At the third Joint Consultative Commission meeting, jointly chaired by Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Bangladeshi counterpart Abul Hassan Mahmood on September 20 in New Delhi, though various important issues were discussed, no progress was made on the contentious Land Boundary Agreement (LBA). When the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets Prime Minister Shiekh Hasina on September 27 on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, the LBA is unlikely to be on their agenda too.
But it is important to urgently bring to the table and resolve the 1974 agreement. Dhaka ratified the Land Boundary Protocol in 2011; India has yet to do so.
By ratifying the LBA, land in 111 Indian enclaves in Bangladesh, and 51 Bangladeshi enclaves on the Indian side, can be exchanged. This will reduce the difficulties in administering border enclaves, help delineate India’s troubled border, and improve the living conditions of local inhabitants. The LBA affects the borders of five Indian states — Assam, West Bengal, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Tripura.
Meanwhile, due to the failure in delineating the border, illegal activities such as smuggling continue, the estimated annual turnover from cattle smuggling across the India-Bangladesh border alone is Rs200 crore.
Earlier this month, the Indian daily Anandabazar Patrika alleged that after 2011, the funds have been channelled from West Bengal across the border to the Bangladeshi opposition party Jamaat-e-Islami. If this allegation is true, it indicates how the region has become a corridor for illegal activities.
Delineating the border will also help fix responsibility for illegal crossings by people. Odhikar, a Bangladesh-based human rights organisation, has documented cases of nearly 1,000 Bangladeshi nationals killed by the Border Security Force over the last decade for transgressing the border. An important reason for the illegal crossings is the inability of people living in the border enclaves to get valid documents, because of a lack of visa offices or infrastructure in the area.
India’s acceptance of the United Nations Permanent Court of Arbitration’s decision of July 8, 2014 on the Bay of Bengal maritime boundary dispute — 106,613sq-km of a total of 172,220sq-km was awarded to Bangladesh — indicates that India recognises the importance of a settled boundary. Instead, it brings benefits. After the resolution of the maritime boundary, it has become possible for Indians and Bangladeshis to fish in their respective zones, as well as explore oil and gas reserves in this region.
However, the ratification of the LBA has remained on-hold also because of opposition to the agreement by the Trinamool Congress, the Asom Gana Parishad, and by the Bharatiya Janata Party, in the past. They have argued that India will lose a total of 10,000 acres of land in the exchange of enclaves. The other worry is that if India willingly cedes land, it will encourage secessionist groups such as the Muslim United Liberation Tigers of Assam and the United People’s Democratic Solidarity, which are active in this region.
In the past, though former Congress-led governments had a good rapport with the Awami League, they lacked the numbers to ratify the agreement. The BNP, which ruled the country on and off for 14 years along with its principal ally the Jamaat-e-Islami, allegedly supported leaders of the United Liberation Front of Asom and other secessionist organisations active in northeast India. In both instances, the LBA could not be passed.
However, unlike the composition of past governments, both Narendra Modi and Sheikh Hasina have the numbers required in their governments to push policies such as the LBA, and thereby deepen the bilateral ties. Modi certainly appears to be interested in working on neighbourhood relationships — he invited Saarc country heads for his swearing-in ceremony, and India and Bangladesh have stepped up their diplomatic engagement – Dhaka was Sushma Swaraj’s first official solo destination.
The Bangladesh government too has taken concrete steps to improve the relationship: It granted a request by the Indian government in June this year to allow transit of heavy project equipment and turbines through the Chittagong-Ashuganj route, which has helped Tripura’s gas-fired Palatana power plant to be commissioned. Tripura will become India’s first power-surplus state by the end of the year, and India will supply 100MW of free power to Bangladesh.
Bangladesh has also allowed Indian transporters to carry rice to Tripura using the Ashuganj river port. The Indian government is constructing a road from Akhaura in Bangladesh to Agartala for goods transportation. Transportation of goods between mainland India and the northeast through Bangladesh will reduce costs and provide connectivity, and India’s land-locked northeastern states will benefit greatly.
Modi must now get the chief ministers of eastern states on board to ratify the LBA, especially Mamata Banerjee and Assam’s Tarun Gogoi. One way to ensure Banerjee’s support can be by offering the cash-strapped West Bengal a fiscal package. The state’s debt burden is projected to reach Rs275,000 crores by March 2015. More than 70% of its revenues are consumed by debt-servicing. Since 2011, Banerjee has been pushing for a three-year moratorium on the interest payment, which can save the state more than Rs60,000 crores. With a robust fiscal package, she might reconsider her opposition to the LBA.
During Swaraj’s visit to Dhaka, the Bangladesh government brought up the possibility of giving special permits to workers from Bangladesh. This mechanism has worked, for example, in the United Kingdom’s approach to migrants from Poland after the UK successfully introduced a Worker Registration Scheme in May 2004. In India, the issuing of special permits is under the purview of the central government, and Modi must push for such documentation as a long-term solution to the problem of illegal migration. It will also allow remittances through legal channels.
The LBA has now been referred to the new members of India’s Parliament Standing Committee before it can be presented in the Lok Sabha. The next session of parliament is due in December. Meanwhile, the Modi government must focus on this issue and move it forward.
