Deals signed with India aren't anti-country: Hasina

Bangladesh Awami League president and prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday denied the allegations that the agreements and MoUs signed between Bangladesh and India are against the country’s interests.

“The title of all of the deals and Memorandums of Understanding which were signed with India came up in the media. None of the deals is anti-country,” Hasina told parliament while responding to a star-marked question of AL MP Fazilatun Nesa Bappi during a question-and-answer session.

She termed the allegations untrue, imaginary, inconsiderable, and said they are an ill-attempted move to confuse the people.

Fazilatun Nesa asked Hasina whether the allegation of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chairperson Khaleda Zia that the deals signed during Hasina’s India visit from 7 to 10 April are aimed to “sell out Bangladesh” is true.

In a supplementary question, Fazilatun Nesa asked if Bangladesh has signed any defence deal with any other country like that with China. In response, the prime minister said Bangladesh has defence deals with many countries including China, Russia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates.

“The defence deal with China was signed when the BNP was in power. And nobody was allowed to know anything about the deal. I don’t know whether parliament was informed [about the deal],” said Hasina.

The AL president said parliament will be informed about the agreements if notices are served in parliament.

The prime minister in her written answer mentioned the titles of 24 MoUs, eleven agreements and two standard operating procedures were signed between Bangladesh and India.

In response to a question what Bangladesh achieved from the recently held 136th Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Dhaka, Hasina said, “Those who want to create smokescreen centring on the 2014 general elections should now realise after the successful completion of such conference.

“The people will consider them naive if such questions are raised and the people will think that they have no idea about parliamentary practice.

“So, those who raise questions will no more raise questions. Democracy is in place in the country... Successful elections were held. Democracy exists,” claimed Hasina.

Source: Prothom Alo