Chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus in an interview with the Press Trust of India said that he wanted India to resolve the issues pertaining to the Teesta water sharing that had been pending since Pakistan era.
In the interview given at his official residence in Dhaka, Yunus urged India to respect international norms regarding water sharing in common rivers, particularly the rights of lower riparian Bangladesh.
Yunus also called for the revival of the ‘spirit of SAARC’ and said that the eight-member forum could resolve many regional problems.
The PTI interview received widespread coverage.
‘This is not a new issue but a very old issue,’ Yunus told PTI regarding the Teesta water sharing problem.
‘We have spoken on this issue on several occasions. The discussions began during the period of Pakistan’s rule. While we all wanted this treaty to be finalised, even the Indian government was ready for it. However, the state government of West Bengal was not ready for it. We need to resolve it,’ he said.
Yunus said that the neighbouring countries would not be benefitted by keeping the water sharing problem alive.
‘By sitting over this issue (water sharing), it is not serving any purpose. If I know how much water I will get, even if I am not happy and sign it, it would be better. This issue has to be resolved,’ Yunus told PTI.
While asked if his interim government would push for resolving the issues over the Teesta water-sharing treaty, Yunus said that the new regime would pursue it.
‘Push is a big word; I am not saying it. We will pursue it. But we have to sit together and resolve it,’ he said.
A treaty over the Teesta water sharing was drafted in 2011. The treaty was supposed to be signed during then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Dhaka in 2011. But the signing of the treaty was postponed because of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s opposition to it. Mamata was in favor of releasing no water for lower riparian Bangladesh through the Teesta River.
‘We have to resolve this issue according to international norms. The lower riparian countries have certain rights, and we want those rights,’ said Yunus.
Speaking about the recent flood the emergence of which was blamed on India, Yunus said that a humanitarian approach could be adopted to deal with such crises until signing the treaty.
‘When the High Commissioner (of India) came to meet me, I said that we can work on better management to see how the situation can be controlled during the floods. For such coordination between two countries, we don’t need any treaty,’ he said.
‘We can work on this together on humanitarian grounds and resolve this, as this will ease the suffering of the masses. Such humanitarian steps would really help,’ he stated.
Earlier in an interview with the PTI, the interim government’s adviser on Water Resources, Syeda Rizwana Hasan, had said that Dhaka would push for restarting the dialogue regarding the Teesta water-sharing treaty with New Delhi.
In his interview, Yunus also said that the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) existed only on paper now though it was created with great objectives.
Yunus told the PTI that he would try to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session, scheduled to be held later this month.
‘Obviously, we will try to meet [Prime Minister Narendra Modi]. I will try if all the heads of state of SAARC nations come together and take a photo. SAARC was formed for a great cause; it now exists only on paper and is not functioning. We have forgotten the name of SAARC; I am trying to revive the spirit of SAARC,’ he said.
The high-level General Debate of the 79th session of the UN General Assembly is scheduled to take place from September 24 to September 30.
‘The SAARC summit has not taken place for quite a long time. If we come together, a lot of problems will be resolved,’ he said.
The SAARC has remained ineffective since 2016 after India expressed its inability to participate in the summit after the terrorist attack on an Indian Army camp in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir in September. The summit was called off after Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan also declined to participate in the summit scheduled to be held in Islamabad.
‘The European countries have achieved a lot through the European Union. We have to ensure that SAARC works. Look at the European Union, and how brilliantly it works. If there is a problem regarding Pakistan, other ways can be worked out. But the functioning of SAARC must not stop,’ he said.
The European Union was formed along similar lines as SAARC.
The last biennial SAARC summit was held in Kathmandu in 2014.
Speaking on the issue of the Rohingya influx in Bangladesh, Yunus said that he would seek help from India to convince Myanmar to take back its population.
Yunus said that Dhaka needed the help of both India and China to manage the Rohingya crisis.
‘We need the help of India and China to resolve the issue. Nearly one million people have come to Bangladesh, and now this population is growing. It is putting tremendous pressure on Bangladesh’s economy. Some countries are taking them but in small numbers. As India shares good relations with Myanmar, we need India’s help in convincing Myanmar to take them back,’ he said.
Yunus also condemned the issue of border killings between the two countries, describing the killings of Bangladeshi citizens by Indian border forces as ‘callousness’.
‘Killing someone is not a solution, as there are legal ways to deal with this. There has to be a ground mechanism and legal procedure to handle it. This is a one-sided thing. No one is crossing the border to capture your country; those who are being killed by shooting are just couriers. This is callousness. This has to stop,’ he said.
He also strongly rejected the notion that Bangladesh would turn into another Afghanistan without Sheikh Hasina leading the country, calling on India to come out of the narrative.
Yunus said that the attacks on minority Hindus in Bangladesh were rather ‘more political than communal’ and questioned India’s portrayal of these incidents.
‘These attacks are political in nature and not communal. And India is propagating these incidents in a big way. We have not said that we can’t do anything; we have said that we are doing everything,’ Yunus told news agency PTI.
source : newage