India is all set to rewrite the history of the sub-continent as it invites estranged neighbours like Bangladesh to participate in India’s growth story, by offering large credit lines to galvanise the economic reform processes in Dhaka as well as proposing to restore infrastructure, transport, trade and other linkages that were deliberately broken up after the partition of India in 1947.
As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh meets Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at Hyderabad House in the capital tomorrow, on her first visit to India as prime minister since 1996 when the path-breaking Ganges water accord was signed, the PM is likely to invoke the special relationship between Sheikh Hasina’s family and India to propose a far-reaching overhaul in ties between the two countries that will outlast changes in governments.
On the anvil are three agreements on the security front — mutual legal assistance on criminal matters, on the transfer of sentenced persons, on combating international terrorism, organised crime and illegal drug trafficking — one memorandum of understanding (MoU) on cooperation in power, as well as credit lines worth $700 million-$800 million (Rs 3,200 crore-Rs 3,660 crore).
It is not clear whether Sheikh Hasina will publicly reciprocate the PM’s sentiments of using economic levers to unlock political potential, considering the politically charged atmosphere back home, but Bangladesh sources confirmed that Dhaka had offered the “use” of its Chittagong and Ashuganj ports to India to access its land-locked north-eastern states.
Considering the Chittagong port is being redeveloped by China and Dhaka has so far consistently denied India access, the “use” of the port by Indian ships to offload goods and send them onwards to the north-east, thereby avoiding the circuitous land route via the “chicken’s neck” in Assam, is thought to be an unprecedented gesture on Bangladesh’s part.
Government sources confirmed the Indian credit lines would include the purchase of locomotives and train coaches, the laying of railway tracks within Bangladesh and the dredging of the Icchamati river in that country, that has never been done since its independence.
As for the power MoU, it will allow for the building of two power plants by India in Bangladesh and go beyond the disbursement of 100 Mw of power from India’s central grid to Bangladesh, that was agreed upon when Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni visited in October, and proposed an interlinking in the power grids between the two countries.
Sources said this meant that new transmission lines from the central and eastern grids would be laid from India to energy-starved Bangladesh, along with commensurate infrastructure, enabling the flow of power from west to east.
Similarly, as India and Sri Lanka work out power-sharing arrangements between the southern grid and the grid in Trincomalee in Sri Lanka – alongside the India-Bhutan model of setting up power plants and re-exporting electricity back into India — the first steps to integrating electricity supplies in parts of the sub-continent are becoming a reality.
Clearly, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is hoping that the restoration of economic linkages within the sub-continent, that was deliberately shattered or fell into disuse after the partition of India in 1947, will once again be used to build mutual trust and confidence between suspicious neighbours.
But there is another unstated premise on the cards: Success on the India-Bangladesh front could become a model for economic cooperation between India and Pakistan, even as they thrash out their political disaffection.
Analysts on both sides point out that Sheikh Hasina, by handing over Ulfa activists like Arabinda Rajkhowa and Raju Barua to India, has shown enormous courage by openly staking her government’s interest in improving security ties with India.
Even as she arrived in India tonight, her political opponent and Bangladesh National Party president Khaleda Zia warned that Hasina should not sell out Bangladesh’s interests during her India visit.
Government sources maintained that it is up to Sheikh Hasina to “decide the pace” at which she wants to maintain the relationship on the political, economic and security fronts.
Truth is, so much activity has already taken place behind the two sides, even as differences over the Teesta water sharing as the maritime boundary dispute continue to hog the headlines: For the first time ever, Bangladesh has allowed India access through its territory to the north-eastern state of Tripura, by allowing it to send large machinery over the 854-km inland waterway that connects Kolkata port to Ashuganj port in Bangladesh, for a power plant that is being constructed in Palatana in Tripura.
From Ashuganj, the machinery will be carried 65 km by road to the Bangladesh town of Akhaura, which is a mere 10 km from the Tripura capital, Agartala — which India has offered to connect by rail — and onwards another 60 km to Palatana.
New Delhi has returned the compliment by allowing easy transit for Bangladeshi goods to Nepal and Bhutan, via the Rohanpur-Singbad corridor, a Dhaka demand that has been pending for at least a decade. Meanwhile, Delhi has already reopened the Sabroom-Ramgarh trade route in Mizoram, another land-crossing between Demagiri to Thegamukh (also in Mizoram) and started local markets on the Meghalaya border.
As trade picks up on local, provincial and national levels and connectivity becomes an easy slogan, official sources said, “it will be much easier to bridge the political trust gap.”
To satisfy Dhaka’s major demands, such as on sharing of the Teesta waters, a joint rivers commission on the sharing of the Teesta waters would be convened soon after Hasina’s visit. “India is not adamant upon sharing the waters equally, we are willing to compromise with Dhaka,” the sources said.
