavour allowing transit being given to India.
The people have, of course, the rights to know about the benefits of the proposed deal for Bangladesh in hard practical terms and to appreciate clearly, or otherwise, as to what degrees and how they would be bound by such a treaty. But they will have no way to exercise such rights if the government does not fulfill its Constitutional obligation in this regard.
Ensuring the transparency of such treaties - and for that matter, all accords with foreign countries - should be considered important to dispel all doubts and suspicious in public minds. The 'irrational' political forces will have then no substantive grounds to foment troubles, if the people in general see no harm being done to their interests by operationalsing any deal that brings benefits to the country. Hence, transparency and disclosure are so important for such matters.
http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/more.php?news_id=145806&date=2011-08-11
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