India-Bangladesh bilateral relations _ the way forward

All deliberations on the state of the South Asian subcontinent must begin with a remembrance of history. In this month of February, as Bengalis on this side of the political divide recall the sacrifices made in defense of the Bengali language in 1952, it is essentially history we go back to. On a bigger scale, the links which Bangladesh and India have with each other are rooted in history, first in the pre-1947 scheme of things and then in light of the emergence of Bangladesh as an independent state, with India's moral and material support, in 1971.


Indira-Mujib era
Bangladesh and India set off on their journey together in the heady times of the early 1970s, when the world was a more innocent place but where geopolitics, as it worked in 1971, was a much more complicated affair. The assistance provided by India to a fledgling Bangladesh, in the form of a Joint Indo-Bangladesh Command to ensure a total and full surrender of the Pakistan occupation army in December 1971, is remembered gratefully by Bangladesh's people. And remembered too are the cooperative endeavors of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Prime Minister Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in making possible a withdrawal of Indian troops from Bangladesh.

The era of Indira Gandhi and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman will be recalled for the idealism, shaped by mutual respect and recognition of each other's commitment to values, which set the tone for India-Bangladesh ties to be forged in the times ahead. Of course, not everything was easy. The era of darkness we in Bangladesh went through in the years after 1975 and wallowed in for twenty one years, was also a point in time when dents were caused in the relationship between Dhaka and Delhi through the rise of rightwing, indeed communal forces in Bangladesh. That apart, the long and disturbingly lingering bottlenecks in such areas as Ganges water sharing threatened to drive a wedge between the two nations. The Ganges is no more a point of contention today.

That is history, or part of it. But despite the irritants, despite the rocks along the road, there was always heritage, a commonality of purpose which has kept the old subcontinent going. For all of us in this region so rudely shaken and disturbed by the partition of 1947, the subcontinent remains home, in the soul and in the heart. The heart, as Blaise Pascal said once, has its reasons.

Today, as we seek to reflect on the state of relations between India and Bangladesh, especially in the nine years since the present government in Bangladesh ascended to power in 2009, we remain conscious of reality. And reality is an acknowledgment of the good that has happened, of how much of it remains to be carried through to a successful conclusion.

Border haats
Here in Bangladesh, we look across the frontier and we like much of what we see, much of what has happened. When we speak of the India-Bangladesh chamber of commerce and industry, the immediacy of economic links manifests itself. We in Bangladesh are recipients of goods coming our way from India. In like measure, we would like to see our goods make an impression on Indians. Of course, we do not expect all the goods we produce to enter the Indian market, for India, being the larger of the two states in geography and resources, has the ability to offer its own products to its people. But we do expect a little more of our goods to make their way into the Indian market.

There is in us, here in Bangladesh, a sense of optimism which defines our ties with India. We value our sovereignty like any other nation across the globe. To this end, in the last decade or so we have noted with happiness such endeavors as border haats enabling people in both India and Bangladesh not merely to partake of goods of necessarily consumer value but also to interact with one another as people who may inhabit two different countries but who share a common history.

Twenty two deals
Relations between Delhi and Dhaka have historically come wrapped in tangibles. Proof of it is to be had in the nearly two dozen, twenty two in fact, agreements and MOUs signed by the governments of India and Bangladesh during the visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to Delhi in April 2017. Affixing signatures on 22 agreements is a daunting task, to the extent of raising the question of what or if other areas remain to be handled. Of course there are other areas, but these 22 deals we speak of simply added new substance to India-Bangladesh relations.

The substance came in the form of deals in defense, nuclear energy, media and cyber security. That the two countries share concerns related to the present and the future has been acknowledged through an initialing of these agreements. Add to that the economic assistance which Bangladesh has been the recipient of through these agreements. $4.5 billion in terms of development credit is a whopping sum. And then comes Delhi's offer of additional, defence-specific aid for Dhaka.

As we reflect on these and similar developments in India-Bangladesh relations, we remain aware of history, of the perennial lesson it offers --- which is that every nation, in its dealings with other nations, is motivated by enlightened self-interest. That is the truth. A bigger truth is the degree to which morality will or can define bilateral relations. We in Bangladesh witnessed this morality when a long-overdue land boundary agreement was signed by the governments of the two countries on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Dhaka in 2015. What Indira Gandhi and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman began in 1974 came into fruition in 2015.

That, one can safely suggest, was history at work. It was an argument in defense of the requirement for nations to come together, despite some hurdles on the way, despite what appear to be changing perspectives for governments and countries around the globe. And cooperation has also underpinned Dhaka-Delhi relations through such measures as BIMSTEC and BCIM.

In these nine years, then, for all the changes in government in Delhi, Indian policy toward Bangladesh has been a continuity since the departure of the Manmohan Singh dispensation and the arrival of the Narendra Modi government. For Bangladesh, under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, diplomacy has rested on consistency in policy toward India, of course on the understanding that mutual respect will govern relations between the two countries.

