India should not offer its internal problem as an excuse for avoiding the signing of an agreement on Teesta water sharing with Bangladesh, a leading Indian expert said in Dhaka on Wednesday.
‘It is true, as a nation state it is not valid to say I have internal problem,’ Samir Saran, president of Observer Research Foundation, said replying to questions on hesitancy on the part of the successive Indian governments on signing the agreement.Bangladesh should take decisions on its own on making choices on foreign policy aspects as well as on important development projects likely to be funded by the foreign countries like China and India, he said replying to questions on Indian interference on construction of deep seaport in the Bay of Bengal.‘If you want to construct a deep sea port, do it,’ he said at a public lecture, adding that, ‘Bangladesh is alone to decide on it, since neither China, nor India should have a say on it.’
Centre for Governance Studies organised the lecture in Dhaka where Saran stressed the need for Bangladesh and India to engage in partnership for creating a mechanism for making growth and development sustainable in future in the region.He said the two countries should also take into account complications and complexities before considering the Indo-Pacific Strategy.No political order would be sustainable in the region of Bay of Bengal without vital roles played by India and Bangladesh, he said, adding that Bangladesh has a political role and responsibility in connecting the South Asia and ASEAN countries.He also stressed the need for building political, social, cultural and other institutions to deal with things in a structured manner considering the plural, liberal dimensions of the decisions made and solutions sought, which, he believed, would add vibrancy to the region.
On the issue of Indo-Pacific strategy propagated by the US, he said ‘China is the only’ country found active with the Belt and Road Initiatives, connectivity and other development activities for connecting Europe and Asia, while ‘rest of the countries are only talking.’
South Asia is ‘underperforming’ as a region, Saran said, adding that the countries in this region ‘are also not performing as neighbours.’Former secretary Enam Ahmed Chowdhury said the Indian government should take responsibility for signing the agreement on sharing of water of the Teesta River with Bangladesh without making excuses concerning engagement of the state governments.Former state minister for foreign affairs Abul Hasan Chowdhury said the matters relating to construction of a deep sea port in Bangladesh should have been merely a commercial proposition instead of the political dimension it has acquired.
Former ambassadors Sirajul Islam said there was no need for India to engage in the issue when China has offered to build deep sea port in Sonadia Island of Bangladesh.
Former ambassadors Sirajul Islam Shafiullah, Professor Dilara Chowdhury, Munshi Faiz Ahmad, chairman of Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies and Centre for Governance Studies chairperson Professor Ataur Rahman participated in the discussion, while CGS executive director Zillur Rahman moderated the session.
India backtracked from signing the Teesta agreement on September 5, 2011, although the two countries had prepared a draft agreement on water sharing.
News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net