Bangladesh-India Relations: Teesta treaty is a bridge too far and even a reset can’t redeem it

Teesta treaty needs a thorough overhaul to serve any purpose today.

Talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladeshi counterpart, Sheikh Hasina, over the sharing of the waters of trans-border rivers has revived the possibility of the signing of the Teesta River water-sharing treaty hanging fire since 2011 because of West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee’s stiff opposition citing her state’s water requirements.

Predictably, Banerjee lost no time in criticising the Modi-Hasina discussions in New Delhi on Sunday as “unilateral deliberations” which are “neither acceptable nor desirable” because the West Bengal government was not consulted -- she even threatened in writing to launch a movement if the Centre went ahead bypassing her!

But the bitter truth is that even if Banerjee were to miraculously fall in line clearing the decks for Modi and Hasina to put their signatures on the much-hyped Teesta pact and formalising it at long last, the best Dhaka can hope for is a hollow victory.

The situation on the ground on the Indian side has changed so much in 13 years that the original Teesta treaty needs a thorough overhaul to serve any purpose today. It has to be renegotiated and redrafted – and such a reset is well-nigh impossible.

The Teesta Treaty Row

Originating in the Himalayas, the Teesta River flows through Sikkim and West Bengal in India before entering Bangladesh. The original agreement finalised in 2011 after many rounds of talks, lay down that Bangladesh would receive 37.5 percent of the Teesta’s waters at the Gajoldoba barrage in Jalpaiguri in West Bengal, while India would keep 42.5 percent, and the remaining 20 percent would be left untouched and unclaimed to maintain the ecological balance.

But since 2011 Sikkim and West Bengal between them have knocked the bottom out of the very Teesta treaty that Bangladesh is hankering after and Modi-Hasina considers it their sacred national duty to sign and formalise. The two states have virtually invalidated the unsigned treaty by brazenly violating India’s solemn commitment at the 37th Indo-Bangladesh Joint Rivers Commission (JRC) in 2010 to “not construct any major structure for diversion of water for consumptive use upstream of the Gajoldoba barrage except minor irrigation schemes, drinking water supply and industrial use”.

Essentially, West Bengal and Sikkim have been arrogantly sucking water from the Teesta with impunity, depriving lower riparian Bangladesh in spite of the 2010 JRC agreement prohibiting the withdrawal of any additional water by India from the common river, making a mockery of the Teesta treaty and practically ringing its death knell.

Sikkim and West Bengal Play Spoilsport

Sikkim has recklessly built as many as 14 dams on the Teesta for generating hydro-electricity, badly curtailing water supplies to Bangladesh downstream. Among them are the flagship 1200 MW Teesta Stage III in north Sikkim in operation since 2017 and 500 MW Teesta Stage IV nearing completion and commissioning. Without an iota of doubt, Sikkim’s more than a dozen Teesta-centric power plants are at Bangladesh’s cost going by the spirit of the 2010 JRC agreement in anticipation of the “expeditious” signing of the 2011 Teesta treaty.

Cocking a snook at the 2010 JRC agreement, the West Bengal government too acquired 1,000 acres of land as recently as last year for digging two new canals for drawing water from the Teesta River to irrigate agricultural land in Cooch Behar and Jalpaiguri districts. The construction of two canals, measuring 32 km and 15 km, will divert additional water from the Teesta River considerably reducing Bangladesh’s intake.

I’m afraid that in these trying circumstances the obsessive pursuit of the elusive Teesta treaty by the Hasina government is like flogging a dead horse. Modi is no doubt in favour of inking the Teesta deal, but as water is a state subject, the Centre can’t apply the brakes on West Bengal or Sikkim who care two hoots about the Teesta treaty which is anyway in a limbo. So the best course for Dhaka is to simply give it up as a lost cause and move on, instead of hankering after something that is clearly unattainable.

The way forward for Hasina is to dump the bilateral format and sign up for the United Nations Convention on the Law of Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses which champions the cause of lower riparian states like Bangladesh. She can also link the thorny river water-sharing issue to transit facilities that India badly needs for linking the mainland to the northeastern region using Bangladeshi roads, railway and rivers. Transit is our Achilles’ heel in south Asia. Connectivity is a bigger bargaining chip than Dhaka probably realises.