Bangladesh, Narendra Modi’s best yet

There’s much more to Narendra Modi’s visit to Bangladesh than has been acknowledged in public comment so far—more not just in terms of the number of pacts and agreements signed (22!), but also in showing-casing the flowering of a mature relationship in South Asia.

The fact that the Indian Prime Minister chose to make Dhaka his first foreign destination after completing a year in office and the sheer substance of it (those agreements, yes) make this a landmark visit.

But there are other more subtle reasons that lend substance to it, which can get overwhelmed by narrow strategic considerations rather than those of friendship.

On both sides of the eastern Radcliffe line (named after British civil servant Cyril Radcliffe, who hurriedly drew a line across 450,000 sq. km of territory in 1947), there’s a tendency to view the relations through the prism of politics and religion.

The political prism will have Indians believe that relations can only improve when the government in Bangladesh is led by the Awami League.

The opposing view in Bangladesh is that the Awami League, founded by the founder of the nation and led currently by his daughter, Sheikh Hasina, is beholden to India.

The religious lens, even more darkly and certainly more dangerously tinted, tends to see India as a Hindu nation and Bangladesh as Muslim—although their constitutions proclaim both countries to be secular republics and the fabric of both nations is multi-cultural, multi-religious, multi-lingual and multi-ethnic.

Modi’s visit is an important step in exploding these myths—opposition political groups greeted him warmly. And when nations go to war over land and water, the lessons from the land border agreement signed between India and Bangladesh during Modi’s visit will not be lost on the world—certainly not in conflict-riven South Asia.

Modi had to work on this visit, and Bangladeshis have taken note of it, as I found out while gleaning through the reports on the visit in Bangla and English language newspapers.

Writing in the mass-circulation Daily Ittefaq, the Bangladeshi novelist, intellectual and rural development specialist, Hasnat Abdul Hye, a former secretary in the ministries of industry and land, said that when Modi met Bangladesh Prime Minister Hasina on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly last year, she requested early action on resolving the outstanding issues between the two nations.

“Keep faith in me,” was Modi’s reply.

Within a matter of months, the Indian leader had persuaded sceptical partymen in Assam, a state that borders Bangladesh in the north-east, to drop their strong objections to the land border agreement.

The Indian Parliament then ratified the agreement after sitting on it for 41 years.

“Modi immediately gave the good news to the Bangladesh PM and informed her that he wanted to visit Bangladesh to formalize the agreement,” Hye wrote in Bangla.

“It then became clear why the Indian PM did not visit Bangladesh immediately upon assuming office. He did not want to come to Bangladesh without something to keep Bangladesh satisfied.”

At the moment, it appears, Bangladesh is satisfied with the visit, but wants more done. The general verdict seems a nod to Modi, but distrust of Mamata Banerjee, the West Bengal chief minister, who accompanied the Indian PM.

Commentators said that Mamata wasn’t really part of the Modi entourage, that she arrived a day earlier and left separately, too; how she failed to participate in the discussions, only making herself available for the land border agreement ceremony and for flagging off two bus services between Dhaka, Kolkata and the north-eastern states of India.

All of this, said Hye, indicated her continuing objection to the chief issue that rankles in Bangladesh—India’s failure to agree a deal to share the Teesta river waters between Bangladesh and neighbouring West Bengal. This has been vetoed by Banerjee.

But with important road and port transit pacts in place that will give Indians access to the north-east through Bangladesh, every Bangladeshi commentator has expressed the hope that the Teesta issue will be resolved soon.

The editor of the Daily Star, Mahfuz Anam, wrote:

“When former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh concluded his tour of Bangladesh in September 

2011, this paper headlined its lead story: ‘No Teesta, no transit’. This time, too, there is nothing on Teesta, yet we have agreed on all forms of transit in the name of connectivity. This outcome is not an evidence of the persuasive power of the Indian PM Narendra Modi but more an expression of our faith in him to deliver on all the promises that his predecessor so miserably failed to keep. To be fair to Mr Singh, he did most of the preparatory work.”

Fed up with India’s obsession with Pakistan and China, Modi’s neighbourhood-first policy appears to have been received very well in Bangladesh.

Anam wrote in frustration some time ago that it seemed to him “India has only two neighbours—Pakistan and China—and the rest of us mere geographic entities.”

This visit to Bangladesh has crowned Modi’s year in office. Ministers and diplomats on both the sides, backed by their people, have worked carefully and hard to build a strong edifice that has ensured the visit’s success.

But the substance of the visit must now trickle across.

In Dhaka, some months ago, a senior former diplomat from Bangladesh and a friend of India told me of his frustration over New Delhi’s failure to grant “visa on arrival” to Bangladeshis.

No doubt, it’s an Indian self-goal.

All neighbourhoods have good guys, bad guys and meddlesome bullies, who watch from afar.

In India’s case, Bangladesh are the good guys, cousins united by language, literature, intellect and temperament.

“Sheikh Hasina has met every possible demand from India… There is very little left for us to give,” wrote Anam. “It is now India’s time to reciprocate. It is now Narendra Modi’s time to reciprocate.”