The Supreme Court's verdict on ILRP and concerns for Bangladesh‏

Dear Prof. Mohammed Khalequzzaman,

I have seen your comments on the subject of the river-linking project and the Supreme Court's recent oorder on it in Waterwatch Digest No. 1856. You have said that I have not mentioned Bangladesh's concerns in my article in The Hindu of 2 March 2012.  I have in fact not gone into any of the impacts and consequences of the Project in any detail. The focus of the article was on the propriety of the judiciary issuing an order to the executive government to implement a project. That focus is clear from the title of the article ('With All Due Respect, My Lords').

However, the article does forcefully make the point that the project is very controversial; that there are divergent views on it; and that the Supreme Court has relied on one report and ignored the vast literature on the subject. When a proper examination of the merits of the project is undertaken, all aspects, including the concerns expressed by Nepal and Bangladesh, will need to be gone into.

I may add that I was the first person to criticise the project strongly when it was announced in 2002 by the NDA Government, and my very first article mentioned the Bangladesh angle, even before any comment from Bangladesh. I was widely quoted in Bangladesh at that time and that made me very unpopular with the Government of India.

Incidentally, you say: "The people of Bangladesh have expressed their disappointment in various news media over the proposed Tipaimukh dam, lack of Teesta water sharing treaty, and the failure to implement the Ganges Treaty over the last 15 years." I agree that it was very unfortunate that a treaty on the Teesta was not signed when the Indian PM visited Bangladesh, and I can understand the disappointment in Bangladesh over this. As a matter of fact, there was dismay in this country too. Many commentators here criticised that failure. However, I cannot understand your reference to "the failure to implement the Ganges Treaty".

So far as I know, water-sharing under that Treaty is proceeding and there is a joint Indian-Bangladeshi team sitting at Farakka to monitor this. Khaleda Zia, who had been critical of the Treaty when it was signed, left it alone when she came to power. At one stage, a Minister in the BNP Government expressed satisfaction with its working. When the Treaty completed 5 years, Bangladesh did not ask for a review. Against that background, it is strange that you casually refer to 'non-implementation of the Treaty' as if it is a well-established fact.

If indeed it has not been implemented for 15 years, what were the Bangldeshi officials in the joint team at Farakka doing? Did they record official protests? Was the issue taken up in the Joint Rivers Commission? Did Khaleda Zia or Sheikh Hasina take up the matter formally with the Government of India? Did the Bangladesh Government ask for a review of the working of the Treaty? If in fact the Ganges Treaty has been a failure, did that failure figure in the talks during the recent visit of the Indian Prime Minister? If so, why were there no media reports to that effect? And if that Treaty has not been implemented, why is Bangladesh interested in signing a treaty on the Teesta?

I may add that I was in Dhaka in November 2010 for a conference and India-Bangladesh issues came up in one of the sessions (the Foreign Minister of Bangladesh was present and spoke), but no one referred to the non-impementation of the Ganges Treaty.

Despite all this, if you are convinced that the Ganges Treaty has not been implemented, you must ask the Government of Bangladesh to take up the matter formally with the Government of India.

Best Wishes. Ramaswamy R Iyer, New Delhi, E-Mail: rriyer@airtelmail.in, ramaswamy.iyer@gmail.com