Nizami at a press conference
During the recent India visit of the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, three treaties and two memorandums of understanding (MoU) were signed between Bangladesh and India. A long communiqué containing 51 paragraphs was also issued at the end of her visit. The people have become worried and concerned after reports revealed that these treaties and communiqué that are against the national interest of the country, said Ameer of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh and former minister Maulana Motiur Rahman Nizami. The patriotic people of the country cannot but become concerned about the sensitive issues related to economy and national security that were agreed upon in the joint communiqué by the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Dr. Manmohan Singh. The declarations at the joint communiqué are not only anti-Bangladesh and against public interest, but it has also ensured that the economy of Bangladesh becomes crippled and become dependent on India. It will also make the country an open market for India.

Nizami was speaking in a crowded press conference on 19 January 2010 at the central office of the party. Nayeb-e-Ameer Maqbul Ahmad and Maulana Delwar Hossain Sayedee, Secretary General and former minister Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, Assistant Secretary General Muhammad Kamaruzzaman, Abdul Quader Molla, ATM Azharul Islam, Ameer of Dhaka City unit Maulana Rafiqul Islam Khan, Secretary of the Central Publicity Department Prof. Tasneem Alam, Secretary of Dhaka City unit Hamidur Rahman Azad, Assistant Secretary of Central Publicity Department Motiur Rahman Akanda and Ameer of Ramna thana of Dhaka city Selim Uddin were present at the press conference.

In the summit of the two Prime Ministers, a powerful and efficient team consisting Finance Minister Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, Home Affairs Minister Mr. P. Chidambaram, External Affairs Minister Mr. S. M. Krishna, Railways Minister Ms. Mamata Banerjee, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma, State Minister for Ministry of External Affairs Ms. Preneet Kaur, National Security Advisor Mr. M. K. Narayanan, Principal Secretary Mr. T.K.A. Nair and other high officials were on board to assist Dr. Manmohan Singh. On the other hand, the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s team included Foreign Affairs Minister Dr. Dipu Moni, Water Resources Minister Ramesh Chandra Sen, Prime Minister’s Adviser Dr. Moshiur Rahman and Dr. Gowher Rizvi. Needless to say, Shiekh Hasina went to Delhi with this weak team not to negotiate but to sign the deal. It is not, therefore, irrelevant to raise questions whether Bangladesh team had any preparation at all to sign the treaties and agreements. Three signed treaties and the matters agreed upon in the joint communiqué made one thing apparent: the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has given away more than what India could not take from Bangladesh in the last 38 years.

He added, the titles of three treaties were briefly set out in the joint communiqué. But the people of Bangladesh do not know yet what those treaties actually contain. The Prime Minister also did not say anything transparently about those treaties in her press briefing. As a result, scepticism and suspicion about the treaties are growing among the people. Therefore, the government ought to inform the people the details of it without further delay. Even the bureaucrats of Bangladesh were split up over some elements of the treaties; it was disclosed. All three treaties were signed in favour and for the interest of India. Since India gravely needs help from Bangladesh for the sake of its own security interest, there was a strong scope for Bangladesh for bargaining. The diplomatic relations of two countries could have become strong and strengthened through give-and-take relations. The Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has opened all doors of Bangladesh for India but failed not take anything in return. She later said, “We cannot keep our doors closed in this age.” But Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami believes that some of the doors, if not all, must be closed.

The problem of water sharing is the most important and gravest among the existing irritants in Bangladesh-India relations. The Prime Minister has given India the opportunity to use Chittagong and Mongla sea ports for indefinite period of time. But she could not manage to obtain from India the rightful share of water for Bangladesh. If she had persuaded India to stop the construction of the Tipaimukh Dam, amended the Ganges Water Sharing Treaty by incorporating a guarantee clause in the treaty and convinced India to share water of all common rivers including Tista it could have been said that the Prime Minister tried to serve the national interest of Bangladesh.

India attained de facto multipurpose transit facilities equivalent to a corridor, as the opportunity of using Chittagong and Mongla ports was given to India and Ashuganj was designated a port of call. As a result, India will have huge advantage in transportation communication facilities in water, rail and highways. It will enjoy an extraordinary advantage to go to the seven north-eastern States by travelling only 70 kilometres because of using the Chittagong port. India did not even imagine that it would be able to get that much facility of multipurpose transit with ease.

