Varun Gandhi, a member of Lok Sabha, India’s lower house of parliament, from the opposition BJP party, has come out strongly in support of the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) and the proposed Teesta water-sharing deal with Bangladesh that Manmohan Singh’s government had to back off from.
The land treaty, signed in 1974 between the two neighbours, needs to be ratified by India through a constitutional amendment. But the process has been stalled for almost four decades.
India’s Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government is ready to introduce an amendment bill in parliament, but it does not have the required majority to pass it without BJP support. On the other hand, the BJP top brass does not appear willing to allow the bill to pass, primarily due to major reservations by the party’s unit in Assam.
Varun Gandhi, however, expressed support for the LBA and Teesta deals, bdnews24.com reports quoting his article published in The Times of India newspaper tuesday.
Varun is the only child of Indira Gandhi’s younger son, Sanjay. His cousin, Rahul Gandhi is the general secretary of the Congress party.
In his article, Varun echoes Sinha, reflecting deep divisions within the BJP on the contentious issues.
“Despite being birthed through Indian midwifery, Bangladesh’s growing anti-India Islamic tilt and illegal migration to our northeast remain irritants. With a pro-India government coming to power, we squandered an opportunity to improve relations,” Varun says in his article.
Without commenting on his party’s opposition to the LBA, he continues: “Instead of operationalising the Land Boundary Protocol, dating back to the 1974 Mujib-Indira Land Boundary Agreement which resolves 6.4km of undemarcated border, and building trust, we resorted to legal hokum.
“We need to ink the Teesta water-sharing treaty, which gives Bangladesh 25% of its waters despite 40% of the river flowing through it, as well as finalise a strategic transit pact regulating access to our northeast,” he adds.