CONTEXT 

• Bangladesh will celebrate its 50 years of Independence as on 26th March 2021. 
• India- Bangladesh relationship has oscillated over the last fifty years during different regimes in Bangladesh. But in recent times, relationships have been mostly cordial. 
• Despite that some constraints have been there in the relationship. Small but important steps can put an end to the longstanding issues in a relationship that is gradually coming of age.

 NOW IT IS ABOUT COOPERATION

• Bangladesh and India have historical ties:

○   India’s provided  political, diplomatic, military and humanitarian support during Bangladesh’s Liberation War.

○   Nearly 3,900 Indian soldiers gave up their lives and an estimated 10 million Bangladeshi refugees took shelter in India during the war.

• Both countries in recent years solved their long pending border issues peacefully by ratifying the historic Land Boundary Agreement in 2015, where enclaves were swapped allowing inhabitants to choose their country of residence and become citizens of either India or Bangladesh. 
• Bangladesh has uprooted anti India insurgency elements from its borders. This has made the India Bangladesh border as one of the most peaceful borders of the region.
• Bangladesh today is India’s biggest trading partner in South Asia with exports to Bangladesh in FY 2018-19 at $9.21 billion and imports at $1.04 billion.
• On the development front, cooperation has deepend because of  India extending three lines of credit to Bangladesh in recent years amounting to $8 billion for the construction of roads, railways, bridges, and ports.
• Bangladeshis are a large portion of tourists in India, outnumbering all tourists arriving from western Europe in 2017, with one in every five tourists being a Bangladeshi.
• Bangladesh accounts for more than 35% of India’s international medical patients and contributes more than 50% of India’s revenue from medical tourism.
• Direct buses from Kolkata to Agartala have boosted connectivity. It has reduced the  route distance to 500 km, as compared to the 1,650 km if it ran through the Chicken’s Neck. Recently, a 1.9 kilometre long bridge, the Maitri Setu has also been inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, connecting Sabroom in India with Ramgarh in Bangladesh to boost connectivity.
• Bangladesh ports of Chattogram and Mongla ports allow landlocked Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura to access open water routes through road, rail, and waterways.

 BONES OF CONTENTIONS

Despite these areas of cooperation a lot of issues are pending between the two countries:

• Unresolved Teesta water sharing issue.
• Border killings- The year 2020 saw the highest number of border shootings by the Border Security Force. The shots are fired at civilians, usually cattle traders, who are usually unarmed trying to illegally cross the borders.
• The Central government’s proposal to implement the National Register of Citizens across the whole of India may reflect poorly on the India-Bangladesh relationship.
• Red Tapism from India’s end, and slow project implementation on Bangladesh’s end while implementation of the projects is another major issue.

CONCERNS 

• China is influencing the politics of Southeast Asia in a big way even influencing traditional allies of India like Sri Lanka, Nepal and the Maldives. 
• In spite of its ‘Neighbourhood First Policy’, India is losing its influence in the region to China. 

WAY FORWARD

• As Bangladesh is a key member in India’s neighbour, onus is on India to be generous enough to let the water flow and ensure that people are not killed on the border for cattle even if it is illegal when there are appropriate means for justice.
• These small but important steps can remove long standing snags in a relationship which otherwise is gradually coming of age in 50 years. 
• To make the recent gains irreversible, both countries need to continue working on the three Cs — cooperation, collaboration, and consolidation.

Reference:

1. https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/remove-the-wedges-in-india-bangladesh-ties/article34163863.ece