New Delhi: With India’s bilateral projects in Bangladesh getting stalled due to the political turmoil in that country, there will be more than one reason why New Delhi will be concerned.
“Due to the turmoil in Bangladesh, our projects have been impacted,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said during his regular media briefing here on Friday.
Stating that India’s development cooperation activities with Bangladesh are aimed at the welfare of the people of that country, Jaiswal referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day speech wherein he said that India would always be a well-wisher of Bangladesh and its development journey.
“Work on some of the projects has stalled because of the law and order situation there,” Jaiswal said. “Once this situation stabilises and normalcy is restored, we will engage in consultations with the interim government about the development initiatives and how best to take these forward and what kind of understanding we can have with them.”
He further said that security during the turmoil was a problem “not just for us but for everybody”.
“You saw what happened to the Indian Cultural Centre,” he said. “Bangladesh authorities tried their best. We also had people who came back. Our non-essential staff and their family members had to return. Hopefully, normalcy returns early and we can begin our engagements in right earnest.”
Bangladesh is the largest development aid partner of India. India has extended three lines of credit (LoCs) to Bangladesh in the last eight years amounting to around $8 billion for development of infrastructure in various sectors including roads, railways, shipping and ports. In addition to the LoCs, the Government of India has also been providing grant assistance to Bangladesh for various infrastructure projects, including construction of Akhaura-Agartala rail link, dredging of inland waterways in Bangladesh and construction of India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline.
High impact community development projects (HICDPs) constitute an active pillar of India’s development assistance. The Government of India has funded 77 HICDPs including construction of student hostels, academic buildings, skill development and training institutions, cultural centres, and orphanages among others in Bangladesh and 16 more HICDPs are being implemented, with all the 93 projects amounting to over $50 million.
Prior to her ouster, when then Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina came to India on a bilateral visit in June this year, a number of agreements were signed, including on maritime cooperation and blue economy, railway connectivity, digital partnership and a satellite project. However, with the ouster of Hasina on August 5 after a massive political upheaval, all these projects are now faced with a state of uncertainty.
A new interim government assumed power in Dhaka on August 8 with Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus as the Chief Advisor. Though Yunus has reached out to India, the future of all these projects still hangs in balance.
According to K Yhome, Fellow at the Shillong-based think tank Asian Confluence, during Hasina’s time, India and Bangladesh were able to initiate a number of projects, including infrastructure and connectivity projects, which are mutually beneficial. However, the political developments there have affected the progress of various projects.
“Why India will be concerned is because a lot of money has been pumped into these projects,” Yhome told ETV Bharat. “These projects are heavily funded by India and have to be completed within a timeframe.”
“The other aspect,” he said, “is whether the new regime will give that much focus on the ongoing projects. If they delay these projects for one reason or the other, their progress will be affected.”
Yhome said that given the current state of uncertainty in Bangladesh, India is still trying to understand the new political landscape there.
“India’s concern is also strategic in terms of connectivity and cross-border infrastructure projects,” he said. “The new regime might look at other external players due to internal compulsions.”
A case in point here is the Teesta water management project inside Bangladesh. The Bangladesh Water Development Board and China’s power corporation signed an MoU to collaborate on water sector projects in Bangladesh. A feasibility study on the Teesta River was conducted, following which the Chinese power corporation submitted the Teesta River Comprehensive Management and Restoration Project (TRCMRP) report. This report was subsequently approved on May 30, 2019.
However, for New Delhi, it was a matter of concern as it was seen as China expanding its influence in India’s immediate neighbourhood. Eventually, Hasina, taking into consideration New Delhi’s concerns and the fact that India is Bangladesh’s immediate neighbour, decided to hand over the project to India. In fact, India was preparing to send a technical team to conduct a study on the project when the political upheaval in Bangladesh took place.
Apart from this, India and Bangladesh share a long border and there are issues like cross-border crime and narcotics smuggling.
Yhome said that the stalling of the projects will affect the interests of India’s northeastern region too like connectivity to the sea.
It is worth mentioning here that in March this year, Prime Minister Modi had inaugurated the Sabroom Land Port in Tripura. With the opening of the Sabroom Land Port, India’s northeastern region will get direct access to the Chittagong Port in Bangladesh, which is just 75 km away compared to the Kolkata/Haldia Port, which is 1,700 km away. Through the Chittagong Port, maritime connectivity will be established between northeastern India and Southeast Asia via the Bay of Bengal.
With this, Tripura will become a gateway to India’s northeastern region. The new land port will also connect to the Matarbari deep sea port in Bangladesh which is under construction with Japanese aid. With the opening of this land port, apart from India’s northeastern region, other landlocked countries in the region like Bhutan and Nepal will now get access to the Bay of Bengal.
Yhome explained that though Chief Advisor Yunus has reached out to India after assuming office, there are domestic compulsions too.
“To placate the domestic constituencies, the new interim government might have to slow down progress of these projects,” he said. “When projects get stalled due to political compulsions, it becomes difficult to start all over again.”
However, the fact of the matter is that it is only an interim government that is in power in Bangladesh.
“Elections will have to be held,” Yhome said. “Only when a new elected government assumes power will we get to see what kind of relationship it will have with India.”
Given all this, as of now, the only option for India is to wait and watch.
