Is India preparing ground for exchange of enclaves with Bangladesh?

Pratim Ranjan Bose

 As the rumour goes, the Bangladeshi Prime Minister, Seikh Hasina, was a little slow in congratulating Narendra Modi, as the face of new Indian government.

On May 16, when Modi led his right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to a sweeping victory in the 15th General Election of India, he received the first call from Hasina’s archrival, Begum Khaleda Zia.

Hasina, who is widely known as a close friend of the Nehru-Gandhi family of Congress, was perhaps apprehensive that the change of guard in India could put a question mark on the Indo-Bangla relationship – particularly on India’s unfulfilled promises on Teesta Water Sharing and Land Boundary Agreement, in 2011.

Seikh Hasina. Source: wikimedia

BJP - along with the regional outfits, Trinamool Congress in West Bengal and Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) in Assam – stalled the former Congress-led UPA government’s move to put an official seal on the Land Boundary Agreement in Indian Parliament, in 2013.

Having assumed the office of Prime Minister of India, Modi however, made it clear that that forging deeper ties with neighbours in South Asia is going to dominate his diplomatic agenda.

To make his intentions clear, senior cabinet colleague and external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj was assigned to visit Dhaka on June 25.

Narendra Modi. Source: Times of India

Apparently, Modi is here to pursue India’s recent policy focus on the Eastern neighbour, with greater intensity.

And, Hasina has every reason to grab this opportunity.

Naturally, on June 25, when she will invite the Indian foreign minister for lunch; implementation of the key 2011 accords, may occupy substantial portion of the menu.

The moot question is - how much of it Swaraj will give a try to go at.

Enclave exchange in the offing?

In all fairness, Swaraj seems unlikely to make a promise of implementing the accords quickly, without forging a consensus at home – a grievous mistake that the Manmohan Singh government did in 2011.

The deepening roots of the electoral democracy leading to emergence of regional interests; has put the overbearing reach of the government in Delhi at serious test, for quite sometime now.

Enclaves along International border at Coochbehar. Source: wikimedia

But the dynasty-ruled Congress could never come to terms with this new reality. Also, the regional powers never missed an opportunity to outwit the government in Delhi in this battle of nerves.

Exactly the same happened in 2011, when the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, that shares almost half of India’s international boundary with Bangladesh, shot down both the treaties.  

As things stand today, Teesta Water Sharing Accord is unlikely to come to fruition soon because, it was signed without much homework being done.

The river crosses the Himalayan state of Sikkim and West Bengal - before entering Bangladesh. And, leave alone Bangladesh; these two Indian states are often at loggerheads on water discharge in Teesta.

Outdated government data, rapid environmental degradation and growing pressure of population have made things complicated. India cannot make any promise to Dhaka without taking a larger number of stakeholders on board.

Teesta. Source: flickr.com 

The same, however, does not hold good for the Land Boundary Agreement, where ground realities are now more conducive to implementation of the accord.

The focus is on settling the issue of enclaves, once and for all.

Mamata blinks

India has 111 enclaves spread over 17,188 acres in Bangladesh. And, Bangladesh has 51 parcels of land on 7,100 acres, inside India. They are remnants of a slipshod and hurried Partition of British India in 1947.

Barring a few in Assam, the rest sit along a 100-km stretch of an international border along Coochbehar district in West Bengal on the Indian side and Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari and Kurigram districts in Bangladesh.

Overall, nearly 51,000 people are held in virtual captivity, bereft of basic civic necessities, in these tiny land locked habitations.

Ideally, this problem could be addressed long ago by exchanging the parcels of land. But, jingoistic Post-partition politics got the better of any move to resolve things.

The sufferings of a few thousand people, who are held “captive” in these enclaves, were drowned in the pain suffered by millions in the wake of Partition and the resultant miseries.

Tin Bigha Corridor

Things, however, began to move in 1992, when India offered Bangladesh limited access to its largest enclave at Dahagram–Angarpota in Coochbehar district of West Bengal through a 178 x 85 sq metre strip of land, referred as Tin Bigha Corridor.

Finally, in 2011, India offered Bangladesh full access to the Tin BighaCorridor, as per a treaty between the two countries signed in 1974.

But, the broader issues remained unresolved in the face of fierce political opposition that claimed a net loss of 10,000 acres of land to India, mostly to West Bengal.

Exchange of nationality

They thought that in a populous country, where millions depend on land, the opposition to the treaty will earn them votes. But, they were wrong on two counts.

First, the treaty offered residents of enclaves an opportunity to swap nationality and stay back, without requiring any physical exchange of land or resettlement of people.

For example a dominant majority of the 37,000 people in Indian enclaves in Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari and Kurigram districts in Bangladesh; are Muslims. They have little reason to leave a Muslim dominated Bangladesh for India.

Similarly, Coochbehar district in India has a substantial 25 per cent Muslim population. And, the Muslims in the Bangladeshi enclaves have deep social roots in the country. Today, they hardly find any reason to move for Bangladesh, either.

“I doubt if even two per cent of the overall 51,000 enclave population are looking forward to resettlement. Given a choice they will simply swap nationality. The entire issue can be resolved requiring no or little exchange of land,” says Diptiman Sengupta, the Chief Coordinator of India Bangladesh Enclave Exchange Coordination Committee.

Ball in BJP’s court

Sengupta and a vast majority of Coochbehar, are keen for an early solution to the exchange issue. And, that nearly boomeranged on Trinamool’s poll prospects in the 2014 General Election.

Anticipating erosion in popular support especially of Muslims – who have kinship across borders and enclaves – the party supremo and the State Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee announced a re-look at the issue during her poll campaigns in April this year.  “We will follow popular verdict on the issue,” she said.

Earlier this month, she virtually confirmed her shift of stance. “We are holding talks on the proposal," she said adding that her government would favour implementation of the treaty "if there were no problems from the other side".

Clearly, Trinamool has lobbed the ball to the BJP’s court. And, many believe BJP will rise to the occasion.

True, it had opposed the treaty before the election. But, now that it is in power with absolute majority, BJP may pave way for implementation of Land Boundary Agreement, probably with a minor changes in the treaty.

The indications are clear. Modi is unlikely to leave this opportunity to score a point both at home as well as in abroad. And, the June 25 meeting visit of the Indian foreign minister to Dhaka may offer further leads.

EOM.