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Ball is now in India’s court

Experts feel govt must take lesson from failure, move on

Rejaul Karim Byron and Sajjadur Rahman
India must convince West Bengal and its northeastern states that their relations with Bangladesh will make political and economic sense, said experts yesterday.
They also urged the Bangladesh government to be cautious and take lesson from the outcome of the summit on how to deal with India, a multi-layered democratic country with various races and regions.
However, the experts see no other option but to continue dialogue for mutual benefits.
“The Bangladesh government has made the right political decision by not signing the transit agreement in the face of India's decline to agree on water-sharing issue," said noted economist ProfWahiduddin Mahmud.
He said one positive outcome of this unfortunate episode is the renewed recognition of the real point of trade-off in Bangladesh's negotiations with India.
“India's main interest is in securing transit facilities and our vital interest lies in water-sharing agreements for the common rivers. We cannot build a genuinely win-win framework of cooperation without dealing with the two issues simultaneously," observed Prof Mahmud.
Prof Amena Mohsin, faculty member of international relationship department at Dhaka University, said the ball is now in India's court to resolve the dispute.
“Transit is our trump card and we have created a positive public opinion that transit to India will benefit both the countries," said Mohsin, adding, “Once giving transit to India was commonly opposed in Bangladesh."
She said the Indian government, its intellectuals and media have to make the West Bengal and northeastern states understand the positive outcome of transit, connectivity and watersharing.
In the two-day summit between Bangladesh and India that concluded yesterday, the prime ministers could not yield much for their countries despite a lot of hype. The outcome of the summit was shadowed by the failure in inking a deal on sharing river waters.
"Bangladesh has shown its goodwill. Now India has to step up and make its opposing states understand the potential economic benefits of connectivity and water-sharing," said Prof Mustafizur Rahman, executive director of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).
Rahman however feels the government should open fresh talks with India and the West Bengal government as well to understand their concerns.
Akbar Ali Khan, former finance adviser to the caretaker government, said it was unfair that both the countries wanted to resolve many complicated issues in a single visit. Every issue is quite problematic and demands detailed discussions.
Mohammad Yunus, senior research fellow of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies said transit is an economic issue and India will be more bene-fited from it than Bangladesh.
“The chief ministers of Indian northeastern states should press the central government as well as West Bengal to resolve the watersharing dispute with us," he said. Yunus hoped India will take positive initiative considering its own gain.
Prof Wahiduddin Mahmud urged the government to focus on how the system works in India while improving our negotiation skills.