Not looking east

Mohammed Faruk Khan is a former colonel in the Bangladesh army. Perhaps thats got something to do with his startling departure from the normal mealy-mouthed protocol that follows bilateral meetings. Bangladeshs commerce minister,after an official meeting with his Indian counterpart,Anand Sharma,snapped that Indias concessions on textile imports were peanuts. He was,of course,right. Sharma had made a big deal of the fact that India had raised the import quota from 8 million to 10 million. But Bangladesh,as Khan reminded us,is the worlds second-largest exporter of textiles,and it is also trying hard to decrease a ballooning trade deficit with India. It would have behoved New Delhi to have tried a little harder to convince the Bangladeshis that India is committed to strengthening ties.

This is just another depressing reminder that the government seems bent on wasting a crucial historical moment. Theres a friendly government in Dhaka,and it is posting excellent development indicators. India has a Look East policy nominally in place,and needs to streamline access for its under-performing eastern states to global markets. All these ideas should come together to make a strong case for wooing Bangladesh like never before. Yet,even as the government in Dhaka sends out overture after overture,Delhis response has been dilatory,even uninterested.

There are two reasons why this would be a mistake of great magnitude. The first is that,if this moment is wasted,India will have lost the best opportunity it has yet had to ensure that at least one of its larger neighbours is bound to it strongly by chains of mutual enterprise and profit. The second is that it would have a cascading effect on our integration eastwards. Building joint infrastructure whether canals along the Teesta on the border between the two Bengals,or railway lines running from Agartala,or a bridge over the Pheni river connecting Mizoram to Bangladesh would open up access to the ports at Chittagong and Mongla,reducing costs for trade to Indias Northeast dramatically,and further integrating India with Southeast Asia. This isnt an opportunity to be missed. But it looks like Delhi will miss it.