India no more relies on one Bangladeshi party
BNP standing committee member Moudud Ahmed yesterday said India no more relied on a single party in Bangladesh to maintain good relations with its neighbour.
“There was a gap in the past between us (BNP and Congress) for the policy of previous Congress governments which wanted to rely on a single party in Bangladesh instead of trusting people. Now their policy is changing,” he said.
Moudud was addressing a meeting organised by Swadesh Mancha, a pro-BNP civil platform, in the capital's Jatiya Press Club.
He pointed out that the attitude change was first visible when Indian President Pranab Mukherjee, during his last visit to Bangladesh as a foreign minister of the Congress-led government, met and invited BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia to visit India.
“They have come one step forward towards us (BNP) and we have also moved one step forward...
“BNP wants to protect the national interest by maintaining good relations with them (India),” Moudud said, adding that in today's world nothing could be achieved with a “warlike” attitude with a neighbour.
“The only way is to talk to each other and build a relation of faith and confidence…I hope the change in the Indian policy will improve the Bangladesh-India relations and bring far-reaching results,” he said.
On disputes between Bangladesh and India, including water sharing of common rivers and Tipaimukh dam, Moudud said, “Ensuring water rights is our dire need.
“India is building 33 small and 12 mega dams on the upstream of 54 common rivers. What is more worrying is that they are also implementing a mega river linking project upstream.
“Construction of the Tipai dam and water sharing of the Teesta River involves the existence of Bangladesh. We need to resolve these but by maintaining good relations.”
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