July 5, 1999
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BANGLADESH Busload of Will India's bus service to Dhaka's seen as a positive step towards easing the strained bilateral relations. By Avirook Sen
There are other irritants that the trip could help ease. India has always emphasised the need for a prosperous Bangladesh. The reasoning: it would mean less people crossing over to India illegally in search of a livelihood. With Bangladesh posting a 5 per cent agricultural growth this year, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) expects a decline in illegal immigration. "The Bangladeshis must understand we want to help them prosper to guard against the pressure illegal immigration puts on our economy. Sometimes, the message is misconstrued and we are seen to be acting hegemonically," says an MEA official. Bangladesh's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Abul Hasan Choudhury, however, disagrees. "The alleged illegal immigration is not an issue at all," he says. One issue on which problems persist is insurgency. India has often said insurgents operating in the north-east are aided by Bangladesh-based ISI agents. There are other points of conflict. About a year ago, Anup Chetia, general secretary of the banned United Liberation Front of Asom, was arrested in Dhaka for carrying a false passport. Chetia is now facing trial there while he has been charged with many heinous acts in India. India's diplomatic effort to get Chetia repatriated has got nowhere as yet: the two countries do not even have an extradition treaty. There is then the matter of trade imbalance. Indian exports -- from sugar to soaps -- to Bangladesh amount to around Rs 2,500 crore a year. Bangladeshi goods, in contrast, don't command a tenth of that figure in India. A point that Hasina didn't fail to make during Vajpayee's visit. The Indian Government has now agreed "in principle" to allow duty-free access to some Bangladeshi goods in India on a non-reciprocal basis. On the ferry that takes the bus across the mighty Padma river -- the Ganga splits in Murshidabad into the Bhagirathi and the Padma -- over a lunch of fresh river fish, it is easy to forget that serious issues even exist. For the travellers this is convenient enough: it's a welcome break on a 10-hour ride. For Vajpayee, it's probably a good reason not to take the bus. |
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Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee may
have flown into Dhaka on June 19 but that day he took "bus diplomacy" to a
country where it might actually work. To begin with, Benapole, the Indo-Bangla border
post, is not Wagah. There are fewer mental barriers along that border and around five lakh
people travel between the two countries each year: patients in need of medical care,
relatives split asunder by Partition, businessmen, even some tourists. A majority of them
take public transport to the border and cross over on foot. While the thrice-a-week bus
service due to start by the month end would undoubtedly facilitate their travel, the
intangible gains from the rides are far more. 
For two countries whose
national anthems have been written by the same poet -- Rabindranath Tagore -- it seems
ironic that bilateral relations have seen so many troughs. But as the anthems played when
Vajpayee was received at the airport, it was clear that India and Bangladesh were now
riding a crest of political goodwill. At the banquet in Vajpayee's honour later that day,
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed said India had "rendered positive
support in our glorious war of liberation in 1971". No Bangladeshi leader in recent
times has wished to recall this in public. However, she was cautious in her support for
India on the Kargil issue maintaining it was a bilateral issue. 
