Secretary General of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and former MP Professor Mia Golam Parwar has issued a statement on June 24, expressing deep concern over the extreme failure of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s recent visit to India to collect the fair share of water from the common rivers flowing over India-Bangladesh including the Teesta.
In the statement, he said, “In the 10 MoUs signed with India during the most recent visit of the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh has failed to get its fair share of the water of the same rivers that flow between India and Bangladesh, including the Teesta. This failure of the Prime Minister is very shameful.
He further said that the rightful right of Bangladesh to the water of common rivers flowing through India and Bangladesh is recognized internationally. This right involves our existence as well as the interests of agriculture, industry, trade and national security. The Bangladesh government, being unelected, has repeatedly shown a knee-jerk attitude and weakness in negotiations for Bangladesh’s fair share of shared river water. In fact, the Teesta water sharing agreement is not happening because of the reluctance of the central government of India, not West Bengal.
India’s proposal to conserve the water of the Bangladesh part of the Teesta river is very shameful for Bangladesh. Bangladesh government should immediately protest to India about India’s river linking project. Due to not getting a fair share of water, the socio-economic condition and environmental balance of Bangladesh is getting damaged.
He said that India’s construction of dams on the same rivers upstream of Greater Sylhet in the Surma-Kushiara basin region is causing thousands of crores of rupees in flood damage to the Sylhet region every year. However, the Prime Minister did not speak to India about this. Our clear opinion in this regard is that until our just demands are met, including the fair share of the water of the common rivers flowing over India-Bangladesh, the facilities given to India, including transit, should be withheld.
He further said that we also note with concern that the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has faced a risk to the national interest and security of Bangladesh in the agreement she made with India to start special train service from Calcutta to Rajshahi and bus service from Calcutta to Chittagong. Whenever the Prime Minister visits India, he comes only with; Can’t bring anything. It is the product of his knee-jerk foreign policy. The Awami League government has destroyed the free, fair and impartial election system. They came to power again and again with India’s intervention by holding farcical elections every time. As a result, the Awami League government without popular support always has to appease India and remain in power.
I call on the government to avoid knee-jerk foreign policy and work to protect the interests of the 17 crore people of Bangladesh.”