While the water secretaries of the two nations began their two-day talks on water sharing at the Sonargaon hotel in flood-ravaged Dhaka on Tuesday morning, the home secretaries are expected to meet on Wednesday on security issues plaguing both countries.
On Sunday, reports of Indian unhappiness over Khan's 'anti-India' statements culminated with a story in an Indian daily that New Delhi was considering skipping, and thus scuttling, the SAARC summit in Dhaka next year.
Speaking to participants in the Bangladesh-India Dialogue for Young Journalists on September 7, Khan sneered at India's repeated charge that Bangladesh harbours terrorists who operate in India's Northeast, and said it was India that was being intransigent over anti-Bangladesh elements operating openly out of Kolkata and other places in West Bengal. He also accused New Delhi of erecting trade barricades against Bangladeshi goods and illegally depriving it of river waters.
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Dhaka's outburst is likely to have been sparked by calls made by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi to Bangladesh opposition leader Sheikh Hasina Wajed after an attempt on her life on August 21, and India's subsequent offer to help 'identify' the culprits.
Dhaka is also peeved at the 'grand' reception accorded to Hasina on a 'private' visit to India a few weeks earlier.
But whatever the reason, Khan's remarks, made in the presence of India's High Commissioner in Bangladesh Veena Sikri (and Pakistan's envoy Manzir Sharif) sparked an angry outburst from New Delhi, with Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran summoning Bangladesh's High Commissioner in India Hemayetuddin to convey the country's displeasure.
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According to an Indian foreign office statement, Hemayetuddin was warned that Khan's remarks could have "a negative impact" on bilateral relations and the "spirit of goodwill and friendship that has hitherto characterised these relations".
Subsequently, a government spokesman in Dhaka announced that maintaining friendly relations with India is central to Bangladesh's foreign policy and hoped that the two secretary-level talks would proceed as per schedule.
An Indian external affairs ministry official told rediff.com that while New Delhi was certainly "taken aback" by Khan's remarks, calling off the talks would not resolve the issue. As for scuttling the SAARC summit, "why should we hold the entire region hostage over differences between two member states," he asked.
Delhi worried over Bangla arms haul
During the talks between the home secretaries, ''priority issues relate to the existence of camps of northeastern insurgent groups in Bangladesh and the logistic support being provided to these groups by Bangladesh authorities, arms smuggling, and Bangladesh emerging as a transit for arms supplies to Northeast insurgents,'' said Rajiv Aggarwal, joint secretary in the home ministry for the Northeast.
He said India would not submit a fresh list of camps in that country, but expected Bangladesh to act on the list of 195 such camps submitted during the meeting between the Border Security Force and the Bangladesh Rifles in April.
India gives Bangladesh new evidence on terror camps
Apart from action on terrorist camps on Bangladeshi soil, India's Home Secretary Dhirendra Singh will also seek Dhaka's co-operation to check cross-border crimes, including trafficking of women and counterfeit Indian currency. He will also brief his counterpart on the border fencing undertaken by India to check infiltration, and seek joint patrols by the BDR and BSF along sensitive areas.
Other issues include the deportation/extradition of United Liberation Front of Asom general secretary Anup Chetia, arrested and jailed in Dhaka nearly seven years ago, and consular access to Indian prisoners in Bangladesh jails. These talks are part of the three-tier institutionalised mechanism between the countries to discuss bilateral security issues.
The secretary-level talks on water-sharing are part of the Joint River Commission established after the 1996 Indo-Bangladesh Treaty on sharing of the Ganges waters. But while both sides agreed to discuss water-sharing treaties/agreements over other common rivers, no timeframe was set, and India has already postponed two earlier rounds of talks.
The 11 member Indian delegation, which began the talks on Tuesday, is led by Water Secretary Vinod K Duggal, while the 13 member Bangladeshi side is led by his counterpart, Dr Mohammad Omar Faruque Khan.
Apart from trying to reach a consensus on sharing the waters of seven major rivers the Teesta, Monu, Muhuri, Khoai, Gorai, Dharla, and Dudkumar common to both nations, the two sides will also discuss India's river-linking project initiated by the previous National Democratic Alliance government.
The two sides will then forward their recommendations to their respective ministers, who are likely to meet in Dhaka some time next month, though the dates are yet to be agreed upon.
Seven unresolved issues with India: Bangladesh
While some Indian officials said the talks would "help us further understand each others positions", others expressed pessimism over their outcome, saying not much could be expected when both sides are sticking to their positions and refusing to make concessions. They also expressed dismay at Bangladesh's inability to check fundamentalists in the country, reflected in the increasing anti-India rhetoric emanating from Dhaka.
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