Teesta bedevils relations, says Dhaka envoy in Kolkata

India's not signing the Teesta water sharing treaty with Bangladesh, due to opposition from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, is adversely impacting on bilateral relations and adding to mistrust amongst the two neighbours, says a senior diplomat from Dhaka.

He says India's failure to sign the Teesta treaty has made it impossible for Bangladesh to grant India access to the Chittagong and Mongla ports.

Delivering a lecture on 'India-Bangladesh Relations: Looking Towards The Future' at the Observer Research Foundation here on Saturday, Bangladesh deputy high commissioner to India, Mahbub Hassan Saleh, emphasized that there was "no scope for any re-negotiation" of the treaty, which was to have been signed during former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Dhaka visit in 2011.

People in Bangladesh, he said, were getting impatient with the delay. "There is a huge disappointment among the people back home over this and the feeling is gaining ground that  India has not delivered on its promise at the last moment," he said.

Even those in Bangladesh who pitch heavily for friendly ties with India are beginning to doubt India's intentions, he added.

Mahbub Hassan Saleh

Saleh's fusillade at the ORF lecture came on a day Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina made the same pitch for an early signing of the Teesta deal when India's junior foreign minister VK Singh met her in Dhaka.

Saleh pointed out that New Delhi does not require the consent of any state to sign an international treaty.

"The government of India took the West Bengal government on board before signing the Ganges treaty in 1996, but that was an internal issue for India. It is not binding for the government of India to do so," Saleh said.

Saleh said that by failing to sign the Teesta treaty, India lost its chance to gain access to the two sea ports in Bangladesh. Such access was crucial for India's land-locked northeast.  Movement of goods and people from mainland India to the northeast through Bangladesh would become much faster and cheaper and international trade between northeast India and the rest of the world would grow.

That would also benefit Bangladesh, he said.

But Bangladesh cannot be seen to be granting India this access without it signing the Teesta treaty that would benefit 20 million Bangladeshis dependant on the Teesta for farming and fishing.

"New Delhi would gain a lot by investing just a little in Bangladesh," he said. "India, as a huge neighbour, needs to ensure that small neighbours feel happy and confident," the envoy added.

Saleh spoke of the need to have visible friendship structures by India in Bangladesh on the lines of Bangladesh-China or Bangladesh-Japan friendship structures. "Imagine what a friendship bridge built by India in Bangladesh could do. But it could be something smaller and meaningful as well," he said.