Bangladesh does not expect India to 'reciprocate the favour': PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said Bangladesh does not expect India to return the favour for helping ease its security headache. 

She cleared her government's stance when reporters drew her attention to a report by an Indian daily at a news conference at the Ganabhaban on Wednesday on her recent two-day visit to India.

“Dhaka stands by Delhi, Hasina wants Modi to 'reciprocate the favour’,” reads the headline of Kolkata-based Anandabazar newspaper.  

“I don’t want anything in return. What is there to be done in return? I ask for less, give more," Hasina said. 

“India will always remember what we’ve done for them. They had to deal with bombings, shootings every day. We gave them their peace back.

“They must keep it in mind. But we don’t want anything in return," she added.

When the Awami League returned to power in 2009, security forces cracked down on Indian insurgents operating from Bangladesh.

The Indian media had reported at the time that the Bangladeshi law enforcers handed some of the top separatists to India.

Speaking about the ties between the two countries at the media call, Hasina recalled the assistance India provided during Bangladesh’s war of independence from Pakistan.

“They (India) supported us during the Liberation War by training hundreds of thousands of our freedom fighters and sheltering our refugees. We remember with gratitude that they gave their lives on the battlefield with us,” she said.

Hasina said she believes her visit will boost the robust ties with India.

“Let’s not comment further,” she said when the reporters asked for her reaction to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent comments that he hoped the Teesta water-sharing deal would be signed during the current tenure of the two governments.   

“There can be bitterness among neighbours. But I don’t want to say anything that can create bitterness,” she added.

The prime minister emphasised discussion by the joint commission formed on sharing water of the common rivers of the two countries.

She criticised the construction of the Teesta Barrage in Bangladesh during deposed military dictator HM Ershad’s regime.

“We are at downstream.. How can we cry for water after constructing the barrage?” she asked.

Hasina also said the Awami League would reconstruct the box culverts at Panthapath and Motijheel so that both vehicles and boats can travel if the party retained power.

She went to India to attend the inauguration of the Bangladesh Building at the Visva-Bharati university and join a special convocation of the Kazi Nazrul University.

After arriving in Kolkata on Friday morning, she travelled to Santiniketan where she and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi attended convocation of the Visva-Bharati and inaugurated the Bangladesh Bhavana.

The two premiers also held a bilateral meeting.

“We discussed in detail various issues like strengthening bilateral ties and sharing water of common rivers,” Hasina said.    

On Friday afternoon, she visited Thakur Bari, the ancestral home of Rabindranath Tagore.

The prime minister met business leaders of Kolkata and joined a dinner hosted by West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi later in the night.

She travelled to Asansol next morning to attend the special convocation of the Kazi Nazrul University.

She also received an honorary D Lit degree at the university.

On her return to Kolkata from Asansol, she visited the Netaji Museum in the afternoon.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who also attended the Visva-Bharati events, met Hasina at the Taj Bengal hotel that evening. 

Hasina said she discussed ‘issues of mutual interests’ with Mamata.

Source: bdnews24