age of the bill, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi phoned Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and conveyed his greetings to the people of Bangladesh on this landmark occasion. “Historic milestone in India-Bangladesh relations,” Modi tweeted after the Lok Sabha’s Nod. Modi also thanked Congress leader Sonia Gandhi in the Lok Sabha after lawmakers cleared the land swap that Bangladesh and India have been negotiating for years. On Wednesday, the bill was unanimously passed by the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Indian parliament, when members buried their sharp ideological divide -- from Shiv Sena to CPM -- to unanimously give effect to the Land Boundary Agreement signed between India and Bangladesh in 1974 for exchange of enclaves. The LBA will come into effect as soon the Indian President assents to it. Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj won the hearts of the entire opposition on Wednesday by crediting Manmohan Singh government for putting in the hard work. “Manmohan Singh is the one who started the whole thing. I have merely completed the task,” she said, thanking the former PM who was present in the Rajya Sabha. She pointed out that the bill is exactly the same - to the last comma and full stop - as was presented by UPA in Parliament in December 2013. “It’s a win-win-win situation for everyone,” she said, ascribing the quote to leader of opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad. Calling the passage of the bill “historic”, Swaraj said it would take India-Bangladesh relations to a new high by settling the 41-year border issue. She also said the only issue which remained to be settled with Bangladesh was that of river water-sharing, primarily relating to Teesta river. “The way in which we are now settling the land boundary issue, we will try to settle this issue also.” The Constitutional amendment that was approved by the Lower House is intended to end decades of uncertainty for tens of thousands of citizens living in enclaves on the “wrong” side of their homeland’s border. Fifteen states in India now have to clear the amendment, which is unlikely to be a problem. Dozens of enclaves exist on either side of the border, a historical oddity left after the partition in 1947. The proposed solution would enable each side to acquire the enclaves within its borders, along with other disputed territories. People living in the enclaves would have the right to move to live in their original country of nationality or to become nationals of their ‘new’ country after the exchange. Most are expected to stay put, according to the Indian government. The Bill, which the Bharatiya Janata Party, Asom Gana Parishad and Trinamool Congress had opposed when it was brought by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in 2013, amends the First Schedule of the Constitution to give effect to an agreement entered into by India and Bangladesh on the acquiring and transfer of territories between the two countries on May 16, 1974. In 2011, then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina had signed the land swap deal known as the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA). The constitutional amendment bill to operationalise the agreement was introduced in the Rajya Sabha in 2013 but could not be passed due to stiff opposition. When the Narendra Modi government came to power, the Bill was again sent to the standing committee on the external affairs ministry, and a report presented in December 2014. Earlier on Tuesday, faced with opposition from Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and the Congress party in Parliament as well as unhappiness from the Bangladesh government, the Indian government reversed its decision on excluding Assam from the purview of its Bill on exchanging land with Bangladesh. An earlier plan by the Indian government to exclude Assam from the land swap arrangement because of fierce resistance from the BJP’s Assam unit ahead of state elections this year has now been shelved. According the agreement, India is to receive 2,777.038 acres of land and to transfer 2267.682 acres to Bangladesh, much of which has already been effected on the ground already.
Friday, May 8, 2015
Major breakthrough in Indo-Bangla ties:Daily Sun
age of the bill, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi phoned Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and conveyed his greetings to the people of Bangladesh on this landmark occasion. “Historic milestone in India-Bangladesh relations,” Modi tweeted after the Lok Sabha’s Nod. Modi also thanked Congress leader Sonia Gandhi in the Lok Sabha after lawmakers cleared the land swap that Bangladesh and India have been negotiating for years. On Wednesday, the bill was unanimously passed by the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Indian parliament, when members buried their sharp ideological divide -- from Shiv Sena to CPM -- to unanimously give effect to the Land Boundary Agreement signed between India and Bangladesh in 1974 for exchange of enclaves. The LBA will come into effect as soon the Indian President assents to it. Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj won the hearts of the entire opposition on Wednesday by crediting Manmohan Singh government for putting in the hard work. “Manmohan Singh is the one who started the whole thing. I have merely completed the task,” she said, thanking the former PM who was present in the Rajya Sabha. She pointed out that the bill is exactly the same - to the last comma and full stop - as was presented by UPA in Parliament in December 2013. “It’s a win-win-win situation for everyone,” she said, ascribing the quote to leader of opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad. Calling the passage of the bill “historic”, Swaraj said it would take India-Bangladesh relations to a new high by settling the 41-year border issue. She also said the only issue which remained to be settled with Bangladesh was that of river water-sharing, primarily relating to Teesta river. “The way in which we are now settling the land boundary issue, we will try to settle this issue also.” The Constitutional amendment that was approved by the Lower House is intended to end decades of uncertainty for tens of thousands of citizens living in enclaves on the “wrong” side of their homeland’s border. Fifteen states in India now have to clear the amendment, which is unlikely to be a problem. Dozens of enclaves exist on either side of the border, a historical oddity left after the partition in 1947. The proposed solution would enable each side to acquire the enclaves within its borders, along with other disputed territories. People living in the enclaves would have the right to move to live in their original country of nationality or to become nationals of their ‘new’ country after the exchange. Most are expected to stay put, according to the Indian government. The Bill, which the Bharatiya Janata Party, Asom Gana Parishad and Trinamool Congress had opposed when it was brought by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in 2013, amends the First Schedule of the Constitution to give effect to an agreement entered into by India and Bangladesh on the acquiring and transfer of territories between the two countries on May 16, 1974. In 2011, then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina had signed the land swap deal known as the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA). The constitutional amendment bill to operationalise the agreement was introduced in the Rajya Sabha in 2013 but could not be passed due to stiff opposition. When the Narendra Modi government came to power, the Bill was again sent to the standing committee on the external affairs ministry, and a report presented in December 2014. Earlier on Tuesday, faced with opposition from Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and the Congress party in Parliament as well as unhappiness from the Bangladesh government, the Indian government reversed its decision on excluding Assam from the purview of its Bill on exchanging land with Bangladesh. An earlier plan by the Indian government to exclude Assam from the land swap arrangement because of fierce resistance from the BJP’s Assam unit ahead of state elections this year has now been shelved. According the agreement, India is to receive 2,777.038 acres of land and to transfer 2267.682 acres to Bangladesh, much of which has already been effected on the ground already.
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