Much touted to be a major break through in relations between India and Bangladesh, the visit of Dr Man Mohan Singh to Dhaka in some ways turned out to be a damp squib in some ways as two main agreements the Teesta River Waters Sharing and Transit could not be inked. These were the main touch points. Clearly the West Bengal Minister Mamata Banerjee played spoil sport as she did not agree to ink the Teesta agreement given fall out that it would have in local State politics. Lack of effective political management is therefore evident for the deal should have been worked out well in advance to be acceptable to the state government.
At the same time, the West Bengal Chief Minister lost a chance of emerging as a leader with wider national perspective and able to shape internal space by providing alternate relief to the people through measures such as subsidies and land for loss they may have suffered due to the water treaty.
The Bangladesh opposition was also in a similar mood raising fears of surrender to India thereby vitiating the larger atmosphere for bilateral amity. The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) slammed Sheikh Haseena and the Awami League for having given too much and not getting the Teesta River Waters deal through. The need for political consensus on both the sides of the Indo Bangladesh divide could thus be well appreciated given nature of deal with swap of land as well as distribution of water being the most emotive issues in societies which are primarily agricultural economies with small land holdings.
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