FM flies to Delhi Thursday to pursue ‘pending issues’

As the government’s term is coming to close in October next, Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni leaves here for New Delhi Thursday on a 3-day visit in an apparent last-ditch effort to have talks with Dr Manmohan Singh to push for pending issues with the big neighbour.Dipu Moni has some political engagements with Indian politicians apart from the meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and her counterpart Salman Khurshid.
Senior Assistant Secretary Mohammad Monirul Islam Kabir said the Foreign Minister will leave Dhaka at 9:20am.
The meeting between Dipu and the Indian premier will be held in Delhi on Friday morning, sources at the Foreign Ministry said.
Dipu Moni will also deliver a lecture at an Indian think tank in New Delhi during her stay there.
As New Delhi rues lack of political support for land boundary agreement with Bangladesh, foreign minister Dipu Moni is trying to salvage the agreement protocol by directly approaching the Bharatiya Janata Party for its support in the Rajya Sabha.
The agreement with Bangladesh, touted as United Progressive Alliance’s main achievement in foreign policy but now fighting for survival, will be introduced in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian parliament, in the monsoon session for ratification, according to the Times of India report.
Sources in Indian government confirmed Dipu Moni will meet Leader of Opposition in the Upper House, Arun Jaitley, for the purpose later this week.
The agreement can only be ratified through a Constituent Amendment Bill as it involves exchange of territories. The bill needs to be passed by a majority in each House of no less than two-thirds of the members present and voting, it said.
The Bangladesh foreign minister will be in New Delhi on Thursday for the RK Mishra Memorial Lecture and is expected to meet Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid the next day, according to the report.
The main Opposition party — along with other outfits like Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) that prevented the government from introducing the bill during the Budget session — continues to oppose the agreement insisting that India is ceding too much territory to the neighbouring country.
The additional protocol for the 1974 land boundary agreement was signed in September 2011 during PM Manmohan Singh’s visit to Dhaka.
The Indian government is concerned that if the agreement is not cleared by parliament in the next session, New Delhi’s chances of settling the long pending boundary issue will be scuttled as Bangladesh will soon go to polls.
The government believes that this is the right time for implementing the agreement because of the manner in which the Sheikh Hasina government has taken care of India’s interests, especially those related to security.
The agreement envisages transfer of 111 enclaves with a total area of 17,160.63 acres to Bangladesh while Dhaka will transfer 51 enclaves with an area of 7,110.02 acres to India.
While on the face of it India does seem to be losing some territory, the government has in fact only converted a de-facto reality into a de-jure situation as these enclaves are located deep inside the two countries with little physical access to these by both.
The government maintains that it did not just take the concurrence of the states involved (Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and West Bengal) in writing but also the “will of the people” directly impacted.
The protocol’s implementation through the exchange of enclaves, says the government, will mitigate a major humanitarian issue as the residents of the enclaves have had to endure the absence of basic amenities for many decades in the absence of any such settlement. – UNB