India’s easy access to Bangladeshi market will further widen the asymmetric trade gap between India and Bangladesh along with smuggling. Border haats will be added up to this. Bangladesh will turn into the biggest market for India and growth of different industries of Bangladesh including ready-made garment will be damaged. The enormous possibility of economic prosperity that the people of this country dreamt of will be shattered. India will seek to achieve its military objectives by using the ports which will create security threats for Bangladesh. Indian army will easily enter Bangladesh under the pretext of protecting its convoys and thus will put the independence and security of Bangladesh under threat. India will invariably seek to use Chittagong and Mogla ports for military purpose, if tension escalates between India and China.

It should be noted that discerning the damaging impacts of border haats, the founder of Bangladesh and late leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman once abandoned the idea after initiating it. Border haats will not bring any good to the economy of Bangladesh; rather Bangladesh will end up in the position of Nepal and Bhutan and Indian currency will spread in the country. On the other hand, activating Sabroom-Ramgarh and Demagiri-Thegamukh land ports will benefit India only. Apart from the benefit of transit through the establishment of the Akhaura-Agartala railway link, India will get more trade facility than Bangladesh from using the Chittagong port.

As a result of the cultural exchange programmes, Indian cultural aggression in Bangladesh will be boosted. There is no scope for watching Bangladeshi TV channels in the West Bengal of India despite the fact that all Indian TV channels are available for watching in Bangladesh. But the Prime Minister of Bangladesh did nothing about it in her visit.

Bangladeshi market has become saturated with Indian books, but books by Bangladeshi writers cannot get access to India. Bangladesh products are supposed to get duty-free access to Indian market, but this is not possible because of other non-tariff barriers. Besides, removing 47 products off the negative list will not contribute much to reduce the gigantic trade gap between the two countries.

Although scholarships for a period of five years for study and training in India covering a wide range of disciplines for scholars and government employees are seemingly favourable to Bangladesh, but the proposal was given as a long term strategy to exert influence over the education sector and the administration. It deserves serious consideration how much Bangladesh will be benefitted from it.

The joint celebrations of the 150th Birth Anniversary of the great poet laureate Rabindranath Tagore was mentioned in the joint communiqué. But it is unfortunate and questionable that the national poet of Bangladesh Kazi Nazrul Islam was totally neglected.

The announcement of a Line of Credit of US$ 1 billion in the joint communiqué is very absurd. Because, the amount will be spent in railway infrastructure, supply of locomotives and passenger coaches, rehabilitation of Saidpur workshop, procurement of buses including articulate buses and dredging projects. Which means the money will be spent on India’s cause but Bangladesh will have to pay it with interest.

The proposal of supplying 250 megawatts of electricity to Bangladesh from Indian grid is a carrot. It will never be wise to allow Indians to enter our national grid in the name of bringing electricity from India. Jamaat-e-Islami believes that Bangladesh can produce far more electricity than it, if Bangladesh increases efficiency of the existing power plants of its own and reopens the closed ones as well as takes initiatives to set up new power plants. The election pledges of the current Prime Minister are also similar. How can it be acceptable to make the country dependent on the electricity of neighbouring country instead of fulfilling elections pledges and manifesto of the ruling party?

Bangladesh is already in danger as a consequence of Farakka Dam constructed by India to cripple Bangladesh economically,. Because of the adverse effects of the Dam in 16 districts, 32 rivers are already dead. Salinity has alarmingly increased. The surface of underground water has further descended and the environment and biodiversity of a large part of Bangladesh have been damaged. Bangladesh is not even receiving its share of water according to the so-called 30-year Ganges Water Sharing treaty. The damage caused by Farakka Dam has already crossed Tk. 100,000 crore.  The Prime Minister did not resolve these problems nor did she negotiate them with India.

Dredging Ichamati or any other river will be of no use unless India stops its discriminatory policies that resulted in drying up of our rivers. Nevertheless, Prime Minister declared in the joint communiqué that India also suffers due to shortage of water flow in Tista, despite the fact that it is Bangladesh that has been denied the waters of Tista. According to the communiqué, Joint Rivers Commission will discuss about the issues related to Feni, Manu, Muhuri, Khowai, Gumti, Dharla and Dudhkumar. But no meeting of the Joint Rivers Commission was held in the last six years because of procrastination. Therefore, this type of discourse is meaningless and hollow.

