POBNEWS24, Dhaka July 1, 2024 : Bangladesh shocked! West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has written a letter to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. There is nothing wrong in writing a letter, the Chief Minister of a province can write a letter to the head of the central government on any subject in the federal system. But the question is about India’s common river Ganges agreement with Bangladesh and Teesta water management.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote a letter to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, June 24, ahead of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s two-day visit to India on June 22, 2024. In this letter, Mamata wrote – “I have strong objection to any agreement with Bangladesh on Teesta and Farakka water distribution without the participation of the West Bengal government.” The West Bengal Chief Minister has falsely claimed that he was not consulted in the internal review of the India-Bangladesh agreement on Ganga water sharing. According to information provided by various sources, the Central Government of India maintains constant communication with the West Bengal Government in this regard. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said in a press conference held on the morning of 25th June 2024 at the Gana Bhaban after her visit to Delhi – ‘Mamata Banerjee has written a letter to the Prime Minister of her country.
In this context, Indian news agency PTI reported that a committee was formed on July 24, 2023 for the internal review of the Ganga water sharing agreement. The West Bengal government was requested to send a representative there. On August 25, 2023, the West Bengal government under the Chief Ministership of Mamata Banerjee informed the Center that they had nominated the Chief Engineer of the Irrigation and Waterways Department as a representative in the committee. On 5 April 2024, the Joint Secretary, Irrigation and Waterways Department, Government of West Bengal informed the Center about the amount of money they would need for the downstream of Farakka Dam in the next 30 years. On the other hand, it was Mamata who earlier visited Bangladesh especially in 2015 and gave all kinds of cooperation to Bangladesh in solving the water problem. Why is Mamata Banerjee duplicitous? The discussion of water distribution is already a long and complicated process, Mamata Banerjee’s duplicity, her letter and objection did not make it longer and more complicated?
This news has also been published in the media of Bangladesh with anger and surprise that why Mamata is lying like this despite the work of renewing the Ganga water distribution agreement with the Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina by talking to the West Bengal government?
It should be noted that although the Teesta Agreement was supposed to be signed during the then Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh’s visit to Bangladesh in 2011, it was not signed at the last moment due to the objection of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. However, the Prime Minister of India said at that time that they will not take any action that would have an adverse effect. But since 2011, Teesta water is being unilaterally withdrawn. Even the West Bengal government took the initiative to dig two more canals upstream last year to remove the water without following the rules. This time, there are indications that Mamata can prevent trouble in the case of renewing the Ganga water distribution agreement by keeping the dispute with the central government and the local politics of West Bengal in front, according to the Indian media reports.
The question is being raised in the conscious circles of Bangladesh, is it not possible to renew the Ganga treaty and solve the problem of Teesta water distribution without a Bangladesh-friendly chief minister coming to power in West Bengal? Did Jyoti Bose’s birth in Bangladesh (then East Bengal) make the 1996 Ganga Water Treaty possible? These questions become relevant and important in view of the friendly role of the then West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu in facilitating the signing of the Ganga-Farakka Water Treaty between India and Bangladesh in 1996 and the “threat” of the current West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over the renewal of the treaty and Teesta water distribution. !
Incidentally, the Teesta Agreement was not signed during the visit of then Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on September 6, 2011 due to Mamata’s objection. Alleging that the interests of West Bengal were not protected in the proposed Teesta agreement, Mamata did not agree to the agreement at the last minute. It is known to everyone including Mamata Banerjee that India and Bangladesh are connected by 54 rivers. As a result of the division of the subcontinent on August 14, 1947, joining the then East Bengal with Pakistan, and the emergence of Bangladesh as an independent and sovereign state through the liberation war of 1971, the question of sharing has now arisen in many things, including rivers! Bangladesh wants as much water as Bangladesh can normally get, nothing more. But Mamata Banerjee is sometimes resorting to lies in the Ganga water agreement and Teesta management for her own political interests, and sometimes talking about love for Bangladesh.
