India's Congress for resolving water sharing issue with Bangladesh

Indian National Congress, the main opposition political party of the country, has underlined the need for resolving "long-pending issues through dialogue, especially the sharing of rivers water".

"India-Bangladesh ties have always been marked by openness, trust, cooperation, and mutual respect... We have successfully utilised the relationship to conclude long-standing land and maritime boundary agreements," the party mentioned this in its International Resolution.

"We need to once again lean on those ties to resolve long-pending issues through dialogue, especially the sharing of river waters," the resolution added.

The resolution was proposed at the party's 85th Plenary session held in the central Indian city of Raipur today. Congress's former President Sonia Iandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and Congress incumbent President M. Mallikarjun Kharge along with other delegates attended the plenary.

The maritime boundary issue with Bangladesh was resolved during Congress rule headed by Manmohan Singh. The land boundary agreement with Bangladesh was inked during Modi's visit to Dhaka in June 2015.

The resolution also called for finding ways to ensure greater economic integration between India and Bangladesh "that is equitable and mutually beneficial, deepen security cooperation, greater connectivity and enhance development partnership/trade".

The Teesta Water Sharing Agreement was proposed to be signed during the then Indian PM Manmohan Singh's tenure in September 2011, is still hanging due to West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee's strong reservations.

The Congress Resolution was highly critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi government's neighbourhood policy, saying, "India need to restore strong partnerships with its neighbours and leverage those partnerships to enhance our global profile and stature and to re-establish India's pre-eminent role in the South Asian region".