The war of words between Bangladesh's 'battling-begums' intensified today with opposition leader and former premier Khaleda Zia terming the Indo-Bangla pacts signed during prime minister Sheikh Hasina's India visit as a total sell out.
Rejecting the deals reached with India, BNP leader Zia said her arch rival had "sold out" the country's interest and vowed to mobilise public opinion against the Awami League-led government's "subservient" policy.
"We are not antagonistic to India... but it is not acceptable that we will continue to give everything to India unilaterally," she told newsmen a day after Hasina hosted a briefing to highlight the achievements of her maiden New Delhi trip a year after assuming power.
Zia said: "We are rejecting the joint communique, people don't accept it". The opposition leader said her party planned to mobilise public opinion and stage protests on the streets.
Zia said she feared Hasina had signed a "secret security deal" with India beyond the three treaties and two memoranda of understanding declared in the joint communique.
"The secret deal was signed keeping the entire nation in dark," she said without elaborating and demanded that the treaty be discussed in parliament and outside.
Zia said Hasina's visit was "cent per cent successful for India, not for Bangladesh" reacting to Hasina's claim that her visit had been "cent per cent successful".
"... It was rather harmful for us... what was made public in the joint communique alone proves that she returned home giving everything possible to India," Zia said.
The opposition leader was particularly critical of allowing India port facilities, alongside Nepal and Bhutan, saying this deal "not only affected the country's sovereignty, but also exposed Bangladesh to economic vulnerability in the longer term".
Asked how the decision to offer the facility would cause the problem, Zia said "you will see when the time will come".
She said the revenue profits from "renting out" the ports could not benefit the economy of a country with 150 million population and rather it would "affect the industrialisation
process and squeeze the export".
The ex-premier, who served two terms from 1991-1996 and 2001-2006, alleged that she was herself in favour of regional connectivity but her arch rival had offered "corridors to India in the name of regional connectivity".
"We cannot accept everything to be India oriented or India-centric," she said.
Hasina last night had criticised Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party for alleging that she had "compromised the national interest".
"I have succeeded in my mission as Bangladesh's interests have been protected cent per cent," Hasina had said.
She defended the deals, saying they paved the way for enhanced bilateral and regional cooperation to fight "poverty, our common enemy".
