Obstructed by opposition and regional parties in India for four decades, the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) is likely to be implemented now that West Bengal’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) has withdrawn its objection to it.
“We have informed the central government that we have no objection to the exchange of enclaves on the basis of the Land Boundary Agreement with Bangladesh. This is our official stand and I convey it to you today,” BBC Bangla yesterday quoted TMC boss Mamata Banerjee as saying at a programme in the Cooch Behar district of India.
A formal response from the Government of Bangladesh has not yet been announced.
The TMC’s approval of the deal paves the way for the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to move for the required changes to India’s constitution needed to implement the deal.
The last time the BJP ruled India while the Awami League was ruling Bangladesh, the two countries came to blows over the enclaves, formally known as adversely held territory.
The TMC, which governs West Bengal, stood as a major hurdle to implementing a bilateral agreement. The protocol signed between the Bangladesh and Indian Governments in 2011, was not ratified by India’s parliament.
In September, 2013 TMC MPs blocked Manmohan Singh’s UPA II government from getting the bill passed in India’s upper house, even blocking the then external affairs minister Salman Khurshid from tabling the bill in the first place.
The BJP, which stoutly opposed the bill while in opposition, has reversed its stand on the agreement. On Sunday Narendra Modi declared in Assam that his government would ratify the LBA.
On December 1 this year, a standing committee led by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and including TMC MP Sugata Bose recommended that the LBA be implemented, representing a TMC volte-face.
The TMC’s nod to the agreement paves the way for a formal settlement of the matter expected during a scheduled visit by the Indian prime minister to Bangladesh in the new year.
The swap
According to the bill, Bangladesh will exchange 51 enclaves, covering 7,110 acres and India will give up 111 enclaves, measuring 17,160 acres.
While 14,215 people reside in Bangladeshi enclaves in India, 37,269 people reside in Indian enclaves in Bangladesh.
Diptiman Sengupta, secretary, Indo-Bangla Enclave Exchange Coordination committee said: “Our latest survey in November, 2014 says 149 families having 734 people want Indian citizenship.”
An Indian parliamentary committee report, tabled on Monday, had no dissent note from the TMC and party sources said Sugata was able to convince Mamata on agreeing to the deal.
Shashi Tharoor, who heads the committee, said the decision was unanimous. Sounding confident that the bill would sail through parliament, he said: “We are merely regularising the reality on the ground.”
The Indian government is now expected to bring a bill to amend the constitution to make the necessary changes to India’s official boundary with Bangladesh. The Constitution (119th Amendment) Bill, 2013 is aimed at ratifying the LBA.
Past troubles
The agreement, initiated by the first Awami League government in 1974, has had to cross many hurdles.
The last time an Awami League government in Bangladesh and a BJP government in India concurrently ruled the two neighbouring countries, military hostilities erupted over border differences.
Between April 15 and 19, 2001 the worst fighting since the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971 broke out over a corridor of land and enclaves on the disputed Bangladesh – India border.
Indian forces initiated attacks on Tamabil in Sylhet and later carried out incursions into Bangladeshi territory at Boraibari village.
The attack left three Bangladeshi border guards dead and five injured. Sixteen Indian border guards were killed and two injured. An estimated 10,000 civilians fled the area after some 24 were wounded in the shooting.
The LBA was signed on May 16, 1974 soon after the independence of Bangladesh to find a solution to the complex nature of border demarcation.
It was ratified by the Bangladesh government in 1974. Though India’s cabinet granted approval for it in 1974, the pact was not ratified by India because it involved the cession of territory.