PM Modi's Bangladesh trip: LBA raises hopes of subcontinent’s Berlin Walls coming down

Even as Pakistan army chief Raheel Sharif obsesses with unfinished agendas of Partition the euphoric welcome accorded to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Bangladesh – where Modi exchanged instruments of ratification of the land boundary agreement with Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina – undoes a damaging legacy of Partition. Not only does the agreement settle India’s 4,096 km long land border with Bangladesh and confer citizenship rights on enclave residents, the maritime boundary with Bangladesh too has been settled. India and Bangladesh have bucked the south Asian disease of constantly bickering and quarrelling, which has rendered the region one of the least economically integrated in the world (it’s not an accident the region also happens to be one of the world’s poorest).

The work of undoing the economic effects of Partition by restoring connectivity in all its senses has begun in right earnest. Modi, Hasina and Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee jointly flagged off buses from Dhaka to Guwahati and Agartala. Transit through Bangladesh will help India bring its northeast closer and resolve some of the problems of that region (see editorial below) even as Bangladesh gains access through India to markets in Bhutan and Nepal.

Indian ships at present have to follow the absurd routine of travelling to Singapore to offload cargo for Bangladesh, they can henceforth use Bangladesh’s Chittagong and Mongla ports. Bangladesh is power deficient, but electric power wheeled into Bangladesh from India will be doubled in two years. While Modi has extended a $2 billion line of credit, Bangladesh will set up two special economic zones for Indian industry. Indian investment here should address a major problem that Bangladesh often raises: its trade with India is heavily skewed in India’s favour.

While India has been embroiled in a difficult relationship on its western border with Pakistan, there are multiple opportunities in the east waiting to be utilised. If Bangladesh can become India’s land bridge to Southeast Asia, moribund economies of India’s eastern and northeastern states can be revitalised. At this point, Modi has been successful in persuading the Dhaka establishment that Bangladesh stands to gain from India’s rise. As the benefits of India-Bangladesh cooperation start trickling in, perhaps the establishment in Islamabad too can be persuaded to drop its radical suspicion of India and end the game of ‘tu tu main main’ that bedevils the subcontinent.