The secretary general of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, said on Tuesday that the party had rejected all the deals made with the country during the prime minister’s June 21–22 visit to India.
‘We are expressing deep concern as 10 deals were signed during prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to India, including seven new agreements and three renewal agreements with India,’ Fakhrul said at a press conference at the party chairperson’s political office in Gulshan.
‘We are also expressing fear that the country’s independence and sovereignty will be endangered in the execution of the agreements. By not making any agreement on water sharing of common rivers, including Teesta, not stopping the killing of Bangladeshi citizens by BSF on the border, and unilaterally giving all the benefits to India, the interests of Bangladesh have been greatly undermined,’ he said.
Mirza Fakhrul said that in the name of connectivity, agreements were signed to facilitate rail communication from one end of India to the other end of India, along with agreements on postal and telecommunication, military training cooperation in strategic and operational sectors, medicine, and the and the free movement of India in Bangladesh’s waters.
He also said that the interests of Bangladesh had been undermined in the agreements between the ministry of railways and the agreement between the two countries on ocean research.
He said that Sheikh Hasina completely failed to gain anything for Bangladesh from India in exchange for providing all kinds of benefits to India, and this was a manifestation of the knee-jerk foreign policy of an illegitimate government without a mandate.
He said that this illegal government was planning to make Bangladesh dependent on India.
These agreements are against Bangladesh’s interests, so the BNP rejects them.
Saying the BNP is not opposing India but the Bangladesh government’s failure.
‘There is no dispute with India. Our government has been unable to collect its fair share of water, including Teesta. These are not patriotic governments, but anti-national governments. They have no responsibility for the people of the country. What is Bangladesh’s interest in India’s rail line connectivity? We are talking about this,’ he said.
