Bangladesh won't give corridor to India: FM

Foreign Minister Dipu Moni on Thursday turned down the allegation of offering corridor to India, in turn accusing opposition BNP of making false and motivated allegations. Bangladesh has not allowed corridor to India and will not do so in future, the minister said at a roundtable on “Bangladesh-India Summit” at the Jatiya Press Club.

Referring to BNP’s allegation that the government sold the country, the foreign minister said, “A country cannot be sold, but such stories have been being concocted since the regime of Ayub Khan.” She said the BNP was trying to stoke up irrational debates on corridor, transit and transshipment. "This is not the way things are dealt politically since politics is not so mean,” Dipu Moni added.

She said former president Ziaur Rahman first signed deal to give transit facilities to India in 1980. In 1978 Joint Rivers Commission decided to study impact assessment on controlling flood and potential benefits of dam on Tipaimukh River. There was no mention of adverse effects of the dam on Bangladesh, she said. “Was the transit deal signed to cheat people” Dipu Moni posed a question, saying that in the age of connectivity, Bangladesh cannot be isolated. Daily Bhorer Kagoj organised the roundtable.

-Daily Star