A new crisis on the border?

The uncommon ferocity of the latest clash between some units of the Bangladesh Army as also Bangladesh Rifles, on one side, and the Indian Border Security Force (BSF), on the other, should serve as a wake-up call against complacency in bilateral neighborliness. The death of 16 BSF personnel and at least two security men of Bangladesh on Wednesday, besides the reports of sustained tensions on Thursday, can only be seen as the price of neglect by both countries in keeping their ties in a state of good repair.

On the whole, the Bangladesh Government, headed by Sheikh Hasina, seems to have so far adopted a somewhat cautious line in making sense of the flare-up and its fall-out. The Bangladesh Foreign Ministry has been reported to have called the Indian envoy in Dhaka to discuss ways to defuse the rising tensions in bilateral ties. The general impression conveyed by Dhaka thus far is one of a desire to de-escalate a growing crisis on the border with India. Yet, it is too early to predict how Bangladesh will manage the highly emotive issue, given especially the constant refrain of the opposition forces in that country about Ms. Hasina's presumptive pro-India bias.

New Delhi's relationship with Dhaka, unique in many ways with some signs of maturity too, is still a matter of powerful emotions that are directly traceable to the circumstances in which India had facilitated Bangladesh's liberation from Pakistan. The leaders of India and Bangladesh have had to deal with problems about the status of border enclaves as also the freedom of movement of people across what some tend to regard as a potential frontier of friendship. Of prime relevance to the current context is the need to revive the spirit of border coordination talks and of the accord, reached last December, on the formation of working groups to resolve all boundary related matters.

-- The Hindu, New Delhi