Pressure and friendship can`t go long way

MEDIA report on Sunday said India wants to use Chittagong and Mongla seaports for transit of goods without paying duties. New Delhi said, they intend to use Chittagong and Mongla Port to carry goods to and from the northeast for which they will not pay customs duty or any other duties, except paying administrative cost. These issues have been conveyed to Dhaka’s policy makers in a draft of ‘standard operating procedure’ (SOP) of Indian government sent recently to the Ministry of Water Transport in Dhaka.

The SOP also called for separate and dedicated area on those ports for Indian goods on transit both ways. Moreover Indian goods should be given the same facilities that exports and imports by Bangladesh nationals enjoy in those ports. It appears to be part of a MOU that was signed between Water Transport Ministries of Bangladesh and India on June 6, 2015 with the call for finalizing an agreement on use of Chittagong and Mongla seaports for transit of Indian goods. The draft SOP seems to have been sent to clear Indian stance on the final agreement that may be signed at the time of Prime Minister’s visit to India very soon.

We are in the dark what really are being negotiated on the use of two seaports by the Indian government and over a dozen more agreements that may be signed on that occasion. Bangladesh in earlier agreements has allowed India to use water transit facility virtually without any transit fee. It allowed Delhi recently to use roads in Sylhet region to carry LNG products from Assam to Tripura. India also transported food grains and construction materials to Agartala without duty. They are now pressing for use of the two ports without paying duties. We are open to help India to use our seaports to reach merchandise to its northeast, despite scarcity of space; but why on earth it should be free of cost. We spent money to build ports facilities why India should not pay for it.

It appears that India is taking away all strategic concessions using its special relations with the Awami League government. But why we have to give one after another concession without reciprocity is not easy to understand. India is not solving sensitive issue like sharing Teesta Water holding the nation hostage to water scarcity impacting agriculture and livelihood of millions of people in the northwest. It is not agreeable to resolve common rivers issues. BSF is killing our people on the border without respite. It can’t be said to be a good example of people to people relation.

We should keep it in mind that friendship must come from both sides to make it sustainable.