At last India has decided to settle some of its dues with history with Bangladesh, by agreeing in principle to cede control over some 17,000 acres of territory as part of a larger, comprehensive agreement, in which the remaining tiny part of the 4,096 km-long boundary will be demarcated, while several pockets of adverse possessions and enclaves claimed by both sides are likely to be settled on an “as-is-where-is” basis.
The decision to settle the matter is believed to have been taken at the highest political levels in India, on the eve of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to India earlier this week, and is in keeping with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s view that small disagreements cannot be allowed to come in the way of a dynamic relationship with Delhi’s eastern neighbour.
Home Secretary GK Pillai confirmed to Business Standard that India, during the home secretary-level talks in Dhaka in early December had offered such a comprehensive agreement to Dhaka – demarcating the remaining 6.1 km of the 4,096-km long boundary, plus settling the matter of adverse possessions and enclaves — and had received a positive response from the Bangladeshi government.
India holds as many as 111 enclaves or tiny bits of land within Bangladesh territory, amounting to some 17,000 acres since the partition of the subcontinent in 1947 (initially held by Pakistan, and after 1971, with Bangladesh), while Bangladesh holds some 51 enclaves amounting to about 7,000 acres in India.
It is believed that India has in principle agreed that it will cede control over its enclaves, even though the difference is about 10,000 acres in Bangladesh’s favour. Meaning, once the negotiations are complete, the Indian enclaves within Bangladeshi territory would be absorbed within Bangladesh and vice-versa.
Officials on both sides agreed that such a path-breaking agreement was on the cards, but it would take between 18-24 months to iron out the details. India needs a constitutional amendment on its part to formalise the boundary demarcation. A joint land boundary working group meeting is expected to be held soon.
In addition, both sides agreed during Hasina’s visit that a flyover would be built to connect Bangladesh territory with the Angarpota-Dahagram enclave, separated by a tiny bit of land called the Teen Bigha corridor (literally, 3 bighas, or the size of a football field), so that Bangladeshis would have 24-hour access to their own territory.
Since Bangladeshis can only exit and enter Angarpota-Dahagram from sunrise to sunset, as India controls the Teen Bigha corridor, the matter had snowballed into a huge issue within Bangladesh.
“The India-Bangladesh relationship has been marred by such silliness over the last several decades, thereby casting a large shadow over the entire relationship,” said noted South Asian analyst BG Verghese.
Verghese pointed out that two Indian prime ministers, Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, had in fact promised to their counterparts, erstwhile Pakistani prime minister Feroz Khan Noon in 1958 and Mujib-ur Rahman in 1974, in their respective land boundary agreements, that both sides would transfer or “exchange” these small bits of enclaves held in “adverse possession” by the other side.
But nothing of the sort happened, as Left Front politics within West Bengal – some of the intervening pieces of land were said to be “controlled” by the Forward Bloc, even as litigants hit the courts seeking stays on the matter – prevented a diplomatic resolution.
But with the UPA’s second coming, and the Left Front out of the picture, Delhi has now decided that it will move to decisively resolve the matter, sources said.
Sources pointed out that with Sheikh Hasina in power in Bangladesh, “a historic opportunity presented itself, and may not come again. It is better to resolve these issues now and make India-Bangladesh relations a model for South Asia.”
As for the demarcation of the 4,096-km boundary between the two countries (262 km in Assam, 443 km in Meghalaya, 2,216.7 km in West Bengal, 318 km in Mizoram and 856 km in Tripura), only 6.1 km remain to be demarcated, of which two parts are riverine and the third is a tiny piece of land.
The riverine boundaries are related to the Mohuri and Sui rivers, both of which flow into Bangladesh from India, but whose ownership has been contested by both sides. While Delhi has offered that the median of the river be used to divide it up, the problem is that the river changes course every year as it floods the plain and therefore, the mid-point of the river changes as well.
Over the last many years, Indian and Bangladeshi officials have contested ownership of the rivers, citing maps that date as long back as 1914. But with the new bonhomie between the two nations, it is now being said that these issues will also be quickly resolved.
