Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday demanded that the Centre review the Ganga water sharing treaty with Bangladesh as "gross injustice" has been meted to Bihar in the treaty.
National Security Advisor Ajit Doval hosted Bangladesh Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman for a dinner meeting, signalling efforts to repair bilateral ties after a period of heightened diplomatic tension.
'It is best to remain vigilant. Tarique Rahman arranged arms smuggling to Indian insurgent groups.' 'He has criticised India for sheltering Sheikh Hasina, but has also sought India's support.'
India and Bangladesh on Tuesday signed an interim water sharing agreement for Kushiyara river, the first such pact since the signing of the Ganga water treaty in 1996.
Pakistan has been opposing the construction of the Kishanganga hydropower project on Ganga river in Kashmir, which is called Neelum upon entering Pakistan. Pakistan has said that the diversion of the waters of the Neelum is not allowed under the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, and that it will face a 27 per cent water deficit when the project gets completed.
'It was the hostility of the Yunus regime that made India careful and wary of dealing with them.' 'They gradually backed off and lowered the noise, but the damage was done.' 'Their true colours had been exposed.'
New Delhi also agreed to undertake, a joint inspection with Bangladesh, on the problem of erosion and drainage of Ichhamati river in West Bengal.
It has noted that melting glaciers due to any impact of climate change will not only severely affect the flow in Himalayan river system but will also give rise to natural disasters.
It has been said that by 2025, India could become among the top five economies in the world. If India does become a $5 trillion economy but gets all its rivers polluted, food chain poisoned and genetic pool depleted and biometric database of Indians sold or stolen at the behest of commercial czars, will it not be a pyrrhic economic victory, asks Gopal Krishna.
Every river is a living person, argues Gopal Krishna on the basis of the recent Uttarakhand HC verdict.
It's something to remember as New Delhi welcomes Sheikh Hasina, says Sunanda K Datta-Ray.
'I was present at a meeting where he decided to permit the IAF to strike at Pakistan positions in Kargil, with the caveat that they should not cross the LoC.' 'Confident that the Indian Army would succeed, Mr Vajpayee was positioning himself to tell the world after the Kargil conflict was won that India did not violate the 'sanctity' of the LoC,' recalls Ambassador G Parthasarathy, who served as India's envoy in Islamabad in that eventful year, 1999.
he has to demonstrate the ability of his government to take a quantum leap, almost tantamount to setting the Ganga on fire, in the next six months, if not in 100 days, if the people were to take seriously the cascade of commitments spewing out of the President's address to both Houses of Parliament on June 9, says B S Raghavan. B S Raghavan suggests five practical propositions through which the Modi government can bring in paradigm changes.
