BNP demands scrapping of 'slavery pact' with India

Anisur Rahman
Dhaka, Aug 9 (PTI) Bangladesh's main Opposition BNP
Monday demanded scrapping of the USD 1 billion loan deal with
India, terming it a "slavery pact" as it began a massive
anti-government march in the capital amid fears of violence.
Bangladesh Nationalist Party chief and former Prime
Minister Khaleda Zia told supporters ahead of the
anti-government rally that the people will not accept the
"pact of slavery".
"This is another pact of slavery signed against the
national interest...the people of the country do not and will
not accept it," the former prime minister said in a brief
statement at a public rally at downtown Paltan Maidan ahead of
a scheduled street march as part of the Opposition’s
anti-government campaign.
Zia alleged that the Awami League government had
signed a 25-year "slavery pact" soon after Bangladesh’s 1971
independence as "this time too they signed another such
unequal treaty against the national interest".
"Scrap the (credit) agreement immediately,” she
demanded.
In the largest-ever loan India has given to any
foreign country, New Delhi on August 7 signed an agreement
with Bangladesh to extend a USD 1 billion credit line to Dhaka
for developing 14 infrastructure projects, mostly in the
communications sector.
The loan agreement was signed between the Exim Bank of
India and the Economic Relations Department of Bangladesh in
the presence of Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
Mukherjee, made a brief five-hour trip to be present at the
signing function of the key pact agreed during Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina's trip to New Delhi in January.
Relations between the South Asian neighbours were
chilly between 2001-2006 when the Islamist-allied BNP was in
power in Bangladesh and New Delhi regularly accused Dhaka of
harbouring anti-India insurgents and fostering militancy.
The bilateral ties, however, have been on the upswing
since Hasina came to power after the landmark general election
in 2008.
BNP had described the deal contrary to the national
interest alleging that the government was getting the loan
"with an interest rate seven times higher than that from any
multinational bank or donor agency".
However, the Awami League-led government has strongly
defended the loan deal, dismissing the opposition BNP's
charges as a "disgusting attempt to spread falsehood."
"This is nothing but a disgusting attempt to spread
falsehood," she said.
"Whenever you are in power you try to appease India
while you are in opposition you try to instigate anti-Indian
sentiments for parochial politics,” Foreign Minister Dipu Moni
said yesterday on BNP's allegation about "serving Indian
interest". PTI AR
MYR