Across the fence

The visit of Begum Khaleda Zia, former prime minister and currently the leader of the opposition in Bangladesh, this week marks an important moment in the new engagement between New Delhi and Dhaka. For decades now, the relationship has been strained by the deep political divide in Bangladesh on attitudes towards India. It has been widely held in both capitals that the current prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, is "pro-India" and that Zia, who leads the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, is "anti-India". This fracture, real and perceived, has deep roots in the political evolution of Bangladesh and is reinforced by the intense animosity between the Awami League and the BNP. It has profoundly complicated Delhi's ability to build a long-term relationship with Dhaka on the basis of shared interests.

That Zia chose to come to Delhi raises hopes that the recent attempts by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sheikh Hasina to transform the bilateral relationship might yet elicit bipartisan support in Dhaka. Bangladesh is due to go to polls at the end of next year and the BNP's victory is very much in the realm of possibility. In her meetings with the Indian leaders, Zia has suggested that she is not averse to sustaining the current momentum in bilateral relations. She has reassured the Indian leaders that her party will not allow anti-India activities on Bangladeshi soil. After Hasina's visit to India in January 2010, the two governments have worked hard at resolving all outstanding bilateral issues — including water sharing, boundary settlement, trade and connectivity — and deepen bilateral cooperation, especially against terrorism.

With rapidly rising stakes in Bangladesh, Delhi has rightly reached out to all the major political formations there. Before hosting Zia, Delhi received the former president, General H.M. Ershad, who could influence the outcome of the next general elections. This effort to build broad-based support for the bilateral relationship, however, is no substitute for Delhi's urgent actions on pending issues of concern to Dhaka. Thanks to the unpredictable moves of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the PM pulled back from signing the agreement on Teesta water sharing during his visit to Dhaka last September and is taking time to move the historic Land Boundary Agreement signed in that same visit through the Parliament. One of the first tasks of the new foreign minister, Salman Khurshid, must be to mobilise domestic political support for formalising agreements that India has committed itself to. The ball, then, is very much in Delhi's court.

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