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BNP chief Khaleda thanks Modi after Indian Parliament ratifies LBA
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has thanked the Indian government after its Parliament passed the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) bill to swap enclaves with Bangladesh, paving way for solving the four-decade-old border issue.
Published : 9 May 2015, 06:27 PM
Updated : 10 May 2015, 03:33 AM
Khaleda also criticised the ruling Awami League-led government for “working in favour of India’s previous Congress government”.
“The Lok Sabha has passed the Land Boundary Agreement bill after 40 years. I’d like to thank the Narendra Modi-led government for this,” the former prime minister told a programme on Saturday night.
India’s lower house unanimously passed the LBA bill on Thursday, a day after the Rajya Sabha pushed it through without opposition.
Passage of the bill in Indian Parliament will now allow implementation of the agreement that provides for swapping of 162 enclaves in Assam, West Bengal, Tripura and Meghalaya.
Bangladeshi enclaves have around 14,000 residents while Indian enclaves are home to 37,000.
Modi hailed the ratification of LBA as “a historic milestone” in India-Bangladesh relations, saying it ensured “a permanent settlement” of land boundary issue with Bangladesh.
Khaleda said: “Mr Modi said his government went ahead with the move to create a friendly relation with Bangladesh... He said he wants to build relations with [Bangladesh’s] people and not with any particular political party.
“We also want that.”
The LBA had been hanging fire since Bangladesh’s independence. Not much progress had been made to settle the border between two neighbours since the Mujib-Indira Accord of 1974.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday said Indian Parliament’s passage of the bill manifested the success of the 1974 agreement.
“For 40 years, it was dubbed as a ‘servile agreement’. But now everyone realise it was a smear campaign. It has been established that Bangladesh has benefitted from it,” she told a programme.
Khaleda claimed the Awami League failed to gain anything from India’s previous Congress government.
Awami League President Hasina said solving outstanding bilateral issues with India would have been impossible had her party not returned to power.
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