General Awareness Series: What's new in Indo-Bangladesh Relations

Bangladesh and India are two of the major players of SAARC since the beginning. Both the nations are the most populous countries in the subcontinent. Since the formation of Bangladesh in the East Pakistan Liberation War of 1971, India has played a major role in the politics of Bangladesh. Our relations with our eastern neighbour has been one mostly of peace, though there have been places of discord and discontent.

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Areas of discontent:

• Bangladesh has been discontented over the Ganga water sharing between the nations with the building of Farakka Barrage, which caused a shortage of water in Bangladesh during dry seasons and floods during rainy seasons when India opened the Barrage.
• There is a major issue of terrorist organisations located in both the nations like HuJI, which is causing major problems in both the nations.
• The age-old issue of illegal immigration from Bangladesh to India has been a major area of concern as usually, the immigrants are young girls who are trafficked into India and are forced into prostitution. This has increased a great risk of HIV/AIDS infection in India. Moreover, there have been cases of immigrants who served as domestic helps being involved in heinous crimes like murder and so on.
• There has been an age-long dispute over the Teen Bigha Corridor, which is a land enclave of Bangladesh. A land enclave is a part of land surrounded on all sides by the territories of a neighboring nation. Teen Bigha is one of such many enclaves between India and Bangladesh, the residents of which a major crisis wherein they are highly susceptible for getting killed accidentally for suspected illegal immigration.
• Another major issue has been the killing of Indian and Bangladeshi nationals involved in crimes like trafficking, drug smuggling and so on across the border.
• Bangladesh has always denied Indian requests for direct corridor for transport to the North-Eastern landlocked states for better strategic control over these states infested with insurgents.
• There was a territorial dispute over an uninhabited island in the Bay of Bengal, named New Moore Island, which got over when the island disappeared in 2010 under the Bay of Bengal due to rise in sea-levels.

Areas of Content/Agreements:

•    The Ganga water sharing issue was settled with a harmony agreement named the Ganges Water Sharing Agreement signed between then-Prime Minister HD Deva Gowda and the Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Haseena in 1996.
•   India and Bangladesh have agreed to join their resources together for fighting the cross-border terrorism and crimes between them. The best example was the 14-day military exercise between both the armies named Sampriti-II.
•   The major development in the Indo-Bangladesh relations came with the enclave swapping deal between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Haseena. 162 enclaves were swapped in this deal where 111 Indian enclaves and 51 Bangladeshi enclaves were swapped. This will help in ending the killing of innocent people residing in these enclaves and put an end to their identity crises. Although, the starting to this remarkable deal started in 2011, where the Teen Bigha corridor transfer happened successfully.
•   Other initiatives at friendships have been seen through the export of electricity from India to Bangladesh, the increase of Maitry Express to and fro India-Bangladesh, better transport through Ganga waters with Bangladesh allowing heavy machinery transport through Bangladeshi Ganga waters.

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Hence, we can see that although there have been areas of discontent among our nation and Bangladesh, the relation has more or less been cordial and with the resolution of the biggest dispute between India and Bangladesh, the border disputes due to the enclaves between both the nations, we can expect a much better relation with another major player in the subcontinent. This deal will ensure better cooperation and support in major issues that India is facing in modern times, like cross-border terrorism. We can look forward to better deals between the two nations with this cordial relation continuing in the future.

About the Author : Albin Jose did his schooling from Noida and completed his B.Tech from IIT Madras and currently working with an education based-firm in Mumbai. In free time, he like to read and go on treks in and around Mumbai. Through his articles he want to spread awareness among the aspirants.