Rizvi questions India’s plan to connect northeast via railway through Bangladesh

He says Bangladesh will ‘lose whatever sovereignty is left’ if the plan is implemented

BNP leader Ruhul Kabir Rizvi has questioned India’s plan to lay railway tracks in Bangladesh to connect the South Asian giant’s northeast region.

He says Bangladesh will “lose the rest of its weak sovereignty” if the plan is implemented.

Rizvi raised the issue at a press conference at party headquarters in Dhaka’s Naya Paltan on Tuesday after the Indian media reported the plan by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who won the recent election for a historic third term.

The senior joint secretary general of BNP claimed India has Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s permission to go ahead with the plan.

“This is concerning. We strongly protest against such an initiative,” he said.

The Times of India newspaper on Jun 16 reported that India is set to develop an alternative network of railway tracks through Bangladesh to connect the Northeast with the rest of the country, reducing reliance on the existing route through the Siliguri Corridor.

The corridor is commonly known as "Chicken's Neck" - a 22-km-wide strip hemmed in by Nepal to the north and Bangladesh on its south.

The aim is to bypass the Chicken's Neck by routing through Bangladesh, leveraging the India-Bangladesh Trade Agreement of 1980, according to the report.

The vital railway line for military and civilian transport became a cause of concern during the 2017 Doklam standoff between India and China, as the narrow corridor sits below the conflict zone, it added.

It also said the project will feature 14 new routes connecting Bangladesh, spanning 861km, and alternative routes to the Northeast, bringing the total length of sanctioned tracks to 1,275.5km. The initiative will involve gauge conversion of existing tracks and construction of new ones in Bangladesh.

Quoting Sabyasachi De, CPRO of Northeast Frontier Railway, the Times of India said: "Besides reducing travel time from Kolkata to the Northeast, the new railway network will also enhance communication with Bangladesh. It will boost trade and tourism activities between the neighbouring countries."

But Rizvi said the Indian government has “hatred towards Bangladeshi people”.

“They [India] will be provided with the key to Bangladesh’s sovereignty through this. It will lead the intelligence system of the independent and sovereign country to collapse,” he said.

"If the subservient government of Bangladesh implements this railway network against the will of the people of the country, we feel that the existence of an independent Bangladesh will forever be compromised."

Alleging that the Hasina government has "secret deals" with India, the BNP leader said, "They [alleged secret deals] are slowly coming to light."

Rizvi also warned the ruling Awami League with “dire consequences” against “giving away everything to India”.