A senior leader of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain, on Monday blamed a 'third or fourth force' for creating misunderstanding between India and Bangladesh and protracting bilateral disputes.
He also said that he does not believe that Indian people or the government would do anything causing harm for Bangladesh. If there was a stronger bilateral relation, people of both the countries would be benefited, he added.
He also expected the longstanding disputes would be resolved during the forthcoming visit to Bangladesh by Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh.
Mosharraf, a member of BNP's top policy-making body, at a discussion at the National Press Club on 'Manmohan's Upcoming Tour of Bangladesh : Fear and Prospect', said politicians of both the countries should understand the activities of other forces and resist them from creating misunderstanding between the two countries.
'We want a friendly relation with India and people of Bangladesh expect so,' he said and urged the Indian leaders to come up with sincere efforts to resolve longstanding disputes in the same way it had stood by Bangladesh during the war of independence in 1971.
'India has many expectations from Bangladesh as a neighbour and Bangladesh has more expectations from India as a big country,' Mosharraf said.
He also asked the ruling government to raise the longstanding bilateral issues and strongly discuss them during Manmohan's tour, instead of pursuing a submissive attitude during the talks.
'If our problems were properly raised in dialogues, India would of course respond positively. But people have doubts over the government's role at the discussion table,' he said.
Mosharraf said fear was brewing among people for the government's hush-hush attitude over possible agreements during Manmohan's trip. He also iterated the party's demand for placing all the deals signed with India in parliament.
The BNP leader welcomed the visiting Indian Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi and hoped her visit would strengthen Dhaka-Delhi relations.
Mosharraf expected Sonia's role in settling the unresolved issues like water sharing of the Ganges and Teesta, resolving border conflicts and killing of Bangladeshi people by Indian border guards, demarking maritime boundary and stopping the move for constructing dam at Tipaimukh on upstream Meghna.
Adviser of BNP chairperson Abdul Halim, Bangladesh Jatiya Party secretary general Abu Naser Muhammad Rahmatullah and National Awami Party (Bhsasani) secretary general Golam Mostafa Bhuiyan also spoke at the programme presided over by Mehbubur Rahman.
Source : New Age
No comments:
Post a Comment