FM's remarks

I could not agree more with those among the BNP who have expressed criticisms in no uncertain terms over the speech, for there is no other way to look at this speech. ("Sharp reactions to Morshed's remark": DS September 9th). By itself, this speech, even if all the facts are in our favour and India is wrong on all counts, will get us nowhere and close all doors for negotiations. Did the foreign minister forget that the water ministry is trying very hard for ministerial level talks for sharing of water and to influence the Indian government to drop the river linking project and that official level talks between the two countries' water ministries are scheduled for next week? Now is there any point for those talks?

For those hard-liners in the BNP, they do not know that the surest way to being sidelined regarding our interests with India is to embarrass India as the FM has done. They may get a lot of satisfaction by reading what the FM said against India but they will get NOTHING more than reading satisfaction. To the Indians, chances for getting anything done through this FM and the foreign ministry regarding our interests with them have now come down to a BIG ZERO.

Those urging the FM in this hawkish stance should perhaps ask the FM what he saw when he came back from India just a few months ago to tell everyone that the Congress led government was prepared to settle all outstanding problems with Bangladesh.

Morshed Khan's outburst regarding India was out of the norm, but it is clear that India is becoming a huge obstacle in the prosperity of our country. They lobby in Washington to portray our country as a base for terrorist groups; Indian newspapers condemn our government for not taking necessary measures to root out the problem yet they don't have any evidence to back up their allegation. India considers us as a Failed Nation. They do not care about the bilateral trade deficit, they just want us to cooperate with whatever they want and we as a nation don't even have the courage to point it out. I believe we can do better!

Anonymous, On e-mail

The recent remarks of our foreign minister on India-Bangladesh relations came as a surprise to many. It has crossed the fine line of diplomacy. It is difficult to assume what prompted him to go to such a length. Did he spell out government policy or his own feelings? It sounded like a threat while dealing with trade balance.

Without being fully informed about the purpose and the environment prevailing during the discussion, it is difficult to guess what prompted the FM to be so blunt. We expect some clarification either from the FM or from the policy makers of the BNP.

A Bangladeshi abroad, On e-mail

The bluntness of the recent remarks by Foreign Minister Morshed Khan is remarkable. Diplomacy is often the science of the obtuse and Mr. Khan is known to be a rather amiable person. Hence, I can understand the disappointment of Indian High Commissioner Veena Sikri who handled the situation with utmost tact and grace.

That said, Ms. Sikri must surely know that India has not exactly been fair to Bangladesh always. Putting aside all other issues, I will point out that to this day India's Parliament has not ratified the treaty that demarcated our borders thirty years ago. Our legislature endorsed the same almost immediately but the unwillingness of successive Indian governments to bring the treaty to their Parliament has contributed to the untold misery of hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshis trapped in enclaves. Such mysterious reluctance is also a factor in frequent border clashes. The failure of India to honour her solemn pledge must make many of us wonder whether the pledge was indeed taken in good faith or not. I have heard, of course, the Indian defence that the issue has become tangled up in courts and state-federal relations. None of those arguments make much sense because as any novice of basic international relations knows, treaty obligations take precedence over local, provincial, national, and even constitutional law.

My suggestion to High Commissioner Sikri is that she ask her government to fulfil the pledge India made to us three decades ago: promises kept are the surest foundation of good neighbourly relations.

Esam Sohail , Kansas City Missouri, USA

Foreign Minister Mr. Morshed Khan's comments in the young journalists' meeting naturally came as a shock to many well meaning persons throughout Bangladesh, even within the ruling party.

After all, Mr. Khan has been FM for over two years now. Why should he suddenly make such caustic remarks about a neighbour? Perhaps what he said was in conformity with an approved government version. One should not be surprised if indeed this is the case.

A senior citizen , On e-mail

I was perplexed by your editorial ("The foreign minister's fury") and the op-ed article by your Assistant Editor Mr. Zafar Sobhan ("Cooperation not confrontation") on September 10, critical of Bangladesh Foreign Minister's "broadside" against India's unfair trade policies towards Bangladesh. You admit that it was a breach of diplomatic protocol for the Indian Prime Minister to phone only our leader of the opposition after August 21, "bypassing" the prime minister who was not phoned, unlike every other heads of the government who had phoned both the prime minister and the leader of the opposition to offer condolences. You sugarcoat another serious breach of protocol by India by stating matter-of-factly, "The protocol given to Sheikh Hasina, and the level of meetings arranged for her during her visit to India, before any meeting with PM Khaleda Zia, was also not lost on the BNP coalition government." While you dismiss the two diplomatic insults hurled openly at the prime minister of Bangladesh by India and do not criticise India for it, you take to task the foreign minister of Bangladesh for his "undiplomatic" and "amateurish outburst," knowing full well that what the foreign minister said about India's unfair trade practices, lack of water-sharing and the false allegation of Bangladesh harbouring terrorist camps, was true!

I agree with Mr. Sobhan that there exists within India two constituencies, one friendly and one hostile to Bangladesh. Regardless of what we do, the hostile constituency will always remain so. We need to cultivate the Bangladesh-friendly constituency in India. What better way is there to do so than telling them the truth?

Rashed Firoz, New York