'Peace train' between Dhaka and Kolkata

THE opening of the passenger train service between Dhaka and Kolkata, on Bengali New Year's day, has ended the 43-year hiatus in Dhaka-Kolkata rail link. The service that was introduced during the British days was snapped in March 1965 due to the India-Pakistan war.
What a historic moment now. More than 40 years later this service has finally been revived. The first Friendship Train from Dhaka to Kolkata was filled with more than 400 passengers.
Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation welcomed the passengers from Kolkata through dance, songs and sprinkling of petals. Some Indian journalists were reportedly overwhelmed by such a welcome on the soil of Bangladesh.
The two countries already had connection by bus and air, but the meaning of this renewed passenger train service has its own importance. The inaugural day was the same day as the Bengali New Year's day, April 14. It was a deliberate choice.
An agreement for running the passenger train was concluded on July 12, 2001. After two trials, the two countries agreed to the technical feasibility of commencement of the passenger train service within a short of time.
During the immediate-past government, the project was kept in hibernation. It was revived under the caretaker government in March 2007.
Bangladesh-India relations are complex, sensitive and multi-dimensional. One must note that relations between the two countries exist independently of governments and policies.
Contemporary practice acknowledges that governments do not bear the whole burden of bilateral relations. Governments lay down policies and facilitate means of communication between the people of the two countries.
Bilateral relations are the sum of the many ways individuals and institutions, public and private, manage relations between Bangladesh and India. Both countries need to make the same intellectual, educational, cultural, and media efforts on the positive features of each other to strengthen their relations.

Interconnectivity
One of the important efforts is the communication link between the people of the two countries, and the renewed passenger train service is one of the crucial tasks in achieving movement of people of both countries.
The passenger train service means a lot to the citizens of both nations. It symbolises peace and harmony. It gives hope for a new relationship and shows the growing esteem for each other. It demonstrates reinforced relationship with each other on the basis of trust and confidence.
The passenger train service is consistent with the decision of the first meeting of the Saarc transport ministers in New Delhi. They agreed on the alternative of an Asian Development Bank-sponsored Saarc Regional Multi-modal Transport Studies, which suggested connecting the South Asian countries through all modes of transport under a regional agreement.
The idea of developing a regional motor vehicle agreement that was mooted at the 14th Saarc summit held in New Delhi last year has been taking shape, and a meeting among Saarc countries will be held this year.
The sooner a regional multi-modal system is agreed upon, the better it will be for the region in terms of peace, economic growth and development.
All South Asian countries must make a commitment to make travel freer and easier. Immigration formalities and customs are to be conducted in the train, as they do in Europe. The Orient Express runs from Singapore to Bangkok via Kuala Lumpur, and it has been a smooth service without any hassle. If others can do it, why can't we?
There are suggestions that passenger train services between Bangladesh and Assam, or Tripura or Meghalaya, in India may now be seriously considered. Most of eastern Bangladesh and the northern states of India will be benefited from this rail link. What is needed is a change in the mind-set of the authorities in both countries.
In this context, two new lines of communication may be opened between the two countries:
The demand of Bangladesh TV cable operators to allow airing of their shows in West Bengal should be considered by Indian authorities. The acceptance of the demand is long overdue because Indian cable TV shows are aired in Bangladesh.
Newspapers of each country may be available to readers of both countries. Such a facility will go a long way in creating mutual trust and confidence among peoples of the two neighbouring nations.
South Asia will flourish most when all the countries are connected to each other. The train service demonstrates the importance of interconnectivity.
It is noted that China has built a railroad link to Lhasa (Tibet) from Beijing, and eventually it is to be connected with Kathmandu. China is also building a 2, 000 kilometres long 6-lanes road from Kunming, capital of China's southwestern Yunnan province, to Bangkok.
If Bangladesh and India are connected through multi-modal transport, it will offer a great opportunity for both countries to be able to link with China's railroad in the north and roads in the south.

Economic globalisation and interconnectivity
Both nations need to be mindful that the geo-political scene around South Asia is changing. Economic globalisation has made it compelling that both countries must seriously consider integrating their economies; first between the two countries, and then with the region, including South East Asia and China.
In the days of economic globalisation, no country can remain outside its influence. Since 1991, Bangladesh has been deeply engaged in the process of integration with the regional and global economy.
The new era is "global," rather than "international." It is global because there are other operators now, such as inter-governmental organisations and NGOs, that are in the field, and national governments have steadily lost monopoly of power in controlling their economies and businesses.
There is a saying that "money makes the world go round." For commercial purposes, the boundaries that separate one state from another are no more real than the equator. They do not define business requirements or consumer trends. Global business has changed the pattern of economic relationships.
Speed and de-regulation are the "mantras" of globalisation and keys to success in economic growth and development. Inter-connectivity between the people of different countries is the basic building block of globalisation.

Strengthening of bilateral relations
Since the two countries are close neighbours, and share about 4,025 kilometres of a porous border, bilateral relations embrace people to people relations, separated from official relations. People to people relations are reinforced by the existence of regular service of passenger trains.
Bilateral relation is like a plant that has to be nurtured, and not taken for granted to grow. If India and Bangladesh nurture their relation with a heavy dose of common-sense, I am confident that Bangladesh and India will have lasting friendship and goodwill towards each other.
Under that environment, no issue will stand in the way between the two neighbours, and they will walk hand in hand in regional and global arenas for their mutual benefit.
There is a saying that one can choose friends but not neighbours. Bangladesh and India are neighbours, and they cannot re-fashion geography. The two countries are destined to live next to each other.
Therefore, both Bangladesh and India must establish a framework in which political, economic, social and environmental concerns are sorted out amicably to mutual satisfaction.
The opening of the passenger train service may act as catalyst in boosting close and cooperative relations between the two countries, and in gradually achieving inter-connectivity within and outside the region.
What is needed now is new vision, free from the shackles of the old narrow mind-set, to put South Asia on a roadmap towards robust economic and development in an era of unprecedented political and economic transformation.
Leaders must make a break with the past and march forward with a new sense of purpose and determination along the road of historic changes brought about by economic globalisation, market forces, and climate change in the 21st century.
Let me finally conclude about the implication of the passenger train in people's minds: It has brought joy, peace, harmony, and hope at a moment of great opportunity of bilateral relations.

Barrister Harun ur Rashid is a former Bangladesh Ambassador to the UN, Geneva.