India is committed to seeking an early solution on the >sharing of the waters of the >Teesta river and the long-pending land boundary issue, President Pranab Mukherjee emphasised in his conversations with Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and other senior Ministers here on Sunday.
This assurance to the Bangladeshi leadership — at the start of a 3-day nationwide strike called by the Opposition Jamaat-e-Islami and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party to protest against the now 27-day-old unprecedented Shahbag upsurge by those demanding the death penalty for the war criminals of 1971 — sent out a message by itself. By not cancelling the presidential visit — despite the violence triggered by the sentencing to death of Jamaat-e-Islami chief Delwar Hossain Sayeedi last Thursday — India was not just expressing its solidarity but telling the world that the Awami League government was in control of the situation, a Dhaka University professor said.
Khaleda cancels meet
But even as Mr. Mukherjee, who arrived earlier in the day to a warm welcome and a ceremonial guard of honour, a peeved BNP chairperson and leader of the Opposition Begum Khaleda Zia cancelled a scheduled meeting with him slated for Monday.
In an email message, Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai said Begum Zia informed Mr. Mukherjee that since there was a hartal between March 3 and 5, and such strikes often turned violent, the current timetable would not be suitable.
