Bangladesh must settle Teesta issue in its own way, says former envoy to India Tariq Karim

The former high commissioner says Bangladesh cannot wait for India to resolve its internal conflicts first

Bangladesh must address the Teesta river water issue independently, without waiting for India to resolve its internal conflicts first, former high commissioner to India Tariq Ahmad Karim says.

Speaking to bdnews24.com in the latest episode of Inside Out, the director of the Centre of Bay of Bengal Studies also said Bangladesh should prefer China’s offer to implement a planned project to manage the river.

Discussions between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi during her recent New Delhi tour have triggered a debate on a range of issues, including the sharing of the water of Teesta.

There is also an intense debate about a rail link between the two neighbouring countries. India's railway plans to link the country’s northeast with the rest through Bangladeshi territory is drawing lots of attention. There are also media reports that Bangladeshi railways will extend to Nepal and Bhutan through India.

The political opposition is critical, claiming this is a loss of sovereignty, while the prime minister counters that it opens new doors, as in Europe.

Speaking about Teesta, Tariq pointed out the river’s vital importance to Bangladesh. It sustains 30 million people at least in the Teesta river basin area, and about 70 percent of the population is in Bangladesh, he said.

“So our interest is huge. What has made matters complicated is that after 1945, and I keep coming back to that, most people don't understand it – the Westphalian syndrome, the partition syndrome which came from that, drew hard impermeable lines across the borders of the rivers.”

In his words: “River doesn't belong to everyone. We belong to the rivers. And unless we recognise that, the rivers have to be managed holistically.”

He said while in China in 1989, he learnt that people can only train a river, but they have to do it from the headwaters to the mouth. And so China poured its population along both sides of the banks of the rivers and trained the rivers from the headwaters where it originates in the Himalayas to the mouth where it goes out.

“And then I understood that, our rivers, we have divided into sovereign entities,” Karim said.

“And even within India, the Indian state may say the river is ours, but the constitution says the portion which flows through state A belongs to it. And the portion that goes in state B after the river flows belongs to that. These are in conflict.

“Indians will have to resolve that. I don't know how they will do that. But in the meantime, we have to try and resolve the waters in our own way, because we cannot wait for the Indians to come to sense,” he said.

“If China is willing to come and assist us with money and technology to train our own rivers, I think we should take it. Because if India doesn't have the money, if it takes time, we have no time. We are fighting against time,” the former envoy said.

“And I think we have to make it understood to both that it is for our interest. It's not giving political or diplomatic or other leverage to any country. It will give leverage to us to be able to be better friends to both countries,” he added.

RAIL CONNECTIVITY

The rail connectivity project was the most prominent aspect of the prime minister's recent visit to India, and the political aspects of such a project are not unknown, with heavy criticism by the opposition.

So, what are its economic implications?

“I think first you have to take into consideration that if you want to do trade, you have to be able to connect with people,” replied Tariq Karim.

“Buyers have to connect with sellers, and businessmen have to connect with other businessmen across borders. We are an India-locked country – number one. We cannot escape our geography,” he explained.

He said waterways were the Bengali-speaking region’s arterial link connecting all and the British used this system to extract resources from the colonial area, take it back to England, and then bring it back and sell it as a product.

“That is the heart of colonial theory and practice. We understood, particularly, I must say, the honourable prime minister understood the importance of restoring connectivity,” he said.

bdnews24.com asked Karim if he thinks that Bangladesh will get enough back for allowing the rail connectivity project.

“That depends on how Bangladesh uses the corridor,” he offered.

“Every country has to first understand that our foreign relations or foreign policy is a function of our national interest. I have always said that there is no friendship between nations.

“How nations negotiate with each other is relative to their comparative power with each other, the strength with each other, and how the national interest of the other country comes and intermeshes with your own national interest at a happy equilibrium.

“If you don't have this equilibrium, you will not have a smooth functioning of relations. Each side will feel the other side is cheating.”

Tariq said the railway project is a joint enterprise and he thinks what is holding all back is, “with the partition of 1947, we partitioned our mindsets. We look at each other from behind barbed wires.”

“And as long as that holds our mindset towards each other, we will not be able to progress. Progress between nations is always a happy equilibrium of give and take, which gives each side the illusion or the conviction that he is getting the best for his national interest.