Indo-Bengla Ties

Denial - That seems to be the biggest roadblock facing India-Bangladesh ties today.

"We both have issues with each other, as all neighbours must," says a senior Indian diplomat who has dealt with Bangladesh closely. "But instead of addressing those issues like civilised nations, Dhaka insists on denying all Indian concerns, even when it is backed by irrefutable and solid evidence."

"This," says the diplomat, "makes it almost impossible to engage in normal, civil diplomatic relations with our eastern neighbour."

Apart from the longstanding worry of over massive illegal migration from Bangladesh, the main Indian concerns include:

• Rebels from northeast Indian states who operate with impunity from Bangladeshi territory


• The growing influence and activities of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and Al Qaeda in Dhaka.


• Rapidly rising fundamentalism and anti-India sentiment in Bangladesh


• Increasing cross-border traffic in drugs, arms, women, children, and cattle


• The mushrooming madrassas springing up along the border, many funded by Pakistani and Saudi Arabian 'charities'


• Repeated skirmishes between India's Border Security Force and the Bangladesh Rifles over disputed territory and the latter's attempts to stop the fencing work being undertaken by India


• Dhaka's perpetual refusal to grant transit rights and permission to Indian companies like Tata to set up shop there.


• Dhaka meets all these charges with staunch denial. In turn, it accuses India of bullying its smaller neighbour, interfering in its internal affairs, starving it of water and sheltering Bangladeshi criminals.


• The massive influx of refugees fleeing persecution in East Pakistan -- as Bangladesh was called then -- was one of the reasons for India's decision to assist the Mukti Bahini, which was fighting for liberation from Pakistan.