How can the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina disregard the repeated and ruthless killings of innocent Bangladeshis by the India Border Security Forces across the border? It is very painful. She failed to obtain any commitment from India about the barbarian killings of Bangladeshis in the border. In the 18th paragraph of the joint communiqué, both Prime Ministers advised their respective border guarding forces to exercise restraint and prevent loss of lives as well as underscored the importance of regular meetings between the border guarding forces to curtail illegal cross border activities. Bangladeshis do not shot at the Indians. Rather, innocent Bangladeshis are gunned down by Indian Border Security Forces. Yet they enjoin Bangladesh to restrain. Did Bangladesh sign the treaty without actually knowing what it contains? In the same paragraph, it is mentioned that the treaty signed at the Home Secretary level talks held in New Delhi in December 2009 will be implemented in full. However, the nation could not know yet what that treaty actually contains.

India has forcefully seized South Talpatti Island emerged in the Bay of Bengal which rightfully belongs to Bangladesh. It is very unfortunate that the Prime Minister did not bring the issue on the table.

In the communiqué, India agreed to consider the request of Bangladesh for assistance to construct road infrastructure including flyovers. Future will say how much of this assistance Bangladesh would be able to receive. Bangladesh’s experience of Indian promises and commitments is not so pleasant.

Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami is of the opinion that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s support in advance for India's candidature for the permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council was not wise. Because, the other candidate for the permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council from Asian continent is Japan. It should be noted that Japan ranks first in the list of donor countries to Bangladesh. Moreover, other Muslim countries have serious objections to India’s permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council. Under these circumstances, it can be said with certainty that this hasty support by Bangladesh will create impasse in foreign relations of Bangladesh with other countries. It also reflects the submissive foreign policy of Bangladesh.

Three treaties, two memorandums of understanding (MoU) and the joint communiqué signed during the India visit of the Prime Minister are marked by the Indian diplomatic success. The Prime Minister’s claim that her visit was a hundred per cent success is self-deceiving. This is nothing but either the Prime Minister’s diplomatic fiasco or her attempt to please New Delhi for some reasons.

Our Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina along with the ministers and advisers in her delegation was defeated by the Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and his fellow shrewd politicians and their diplomatic tactics. A report of signing a secret treaty published in the newspapers has infuriated the people and caused a great concern among them. Awami League also did the same in the past. The party singed Ganges Water Sharing Treaty and Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace treaty after it formed government in 1996. There is public discontent over these two treaties and large part of the population believes that these two treaties are against national interest of Bangladesh and contradictory to the constitution as well. This time, within a year after taking over power, they signed an asymmetric treaty in New Delhi and declared such things in the joint communiqué that go against Bangladesh’s interest and will eventually cause damage for the country in the long run.

Prime Minister’s visit to India was a great opportunity for India as well. To eliminate the trust deficit between Bangladesh and its big neighbour India that was created for many reasons. India, for the sake of its own interest, could have given some concessions rather than only taking from Bangladesh. At least, that was what the people of Bangladesh expected. But the Indian leadership has grievously failed to show the generosity and warmth. As in the past, they announced some words of assurance. But the Prime Minister’s India visit could have been a milestone in the history of Bangladesh-India relations, if India extended the hands of friendship to resolve some unsettled issues specially those considered to be vital for lives of people of this country. The people cannot accept the treaty, memorandum of understanding and communiqué that go against the country’s interest and failed to reflect their desire and hope. This communiqué is, therefore, not implementable.

The Awami League government has already attempted to impose an anti-religious education policy on the shoulder of the nation. The government has clearly taken stance against the people of this country by its attempt to re-establish secularism in the country repealing the 5th amendment and removing absolute trust and faith in the Almighty Allah from fundamental principles of the constitution. There is no alternative left for people without mass movement against the government. Nizami called on the leaders of all political parties, Ulema, professionals, intellectuals, students, workers and mass people to forge strong opposition against the anti-Bangladesh activities of the government.