Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chairperson Khaleda Zia on Saturday said it was Narendra Modi’s government that deserves thanks for the passage of Land Boundary Agreement bill, not Awami League.

She accused Awami League (AL) of currying favour with previous Congress government of India, but, she claimed, AL failed to gain anything by doing that.

She said ‘It (LBA) couldn’t have been gained through flattery. It was our right’ said the BNP chairperson adding, ‘we gave (them), we reached an agreement, (and so) we got (it).’

Khaleda Zia made these comments at her Gulshan office while meeting with members of a pro-BNP lawyers’ forum on Saturday night.

AL even failed to secure the fair share of water from the Congress government with whom the party maintained a very good relationship, the former prime minister complained.

She said it was the Modi government who took the initiative to settle the land dispute by itself in order to maintain a friendly relationship with Bangladesh.