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India takes step toward resolving border dispute with Bangladesh

Chanakya's_Chant

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India takes step toward resolving border dispute with Bangladesh
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Female personnel of Border Security Force (BSF) patrol along the fencing of the India-Bangladesh international border at Dhanpur village in Tripura August 11, 2014.

(Reuters) - India has inched closer to settling a long-simmering border dispute with Bangladesh, possibly signalling a softer line from nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi than when he was in opposition.

On Monday, a parliamentary committee urged the government to table a constitutional amendment that would pave the way for a land swap deal that Bangladesh and India have been negotiating for years. That followed a speech by Modi at the weekend that suggested a solution was in the offing.

In addition to Bangladesh, India has intractable territorial disputes with Pakistan and China. Modi called off peace talks with Pakistan in August but last week appointed a special envoy to China, a move that will allow border negotiations to resume.

A deal with Bangladesh would end decades of uncertainty for tens of thousands of citizens living in enclaves on the "wrong" side of their homeland's border.

Dozens of enclaves exist on either side of the border, a historical oddity left after British India's partition in 1947.

The proposed solution would enable each side to acquire the enclaves within its borders, along with other disputed territories. On paper, the exchange appears to leave India with about 10,000 acres less territory and affects the more than 50,000 people living in the enclaves, as of a July 2011 headcount.

People living in the enclaves would have the right to move to live in their original country of nationality or to become nationals of their 'new' country after the exchange. Most are expected to stay put, according the Indian government.

Neither country would lose any territory they currently control, said Shashi Tharoor, head of the parliamentary committee and a minister in the last government.

IDENTITY

"It is merely regularizing the existing reality in a way that permits both countries to extend normal public services to the residents of these areas," he told Reuters.

Despite the BJP's past objections, Modi seemed to back such a deal on Sunday during a speech in Assam, one of the Indian states that would be affected.

"Whatever we do, there might be a perception of a short-term loss, but ultimately Assam will gain," said Modi, who discussed the border with his Bangladeshi counterpart last week.

Modi said the deal could help curb illegal immigration from Bangladesh, a hot political issue in border areas. Bangladesh's foreign secretary declined to comment on the proposed deal.

Enclave dwellers in India welcomed the prospect of a deal.

"I will finally have the chance to obtain an identity," said Jamal Hussain, a 20-year-old farm worker who lives in Masaldanya enclave nestled within West Bengal.

Not everyone was happy.

"The land of Assam that is supposed to be handed over belongs to Assam," said Samujjal Bhattacharya, an advisor to the influential All Assam Students' Union. "[The BJP] are taking a U-turn today. How can that be?"

But as the Modi government looks to tackle bigger regional problems, resolving the border dispute with Bangladesh would be a solid start, some say.

"They have to sort out some of the issues that are low-hanging fruit," said Anand Kumar, of the New Delhi-based think-tank the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses.

(Reporting by Krista Mahr and Tanya Ashreena in New Delhi and Serajul Quadir in Dhaka; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel and Robin Pomeroy)

Source:- India takes step toward resolving border dispute with Bangladesh| Reuters
 
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That idiot Samujjal Bhattacharya is a 50 year old guy heading a student union and he is talking about logic.Fu****g ironic I say.
 
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All kneel before her highness Hasina Manmohon to Modi :lol:
 
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Cabinet clears India-Bangladesh Land Boundary Agreement Bill

New Delhi: The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday cleared a bill to give effect to the India-Bangladesh Land Boundary Agreement (LBA).

Under the land boundary pact, India and Bangladesh want to exchange 161 enclaves which are under each other's adverse possession.

The agreement has to be ratified by Parliament through a constitution amendment bill.

The bill was placed in the Rajya Sabha in 2013 and subsequently referred to a select committee, headed by Shashi Tharoor of Congress, which "unanimously" recommended implementation of the LBA deal.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh had earlier said that the land boundary deal with Bangladesh should be implemented on humantarian grounds.

Source:- Cabinet clears India-Bangladesh Land Boundary Agreement Bill | Zee News
 
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Strange, such a historic event but still no Bangladeshi ppl commenting here.
 
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Strange, such a historic event but still no Bangladeshi ppl commenting here.
Well it is historic no doubt...but it is mostly good news to people in the enclaves...besides people are too busy with the BD-PAK test match right now!
 
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Well it is historic no doubt...but it is mostly good news to people in the enclaves...besides people are too busy with the BD-PAK test match right now!
You will beat them... Anyways stopped following cricket after Sourav/ Sachin retired . So you are saying if Teesta deal gets through it will be more noteworthy?
 
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You will beat them... Anyways stopped following cricket after Sourav/ Sachin retired . So you are saying if Teesta deal gets through it will be more noteworthy?
I believe so...since Teesta affects more people than enclaves do!
 
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So you are saying if Teesta deal gets through it will be more noteworthy?

Yes.

In fact, many say that if Khaleda managed to rally people with the Teesta issue, the opposition may have had more credibility.
 
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Strange, such a historic event but still no Bangladeshi ppl commenting here.


It is because we first need to see things moving on ground. 1973 to 2015 is a long time. We had done our part right away, but sincerity was absent on the Indian side. So let's wait and see it taking shape physically.
 
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Believe what? It is a constitutional amendment that has been passed, it's as big as it gets.

Lets see it enacted on the ground first. 1974 to 2015 to just get a amendment passed and after decades of promises, lies and back tracking on treaties signed....wow an you want us to cheer this?
 
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Lets see it enacted on the ground first. 1974 to 2015 to just get a amendment passed and after decades of promises, lies and back tracking on treaties signed....wow an you want us to cheer this?


Don't care whether you cheer it or not but the fact that a constitutional amendment has been passed unanimously is no small feat. That is now the position of the Indian state.

Unlike what you think, this is no simple "amendment", constitutional amendments are those requiring change to the Indian constitution itself & are taken extremely seriously, requiring passing by a 2/3rd majority in both houses of parliament as well as by a proportion of state legislatures.. This is no longer the process in progress, it is the culmination of the process, nothing more needs to be done. Everything else will follow automatically.
 
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