India nears land swap deal with Bangladesh.
Rajya Sabha, upper house of Indian parliament, on Wednesday passed unanimously the much-awaited constitution amendment bill on the land boundary agreement with Bangladesh, paving the way for permanent settlement in the long standing border dispute between the two countries.Indian external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj placed the 119th constitutional amendment bill aimed at ratifying the Indira-Mujib Land Boundary Agreement signed between the two neighbours in 1974 to swap enclaves on either side of the border.
‘It is a historic bill,’ Sushma told the house, adding that the government would now take steps to resolve difficulties that come on the way to implement the LBA.
She said no movement of population was necessitated by the exchange of enclaves.
‘If Indians in Bangladeshi enclaves want to stay there, they will be given Bangladeshi citizenship and if Bangladeshis living in Indian enclaves want to stay, they will be given Indian citizenship,’ Sushma clarified.As many as 180 members of Rajya Sabha gave votes in favour of the bill and no one voted against the move despite a discord between the opposition and the government over the content of the bill in the house.The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance has only 63 seats and the Indian Congress led United Progressive Alliance has 70 seats in the 245-seat Rajya Sabha.The bill is likely to be introduced in Lok Sabha today to facilitate exchange of the enclaves, transfer of adversely possessed areas and demarcation of 6.5-kilometer undemarcated border land.
The Opposition members praised Sushma Swaraj for her ‘honest’ admission in presenting a bill that was earlier introduced by the United Progressive Alliance and opposed by the BJP, Trinomool Congress and the Asom Gano Parishad .Sushma told the house her party opposed the bill when it was introduced in Parliament in December 2013 because the BJP was of the view that the bill had not taken Assam’s views into consideration.She said the TMC, which has now extended support to the issue, was also concerned about the impact of the agreement on West Bengal.The Indian cabinet on Tuesday approved the constitution amendment bill for ratification of the long pending LBA with Bangladesh, including territories in Assam along with those in West Bengal, Tripura and Meghalaya.
There are 162 adversely-held enclaves in Bangladeshi and Indian territories. India is supposed to hand over 111 enclaves measuring 17,160 acres of land and a population of over 37,000 to Bangladesh and on the other hand receives 51 enclaves covering an area of 7,110 acres with a population nearly 15,000 under the agreement. The Indian enclaves are located in Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari and Panchagarh of Bangladesh while all the Bangladesh enclaves are in Cooch Behar of West Bengal.
Over 51,000 people are living a ‘miserable life’ in the enclaves without any national identity.The issue of around 5,000 acres of adversely possessed land would also be settled once the agreement is ratified, said officials.Chaired by prime minister Narendra Modi, a cabinet meeting on Monday cleared the bill, which will now be placed in Lok Sabha where the ruling BJP-led alliance has the absolute majority. The current Lok Sabha session concludes Friday.
Earlier, the government had proposed to bring the bill by keeping Assam out of its purview but faced stiff resistance from the main opposition Indian National Congress which wanted territories in Assam to be included in the bilateral deal.The inclusion of Assam territories in the bill indicates the government’s resolve to get the legislation cleared after bringing almost all major opposition parties in the parliament on board, said the report quoting unnamed sources.The passage of the bill in Rajya Sabha has brightened the possibility of prime minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Bangladesh in June next, according to officials.A protocol was signed during the then Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Dhaka in 2011 to implement the LBA.Former ambassador Humayun Kabir, also vice-president of Bangladesh Enterprise Institute, said it is now a pattern that major developments in relations between the two countries have taken place during the tenures of the non-Congress governments in India.
‘It seems that the BJP-led government is more active and creative than the Congress government. BJP can take a decisive step. They faced the same hurdles as they do not have the majority in Rajya Sabha, but have managed the situation more skillfully.’BJP and Trinamool Congress had earlier expressed their reservations about ratification of the 1974 Indira-Mujib pact, but this time they supported the move.India has kept pending ratification of the Mujib-Indira land boundary agreement, halting the settlement process of border demarcation and exchange of enclaves, till date.Bangladesh parliament ratified the agreement on November 27, 1974 after prime ministers of the two countries had signed it on May 16, 1974 for demarcation of 4,156 kilometers of land boundary between the two countries.India needs to introduce a constitutional amendment bill because its implementation involves territory swap between the two countries.West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee at the end of last year declared her approval for the deal. Trinamool Congress chief Mamata, who had earlier opposed the move for swapping the territories between the two countries, said her government would write a letter to the centre requesting an early solution to the problems of enclaves.
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