A Borderline Case

The Indo-Bangladesh border dispute is all set to take a curious turn with Indian authorities planning to turn the tables on their eastern neighbour over the issue of ratification of the 1974 Indira-Mujib accord. India has recently come across anomalies in Bangladesh's claim of having ratified the accord in order to sort out the long-standing border dispute. According to government sources, the "hollowness" of Bangladesh's claim will be exposed in next week's official-level meeting.

It was only after the recent flare-up on the border that the officials were forced to re-study the accord and other related documents. It has reportedly transpired that though Dhaka ratified the accord, it introduced a clause which makes implementation possible only after boundary demarcation.

Also, every possible roadblock was put up by Bangladesh to stall the demarcation. This made the accord's implementation virtually impossible. Says G.K. Pillai, joint secretary (northeast) in the home ministry: "They (Bangladesh) have been fooling their people and they're trying to fool us too. This is like saying that 'we accept only those portions of the accord that suit us, the rest doesn't come into force because it doesn't suit us'."

Officials say they have found an innocuous-sounding clause in the Bangladesh Constitution amendment Act ratifying the accord. But it renders the ratification meaningless for all practical purposes. When the accord was signed in March 1974, it was agreed that it would come into force after ratification by parliaments of both the countries. Bangladesh promptly introduced the Constitution (Third Amendment) Act, 1947, and claimed it had fulfiled its commitment. Indian Parliament, for some reason, has failed to ratify the accord till date.

But apparently, nobody in India read Bangladesh's Third Amendment Act carefully. Section 3 of the Act required that the Accord's implementation be subject to completion of demarcation of the boundaries between the two countries. Section 4 of the same act also bars it from coming into force until a notification to the effect is issued.

And therein lies the catch. For example, in the Lathitilla-Dumabari sector, Bangladesh didn't accept revenue maps supplied by India, claiming a different set of maps was required. But strangely enough, when asked to supply the maps, Bangladeshi authorities were unable to so. Points out a home ministry official: "When we ask for specific revenue documents, they say 'we don't have it. It must be with the Indian revenue department'. We even offered to have a survey of the disputed areas conducted by a third party but it was stonewalled on the pretext that there was no such provision in the accord."

Meanwhile, Bangladesh continues to play its trumpcard—"Indian Parliament hasn't ratified the Accord."

Indeed, ever since the Indira-Mujib accord was signed, India has been at pains to explain why it has failed to fulfil this commitment. "We would hang our heads in shame each time Bangladeshis accused India of lacking sincerity because our Parliament hasn't ratified the accord," a bsf official told Outlook. But with this new discovery, the officials hope to strengthen their position.

In the entire 4,096-km stretch of Indo-Bangladesh international border, only three patches involving a total of 6 km are disputed. These three undemarcated stretches include 1.5 km at the Muhari river in the Belonia sector, 3 km in the Lathitilla-Dumabari sector and another 1.5 km in Daikhata area.

The Indo-Bangla border dispute also centres around 111 Indian enclaves—a total of 17,000 acres of land—within Bangladeshi territory. Similarly, there are 51 Bangladeshi enclaves (7,000 acres) inside the Indian boundary. It was agreed between Indira Gandhi and Sheikh Mujibur Rehman that both the countries would give up their claims over these enclaves and people living in the enclaves would be given the choice of going to either country. Besides, there are other troublesome issues—areas held by each of the two countries within the other's territory—which need to be sorted out.

Enclaves are small patches of land owned by both the countries way inside each other's territory. For example, an Indian enclave is one which belongs to India but is landlocked inside Bangladesh. To make things worse, there are certain enclaves within enclaves held by the other country.

Government officials indicate that the next round of official talks will hopefully focus on the discrepancies in the Bangladeshi ratification of the accord. Whether this move will help resolve the dispute remains to be seen. But it will certainly help the Indian side score a few brownie points.