The passing of Land Boundary Agreement by the Parliament is a historic one. This is for the first time there was a unison approach between the Congress-led Opposition and BJP-led ruling parties buried their ideological divide to give effect to the Bill, the agreement for which was signed between India and Bangladesh in 1974 for exchange of enclaves. It was former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who started the whole process and UPA presented the Bill in Parliament in 2013. The Bill facilitates exchange of enclaves in accordance of 1974 agreement and sets aside the apprehensions of shrinking boundary of India. Though the transfer of enclaves have been approved but the Bill does not approve transfer of people thus leaving the option to the residents of the area to continue where they are or to shift to new territory. The 41 year-old agreement signed between Indira Gandhi and Sheikh Mujibur Rehman had a tumultuous journey through out with opposition not willing to take the bait and today what Congress started, BJP completed it in a true democratic manner. The presentation by Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj in the Parliament giving credit to Manmohan Singh for the successful passing of the Bill was jointly accepted by both ruling and opposition with a positive note to work together on such positive development. Even JD(U) Sharad Yadav said passage of the Bill will partially fulfill Rammanohar Lohia’s dream of confederation of South East Asian nations, which economically has larger sense than the political gains. For India, it will be opening of new vistas in the field of economic cooperation and trade opportunities with such large consumer markets. That government and Opposition chose to bury the difference and facilitate this important legislation which paves way for cooperation on other important issues. Not only this the operationalisation of the agreement will give tremendous boost to Indo-Bangladesh relations. The agreement it is hoped would pave way for settlement of Teesta Water sharing and transit rights. The development in the region especially improving infrastructure would no doubt benefit North East which has uptill now been deprived of development share by getting better connectivity and market access.
