New Delhi:
India-Bangladesh relations have improved since the new government led by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has taken charge, but in the coming days the focus will be on two water-sharing agreements of two transnational rivers, Teesta and Ganga.
While the Teesta Water Agreement had been held up since 2011 due to opposition from former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the Ganga Water Agreement is up for renewal this year as it was signed for 30 years in 1996. Mamata Banerjee had opposed the union government’s moves on both the Teesta and Ganga water treaty.
The BJP has blamed Mamata Banerjee for what has become a sticking point now and said the erstwhile Trinamool government was an impediment in an important international objective.
Former Foreign Secretary and BJP MP (Rajya Sabha) Harsh Vardhan Shringla told NDTV, “The state of West Bengal under the Chief Ministership of Mamata Banerjee has consistently prevented the Centre from concluding the Teesta Agreement. I was the Joint Secretary dealing with Bangladesh and our neighbouring countries in 2011 when Dr. Manmohan Singh was undertaking his historic visit to Bangladesh. At that time at the last moment Mamata Banerjee refused to approve or be party to the Teesta Agreement.”
“And keep in mind, water is also a concurrent subject in the constitution and the state government has to be on board. In any case the state government has to cooperate in implementing the treaty. She refused to do that and has consistently refused to do that since then. And there are no good substantive reasons for that,” Shringla added.
The Teesta River originates from the Tso Lhamo Lake in North Sikkim and flows from the eastern Himalayas through Sikkim and Bengal before finally entering Bangladesh near Mekliganj in Coochbehar district of West Bengal.
Bangladesh has now formally sought China’s involvement for the Teesta River Comprehensive Management and Restoration Project (TRCMRP) and this may redefine how New Delhi approaches the issue given the sensitivity of the region the project will take shape in.
With China’s impending presence now in the region, experts say the delay in negotiating the Teesta agreement has become a security issue.
“After having waited for years on the Teesta water-sharing agreement and basin management, Dhaka had no choice but to approach Beijing. It is now a familiar script in South Asia that China capitalises on India’s tentativeness to expand its regional footprint. On the Teesta, China has done so with financing, engineering capacity, and speed,” Uttam Kumar Sinha, a leading scholar and commentator on transboundary rivers, climate change and the Arctic.
“From India’s perspective, Teesta is no longer a water-sharing issue with Bangladesh. It is a security issue. The Teesta sits close to the Siliguri Corridor or the Chicken’s Neck. The project’s perimeter sits about 30 to 50 km south of the Chicken’s Neck,” Sinha added.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has sent a congratulatory message to the BJP from Dhaka on its Bengal win, wrapped with a request to re-examine the long-pending Teesta water sharing agreement. With the BJP’s win in Bengal, domestic challenges to the Teesta Agreement between India and Bangladesh have ceased to exist.
However, when it comes to the Ganga Water Treaty renewal, Bangladesh is likely to bargain hard given its plans to construct the Padma barrage further downstream from Farakka in Bengal even though the Padma barrage has faced internal scrutiny and concern in Bangladesh.
The Ganga river is known as the Padma as soon as it enters Bangladesh around 22 km downstream from the Farakka Barrage in Murshidabad District in West Bengal.
Speaking to NDTV, Uttam Kumar Sinha said, “The proposed Padma barrage actually makes renewal of the Ganga Treaty more important, not less. If anything, it increases the strategic value of dry-season flows.”
“From Dhaka’s point of view, large downstream hydraulic infrastructure such as the Padma Barrage requires predictable upstream water availability. The Padma barrage without guaranteed lean-season flows would be vulnerable. I think Dhaka is positioning itself with the Padma barrage to push even harder for assured water allocations from India,” Sinha added.
A Bangladeshi delegation will attend the 90th Joint Committee Meeting of the Joint Rivers Commission in Kolkata this week, including a visit to the Joint Flow Measurement Site at the Farakka Barrage in accordance with the provisions of the Ganges Water Sharing Treaty, 1996.
Given Tarique Rahman’s focus on water security and his party’s legacy of grassroots canal excavation to increase the country’s agricultural output by providing reliable water access, Bangladesh is likely to harden its position.
In its election manifesto, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party had put unresolved river-water sharing – at the heart of its foreign policy. On water, the BNP committed to “effective measures” to secure a “fair share” from common rivers “like Teesta and Padma,” setting the stage for renewed pressure on one of the most politically sensitive bilateral matters. And domestic politics in Bangladesh will direct the BNP’s posture.
“India should be prepared for tough negotiations. Remember, the political leadership in Bangladesh today needs to demonstrate political autonomy from India. The negotiations on the Ganga Treaty ideally become one. Remember, the Ganga Treaty was signed by the Government of Awami League in 1996,” Uttam Kumar Sinha told NDTV.
“The key challenge for India is to avoid treating harder bargaining as hostility. Bangladesh’s domestic politics are changing. Anti-India rhetoric is high and can rise periodically, especially because of the Ganga water domestic utility,” Sinha added.