PM Modi's Bangladesh visit: Teesta takes back seat as land deal grabs spotlight

DHAKA: Despite the gamechanging nature of the land boundary agreement (LBA), a question mark hangs over the Teesta deal. PM Narendra Modi's visit, however, is focusing on the LBA, emphasizing its importance in transforming both India's boundary as well as bilateral relations.

Bangladesh's leadership understands this. The Bangladesh foreign minister, A H Mahmud Ali, told journalists on Friday that patience was essential for the deal. “Discussions are under way away from the public glare. You won't see what we are doing because diplomacy does not take place in public.“ Instead, he stressed on connectivity as the primary “deliverable“ of Modi's visit.

In 2011, Mamata Banerjee torpedoed former PM Manmohan Singh's Teesta plans at the 11th hour -largely because the Centre ignored local political compulsions and failed to factor in Mamata's concerns as the newly elected CM of West Bengal.

Modi has much better political instincts. While incentivizing Mamata on Teesta -the Centre will help the state build irrigation infrastruc ture in West Bengal that will enable the state to utilize Teesta's waters for northern Bengal farmers -he is also not likely to insist on a deal before the state elections in 2016.

Mamata is not playing the spoiler this time, but she too needs to secure her own backyard before agreeing to renegotiate the Teesta deal. At present, almost all of Teesta's waters flow into Bangladesh because West Bengal has little or no means to utilize the water. She wants to change that, but it's not yet clear how far she will be successful.

During the discussions here on Saturday and Sunday , Teesta figures prominently , but offline, said sources.There will be no mention of it in the joint statement either.

For ordinary Bangladeshis, though, the LBA is a definite sign that other outstanding issues too would be wrapped up.While in Bangladesh, the dom inant narrative is that the LBA will prevent Bangladeshis from getting shot at by BSF rangers, in India, it's about se curing the border to prevent in filtration and insurgents from crossing over.

There has been a definite interest here in reports tha the BSF wants to legalize cat tle trade to Bangladesh.