Don't politicise LBA
- With around a week left for the budget session of Parliament to conclude, a key pending legislative business is the ratification of the India-Bangladesh Land Boundary Agreement (LBA). The Constitution amendment bill that envisages the exchange of 162 Indian and Bangladeshi enclaves and fully demarcates the India-Bangladesh border has been hanging fire in Parliament since UPA days. Back then BJP had opposed the bill on the ground that it violated the basic features of the Constitution. After coming to power it did a welcome U-turn, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself asserting that LBA was in the country’s long-term security interests.
- However, recent reports that government plans to introduce the Constitution amendment bill by excluding the Assam portion of the LBA, involving just 268 acres, are disturbing. The irony is that the Assam government itself had made its support for LBA known. However, the BJP central leadership appears to have succumbed to the wishes of the state party unit that has been opposing the LBA with an eye on Assam assembly polls in 2016. But if Assam is excluded, Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee – who initially opposed LBA and had to be mollified to change her mind – would be under pressure to reconsider her support to the agreement.
- And if Bengal reneges, it would scuttle LBA for good. Given that the parliamentary standing committee on external affairs has unanimously endorsed LBA, the government could easily pass the Constitution amendment bill with opposition Congress support. Yet, it has chosen to politicise the issue for hypothetical and short-term electoral gains in Assam. Ratification of LBA would not only galvanise India-Bangladesh relations but also demonstrate to China that New Delhi is capable of settling long-pending border issues. The government must stop playing politics and ratify LBA without any exclusions.
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