It is unlikely that Sheikh Hasina will get India to sign the Teesta water sharing treaty during her present tenure as the prime minister of Bangladesh, The Times of India reported on Sunday.
Sources in Delhi confirmed that Mamata Banerjee has made it very clear that her stand on the issue remains unchanged and urged the Centre not to take a decision till the Lok Sabha polls, slated to be held in 2014, said the report. General elections in Bangladesh are also due in 2014 and Hasina, criticised by her opponents for her pro-India stance, will face the heat if India refuses to ink the treaty by then.
When attention was drawn to the report, a senior official at the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry told The Independent on Monday, “It is an internal political dynamics of India. We have nothing to do against this.”
“We deal with the Indian central government. We have been raising the issue with the Indians since long and continue to do so in future. The Indian government has been telling us that the Teesta water sharing agreement would be signed as soon as possible after reaching an internal consensus among the stakeholders,” he said.
According to The Times of India report, Bangladesh had expected some development in the 38th Joint River Commission (JRC) meeting to be held in Dhaka from June 18. This meeting was cancelled by India at the last minute, leading to consternation in Bangladesh. Though Bangladesh had initially demanded a 50 per cent share of the Teesta water, in recent times the country was agreed to a 25 per cent share for a start. The accord would likely have been signed by now had Mamata not put her foot down and refused to visit Bangladesh with prime minister Manmohan Singh in 2012. She had claimed that West Bengal’s opinions had not been sought in the matter though the Teesta flows through the state.
“In June this year, just before the JRC meet, the cabinet secretary received a letter from the chief secretary of West Bengal, informing the Centre that no minister from the state could attend the meeting in Dhaka due to the panchayat polls. The letter also spelt out quite clearly that West Bengal’s stance on the Teesta water sharing treaty remains unchanged and the Centre shouldn’t take a decision before the Lok Sabha polls in 2014. After this letter, the government felt that there is no use convening the meet as Bangladesh would be looking forward to the Teesta agreement. The JRC meeting was called off thereby,” a source in Delhi said.
West Bengal minister in charge of the irrigation department Rajib Banerjee admitted that a letter was sent to Delhi.
“I was to attend the JRC meeting in Dhaka and received an intimation from Delhi. However, according to the original schedule, the panchayat polls were to be held in June. There was no time as arrangements for the elections had to be made. We thereby wrote to the Centre about our inability to attend the JRC meet in Dhaka,” he said.
-With The Independent input
