The Bangladeshi Foreign Minister recently visited India, and the Prime Minster is supposed to visit New Delhi shortly. This follows a highly publicised visit by the Indian Foreign Minister in February, after the new government took office in Dhaka, but before the Indian election. There are media speculations about a ‘package deal’ being negotiated resolve various outstanding issues.
There is no foreign relationship more important for Bangladesh than that with India. Therefore, whatever is in this deal (if a deal is indeed being negotiated), it is imperative that it is scrutinised carefully. And every conscious citizen — regardless of technical expertise, political affiliation, or access to the media — has a responsibility to participate in the discussion. Indeed, a discussion needs to happen in India too, because if Bangladesh develops a permanent antipathy towards India, the consequences will be bad for everyone.
Any discussion on this topic should begin with two points.
First, this need not be a zero sum game. Bangladesh’s gains do not have to come at India’s expense, or vice versa. India and Bangladesh are not locked in some Manichean, existential conflict. Win-win solutions are possible on all the issues.
Second, it is easy, and pointless, to spend endless amount of time in a dialogue of the deaf discussing how one country has never done the right thing by the other.
This post is an attempt to summarise the issues, with some tentative views. They are by no means exhaustive. Nor are they beyond debate. In fact, I am actively soliciting debate.
With the long introduction out of the way, over the fold are what I think the issues that need to be resolved.
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