Only Manmohan can make a fresh start in Dhaka-Delhi ties

By delinking trade and security issues, offering a "composite dialogue" on all issues of bilateral concern and promising result-oriented negotiations, Singh can make a fresh start in the troubled relationship, said C Raja Mohan in his report published in the influential Indian Express yesterday.

Above all, lending an empathetic ear to the many accumulated Bangla grievances and a personal commitment to bring back dignity and equality into bilateral relationship might allow him to scale the wall of mistrust in Dhaka, he pointed out in the report headlined "Delhi-Dhaka ties: Only PM can break impasse."

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Although expectation about Indo-Bangla relations are low, analysts here say it would be a pity if the first visit by an Indian Prime Minister to Dhaka in five years does not even make an attempt to loosen the knotted bilateral relationship, argued C Raja Mohan.

In January 2004 when prime minister AB Vajpayee visited Islamabad to attend the 12th Summit of the Saarc, it became an occasion to transform the ties with Pakistan. But with Bangladesh, a fair friendlier terrain than Pakistan, bilateral ties have drifted into an impasse, the report said.

Thanks to the small-nation syndrome in Dhaka and a lack of vision in Delhi, a frustrating paralysis has taken hold of bilateral ties. To break the gridlock, Singh will have to shore up what the Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Veena Sikri recently called the "psychological infrastructure" of bilateral relations.

Pointing to the problem of attitude in Dhaka, Sikri in a recent speech, said a negative mindset "often colours every discussion, sometimes making the mindset more important than the reality in any situation."

That applies to Delhi as well, where episodic attention and a tendency to paint Bangladesh in dark colours have prevented a more sensitive approach to Dhaka. Worse still has been Delhi's decision to hold back from the economic concessions, if needed to offer by demanding security gestures from Bangladesh first.

In setting up a false linkage between two major but separate Indian interests in Bangladesh, The Indian Express said Delhi has allowed obstreperous elements in Dhaka to prevent progress on both.

The leading Indian English daily said Singh could help recast the relationship by delinking trade and security while pursuing issues on both fronts with equal vigour. He should also try and insulate ties with Dhaka from the deeply divisive domestic politics in Bangladesh.

An agreement between Singh and Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia to start a composite dialogue and a public commitment by the Indian prime minister could provide an impetus for Indo-Bangla relations, the Indian Express suggested.