DHAKA: Mentioning ‘India also has a lot of problems’ Bangladeshi prominent businessman and former FBCCI President Anisul Haque said, “India should continue a good relation with neighboring Bangladesh for its own sake”.
He came up with this view during a discussion at city’s Lake Shore Hotel in Gulshan about Election in India 2014 on Saturday.
Earlier Dipankar Banerjee, a retired Major General of the Indian Army and an eminent defense, foreign policy, and strategic studies expert based in India described his view regarding Bangladesh and India relationship where he said that a new government is expected to assume power of India.
“No matter who beats but still there a lot of issues, should be solved soon, such as water, manpower, border crisis and connectivity”, he added.
The Daily Star editor Mahfuz Anam said, “The Teesta is a most shameful image of our two countries. India government made all the right moves but the provincial leaders scuttle it. We as Bangladeshi are not famous with the provincial leaders we deal with the central leaders and it was a case with the central leaders who absolutely failed to address the issue.”
He added: India failed to understand the depth of the possibility of the changes that was possible and as such India failed to give a new direction in the bilateral relation between the two countries and as such to give a new direction in South Asian situations.
Mahfuz Anam also said, “Bangladesh is the fifth largest trading partner for India. We have a formal market of some 1 billion dollar and an informal market of anything between 6 to 8 billion dollars. If for no other reason, but just as the market, we expect a more matured and the more helpful, and the more cooperative, and the more mutually support in relationship between India and Bangladesh.”
Besides, many other experts from both Bangladesh and India also discussed overall bilateral relations as well as possible situation after formation of the new government of India.
Among them, Jaglul Ahmed Chowdhury, analyst Salimullah Khan, DU Teacher Anwar Hossain, Barrister Amirul Islam, former Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Bina Sikri and veteran law-maker Kuldip Nayar also attending the roundtable while Samia Zaman is moderating the session.
BDST: 1419 HRS, MAY 03, 2014
