The pending resolution of the Teesta river water sharing agreement is “no longer an issue” for Bangladesh, government’s political advisor Hossain Toufique Imam has said. The statement indicates a major shift in position for the government, which has been appealing to New Delhi to resolve the issue ahead of general elections slated for December, India’s largely circulated daily The Hindu wrote in a recent report.“Teesta is no longer a problem,” Mr Imam said in reply to a question from The Hindu while speaking at a think-tank event in Delhi ..,” the report said.
The Bangladesh government often says, we are a lower riparian state, and rivers flow downwards. You cannot stop Teesta flowing into Bangladesh, and today or tomorrow a formal agreement will take place. “But it is not a problem between the neighbours any more,” he added, indicating that his government may be resigned to the fact that the agreement will not be signed soon.
The agreement has been pending since it was nearly signed in 2011 but was blocked at the last minute by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Mr Imam’s words were in sharp contrast to Dhaka’s repeated appeals thus far, referring to the water sharing agreement as “transformational” for India-Bangladesh ties. An Awami League delegation had also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in April this year, stressing that the Teesta issue was a “serious problem” for the ruling party, which needed to be resolved.
Speaking at the Observer Research Foundation, Mr Imam, however, conceded that the opposition parties, led by the Bangladesh National Party (BNP), would raise the failure of the government to conclude the agreement during the election campaign.
Mr Imam’s visit to Delhi, where he met Minister of State for External Affairs M.J. Akbar, followed a month after a delegation of the opposition BNP addressed several think-tanks there, the report said.
