FOREIGN Minister of India, Pranab Mukherjee, made three offers: India was issuing a gazette notification to withdraw non-tariff barriers to Bangla exports, outright import of two million pieces of garments, restoration of rail link connecting Sealdah with Joydevpur. He also assured that India had no intention of withdrawing water at Tipaimukh, and offered to build a bridge over Raghnacheria river. Above all, both India and Bangladesh agreed to “jointly combat terrorism.” These are all announcements in small letters, but they carried a message of big hope foreshadowing a future to be characterized by trust and mutuality of interests between the two countries. The Chief Adviser reciprocated in kind when he said, inter alia, the soil of Bangla will not be allowed to be used by 11Gs or anti-India terrorist groups (be it indigenous or exogenous). The confidence level was also seen in the body language of both. There was a time in the cold war interregnum, when a sound or sight in the Kremlin sent thousand Sovietologists in America brooding over mails and ciphers cryptograms and cryptic messages or the size of letters in the Pravda, if this conveyed a message of some kind. India requested, we understand, in private meetings, the handing over of the ULFA leaders, one in jail and others at large, known to be using the territory of Bangladesh, ostensibly to the detriment of Indian interest.
The immediate past Government showed a strange but somewhat familiar 'diplomatic etiquette'. When thousands of Bangladeshis were under the juggernaut of brutal oppression and uncivilised police behaviour, invocation of 'human rights' convention in regard to ULFA leaders was just mocking the state of Bangladesh. Silence would have been better than human rights mantra. Many Bangladeshi criminals are reportedly hiding in hotels in West Bengal. The Indian Government would do well to investigate. For that we need an Extradition Treaty between in the two countries. There is an Act on Extradition Treaty passed in 1974. Some efforts were made, but the initiative was stillborn because of reasons yet unknown.
Now the Ministry would be at a
loss over the question of over 300 alleged criminals including JMB leaders and money launderers who have taken shelter in India, mostly in West Bengal. This is a time when the nonpartisan government is seriously engaged in meting out justice to the criminals and godfathers, moonshiners and bootleggers, we have no available instrument in hand to make a legal demarche to our neighbour India.
There, however, exists an 'informal mechanism' agreed upon by the Commonwealth countries' Foreign Ministers sometime, in the mid-seventies, called the 'Commonwealth formula' which opens an informal way for negotiations between and among Commonwealth Countries facilitating exchange of criminals or terrorists or money launderers. For that goodwill among Governments is the most important factor. In 1996-1998, negotiations were initiated for a deal with the UK, Zimbabwe, Canada, and Kenya for extraditing alleged criminals hiding in or visiting those countries. Our initiative after initial success was cut short again by the shortsightedness of the relevant ministry of the Government!
Commonwealth formula can now be looked into seriously till a treaty is signed with India. In my view this is an opportunity for both India and Bangladesh to show statesmanship, rise above narrow political or regional considerations and strike a deal, albeit short term or mid-term, so that the politicians will have no chance of looking back or gerrymandering existing agreements or MOUS. The SAARC summit to be held in April 3-4, 2007 in New Delhi provides an ideal moment to restore history, history forged by the sacred blood of the heroes of both the neighbours, thus recognising the valiant fighters like one soldier-officer Major Raj Mohan who had sixty percent burn on his body, ten thousand Indians dead and those millions in Bangladesh who laid down their precious lives to give us independent sovereign nationhood. Bangladesh is not a nation of ingrates, India is a great historical nation. While Tata and other energy establishments may take 2 to 3 years to complete their plants, India in its great secular tradition of sacrifice and hospitality as demonstrated in 1971, may allow a tripartite agreement to be signed for transmission of power
from Bhutan (300 megawatt) and Nepal (500 megawatt) to Bangladesh, urgently. New Delhi should appreciate that the present non-partisan Government has come into place to perform a historic job. The people of the Republic want them to do it. The energy sector was left totally crippled. As the former energy minister said, Tk. 6000/- crores were plundered without adding one megawatt of power to the national grid! The present Government has to redeem and save the Republic from a strategic meltdown.
As I said earlier, the centre of gravity in global affairs is moving to a dynamic Asia. The ADB in one estimate said Asia made there-fifths of the world's GDP around the timeline of 1820. The same study suggests that by 2025 Asia could return to the 1820 position. In this era of globalization Japan, China and India will be responsible for this tectonic shift in world economic dynamics. It is to be noted that India and China produce more scientists than all the countries taken together. And 60 percent of that is produced in India. The cutting edge of Indian supremacy in technology and soft power industries will be its human resources, second to none in the world.
In this backdrop India could move beyond historical legacies and play its role in the shifting geopolitics of the present time. India can make her journey into the historic niche by extending Bangladesh a helping hand she needs. With India's 100 core people, the robust entrepreneurship of the Bengalees could convert this region into a vibrant economic zone to the benefit of both. With infrastructural connectivity between India and Bangladesh, the sub-region could make a giant march to economic prosperity, particularly on the eastern flank of Indo-Bangla region. Such a partnership could set an example for other regions in continent of South Asia.
The author is a former Secretary, Foreign Ministry.