Indian Foreign
Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon arrived here in Dhaka earlier in the week without prior
announcement for a 2-day visit that was scheduled clearly at Delhi’s urging. During the visit, the Foreign
Secretary met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Foreign Minister Dr.Dipu Moni,
State Minister Dr.Hasan Mahmud, Army Chief General Moeen U Ahmed, Bangladesh
Foreign Secretary Tauhid Hossain - not necessarily in that order.
According to media
briefing, the Indian Foreign Secretary in his meetings with Bangladesh leaders discussed sharing of waters of
common rivers, cooperation in electricity, border problems and Tipaimukh Dam.
As for the surprise element of the visit, although both sides laboured to
underline that there was nothing exceptional in such contacts between two neighbours,
Mr. Menon left Dhaka with the central question clearly remaining unanswered :
why was the visit undertaken in the manner it was; what led him to make the
air-dash to Dhaka ?
Regardless of the
attempts by the two sides to downplay the surprise element in the visit, no
avid observer of Bangladesh-India relations would treat the trip as an
innocuous event. Although Mr. Menon told the media when questioned that he did
not come with a specific agenda, his meeting with the army chief, which was
rather an extra-ordinary event in the his programme in Dhaka, would suggest
that he did not come here for a sight-seeing trip either. One wouldn’t expect
that Bangladesh Foreign Secretary on a visit to Delhi will get to see the Indian Army Chief.
The subjects that
were discussed as per media reports in the various meetings between the Indian
Foreign Secretary and Bangladesh leaders and officials are of importance to
Bangladesh and Dhaka should have a great deal to tell Delhi on these matters.
However given the formats of these meetings, one would not expect any
noteworthy progress on the subjects discussed, except for the Indian Foreign
Secretary’s invitation for Dhaka to send a technical team to visit the under construction
Tipaimukh Dam on the Barak river in India, which environmentalists fear will
seriously affect the flow of water in Meghna in Bangladesh.
While
speculations and conjecture will continue to characterize the media postscripts
on the Indian Foreign Secretary’s visit, what is unmistakable is that the visit
took place in the backdrop of the recent BDR rebellion and the threat that such
incident had posed to the security and stability of Bangladesh. Given the present goodwill between the
leadership of the two countries, Mr. Menon during his visit earlier in the week
may have conveyed the assurances of his government to stand by the side of the
government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
The other unusual
element of the visit was the access he received to the Prime Minister. Quite
obviously his only purpose to visit Dhaka
was to see her. If he had come as a Special Envoy or was carrying a letter from
his Prime Minister to ours then he could have the direct access to the Prime
Minister that he received. The way he came, he should have at best received a
courtesy call on our Prime Minister and that too should have been scheduled after
holding official talks with our Foreign Secretary. In that courtesy call, he
could have delivered the message of his Government to our Prime Minister which
he did in any case. The way our side handled the visit did not show much
professionalism; raised quite a few legitimate eyebrows and has allowed
un-necessary conjectures in the public mind. It has also added some humiliation
on our side to boot.
