[chottala.com] Waters are not 'ours' to 'give': Tharoor

Waters are not 'ours' to 'give': Tharoor

Even as uncertainty continues over the proposed agreement between
Dhaka and New Delhi on Teesta, celebrity author and former Indian
minister of state for external affairs, Shashi Tharoor, argued that
waters of the common rivers are "shared natural resources" and should
be used "responsibly and equitably".

"We must all help persuade the Paschimbanga [West Bengal] leadership
that these waters are not 'ours' to 'give', but a shared natural
resource (as we accepted in the Indus Water Treaty with Pakistan),
which we should use responsibly and equitably," Tharoor wrote in his
new book "Pax Indica: India and the World of the 21st Century", which
was launched by Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari on Wednesday.

Tharoor, a former under secretary general of the United Nations, is
now a leader of the ruling Congress party of India and a member of the
lower house of the country's parliament. He was India's minister of
state for external affairs from May 2009 till April 2010.

Though he had to resign in the wake of a controversy over his alleged
role in promoting a cricket team in the Indian Premier League, Tharoor
continued to play a key role in shaping the foreign policy of the
Congress. He is also a member of the Indian parliament's standing
committee in external affairs.

In his latest book, Tharoor took a subtle dig at Mamata Banerjee, the
chief minister of Indian state of West Bengal or Paschimbanga, who
blocked the proposed deal between Dhaka and New Delhi for sharing of
waters of Teesta.

Noting that Banerjee, whom he referred to as "an important coalition
partner of the Manmohan Singh government", vetoed the proposed
agreement on Teesta in 2011, Tharoor wrote: "This was widely seen as a
setback for a relationship that was once again beginning to blossom
after a long freeze."

Banerjee in fact withdrew herself from Indian prime minister Manmohan
Singh's entourage to Bangladesh in September 2011, indirectly
expressing her reservation over the proposed deal on Teesta.

The relation between the Congress and its ally Trinamool Congress, a
regional party headed by Banerjee, continued to worsen since then and
reached its nadir recently over the presidential polls.

Though the Congress nominated its senior leader Pranab Mukherjee, who
held the finance portfolio in Manmohan Singh government, as the
candidate for the presidential polls, Banerjee made an attempt to
convince former president A P J Abdul Kalam to contest with the
support of her Trinamool Congress and a few other parties.

Kalam, however, declined to contest and the Congress managed to secure
the support of other regional parties like Samajwadi Party, Janata Dal
(United), Shiv Sena and Bahujan Samaj Party for its candidate
Mukherjee.

Banerjee is yet to declare whether her party would vote for Mukherjee
or his rival P A Sangma, who is backed by opposition Bharatiya Janata
Party, but the Congress is confident that its candidate would have a
cakewalk in the presidential polls even without the support of the
Trinamool Congress.

Tharoor, who authored 13 books earlier, wrote in his latest that
cooperation on sharing of waters of Teesta waters is 'indispensable'
for prime minister Sheikh Hasina to be able to claim that Bangladesh
'gained from her friendship with India'.

The Congress still maintains that Trinamool Congress continued to be
its ally, but might no longer allow its regional ally to dictate
terms. It is however still not clear whether New Delhi would expedite
the deal with Dhaka on Teesta, in case the acrimony between Congress
and Trinamool Congress leads to a break-up in future.

Tharoor also wrote about the Bangladesh-India dispute over enclaves
and adversely possessed land along the border between the two
countries.

"Most strikingly, a seemingly intractable territorial irritant – the
existence of small enclaves of each country within the other's borders
– was settled during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Dhaka in
September 2011 on terms that even Bangladeshis found generous on
India's part".

"It is a pity that parliamentary ratification of the land transfer
(which requires a two-thirds majority in both Houses that the United
Progressive Alliance government does not have) has not yet happened.
It will require an effort to persuade the opposition parties to
cooperate, but the effort is well worth making; otherwise, the
perception that 'India does not deliver on its promises' will gain
ground," he argued.

http://bdnews24.com/details.php?id=228180&cid=2


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