The future
Where does this engagement with the present take Bangladesh and India in the future?Diplomacy is of course based on national principles, but diplomacy offers the scope for changes in perspectives too. In other words, certain issues may arise which bring two friendly nations to a difficult pass. In the India-Bangladesh case, the Farakka issue is remembered for the long bitterness it engendered between the two countries.

Likewise, killings on the border of Bangladeshis at the hands of India's Border Security Force have caused outrage among people in Bangladesh. Such issues over time get resolved, but other issues, in line with changing global priorities emerge. The bottom line here is simple: relations between nations are subject to change, modification and enhancement. But where neighbors are involved, the need is for objectivity to define conditions in order to drive, sometimes reorder, the state of things.

Which of course is to suggest that in the times ahead, India and Bangladesh can take steps to enhance the quality of cooperation in such areas as education and health and of course much more.

Media cooperation
A significant area where much remains to be done is the media. More than three decades have gone by since such endeavors as the South Asian Media Association (SAMA) and its successor organization South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA) sought to enhance media cooperation in the region. Between Bangladesh and India, a certain gap has persisted in links between the mainstream media in the two countries. The media in Bangladesh have focused regularly and in detailed manner on India.

For their part, Indian media based especially in Delhi have not quite matched the Bangladesh media. Perhaps because Dhaka is at quite a geographical remove from Delhi? Media interaction between the two countries, through agreements on exchanges of articles and other write-ups and journalists' exchange programs at the junior and mid-levels can offer the people of the two countries an objective view of politics and diplomacy in their front yards.

In combating religious extremism and terrorism, Dhaka and Delhi have made contributions in remarkable ways. The results have been encouraging. Even so, the two countries need to be in a state of alert to thwart any attempts to undermine stability within their territories or in the border regions.

No Bangladeshi TV channels in India
A constant refrain in Bangladesh has related to the failure of Bangladeshi television channels to make inroads into the Indian media market. The result has been a lopsided affair in that while Bangladeshis are on a regular basis brought into contact with Indian politics and other areas of fundamental human and social activity in India, Indians remain in the dark about Bangladesh because they do not have access to Bangladeshi television channels.

Service providers in Bangladesh complain of exorbitant rates of distribution and exhibition of Bangladeshi television channels demanded of Dhaka, a fact which makes it impossible for any dent in the Indian media market to be made by Bangladesh's television channels. It is in this area that the governments and media of the two countries can purposefully focus on.

Areas related to intellectual activity need to be opened as much wide as possible, especially for Bangladesh. While Indian books, magazines and journals are available for readers in Bangladesh, the same cannot be said about Bangladeshi books, magazines and journals in India. Much good can be done here in the days ahead. Exchange programmes, related to scholars, between the two countries, with emphasis on leading universities in India and Bangladesh will lend new weight to bilateral ties.

Rohingyas and Delhi's indifference
On the Rohingya situation, Bangladesh has felt disappointed with what has been perceived in Dhaka as Indian indifference to Bangladesh's fraught position brought on by an influx of tens of thousands of refugees forced out of their homes in Myanmar. With neither China nor India seemingly ready to appreciate Bangladesh's worries over the Rohingya problem, Dhaka has been unable to garner support for its position in the UN and elsewhere. In this context, India will yet be expected to exert its clout over Myanmar and induce its leadership into creating the conditions necessary for the Rohingyas to go back to safety in their country.

China's OBOR
On China's One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative, which Bangladesh has joined and India has stayed away from, there is the potential for misunderstanding between the two countries in the future. One remembers that Bangladesh's recent defence deals with China caused not a little irritation in India. The possibility of friction over OBOR can best be avoided through both Delhi and Dhaka pooling their resources in ensuring that no policy of single-nation economic dominance, which fear has already taken hold of diplomatic and security experts in South Asia and in the United States, takes centre stage.

Expectations of AL and BJP
Finally, Bangladesh and India, up against the creeping shadow of political illiberalism and religious intolerance, must ensure in the interest of the future that liberal democracy sustains itself. Fanaticism happens to be a severe ailment in both countries, and as long as it is not swatted down firmly in Delhi and Dhaka, the ramifications will be felt all across South Asia.

No one expects the Awami League to preside over the growth of a communal polity in Bangladesh. Everyone hopes the Bharatiya Janata Party will not pave the road for Hindutva to supplant Nehruvian pluralism in India. These are issues India and Bangladesh must not shy away from handling in tough ways.

And Teesta?
By the way, let us remember that there is a crucial and critical issue which appears to have been placed on the back burner. It cannot be there for long or for all time. We speak of the Teesta water sharing problem, to be sure.  
(The article is a paper presented by the writer at the Bangladesh-India Media Dialogue 2018, a three-day program of interaction between Indian and Bangladeshi journalists organized by the Institute of Conflict, Law & Development Studies (ICLDS) in Dhaka. The dialogue ended on 21 February.)

The writer is Associate Editor, The Asian Age