Bangladesh’s government warned India on water dispute, threatened to take issue to international forum

Dhaka: The interim government led by Mohammad Yunus in Bangladesh has taken a tough stand against India and has talked about taking the Teesta water dispute to the international forum. Rizwana Hasan, Minister of Water and Environment Affairs in the interim government, has said that Bangladesh can consider going to the international forum to resolve the Teesta water dispute. Referring to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s stand on Teesta, Rizwana said that Mohammad Yunus’ government will strongly raise the issues related to the shared rivers between the two countries. She said that in India, Mamata Banerjee says that she will not give us water. Therefore, we will bring forward the aspirations of our people living on the banks of Teesta. We will not back down from presenting Bangladesh’s rights on Teesta water.

According to The Dindu report, Rizwan Hasan also said that the new Bangladesh government will negotiate with New Delhi about shared rivers including Teesta. He said, ‘The Joint River Commission is negotiating on the water of Teesta but this time we will also include the people living on the banks of Teesta in Bangladesh. Whether we will get water or not is not in our hands but we will speak on this issue. We will tell our point very clearly to India. ‘ Bangladesh has agreements with India on shared rivers like Kushiyara and Feni.

The 1996 agreement will be negotiated again

Rizwana, who won the Magsaysay Award in 2012 for her work on environment and water resources, said that Dhaka and New Delhi will have to renegotiate the renewal of their 1996 Ganges water sharing agreement, which was signed when Sheikh Hasina was PM. The Kushiyara agreement was signed in September 2022. In this, the agreement on shared rivers was finalized after the Ganga Agreement of 1996. However, there has been no significant progress in the talks since then.

Rizwana Hasan said that we will maintain friendly relations with India but we will present our claims strongly and can also approach international forums for our fair demands. He said that Bangladesh has received invitations from many countries including China to discuss water-related matters. In such a situation, wherever we feel necessary, we will send our negotiators.

This statement from Bangladesh has come at a time when Comilla and Maulvibazar areas of eastern Bangladesh were submerged after heavy rains in Tripura, India. West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee also recently said that if the water of Teesta is shared with Bangladesh, there will be no water left even for drinking. After this, the interim government of Bangladesh has given this tough statement, which also shows a tough attitude towards India, unlike the previous Sheikh Hasina government.