NDA (II) 2023 General Ability Test · Question 140 of 146

Correct — D, Arunachal Pradesh. The enclaves and adverse possessions settled by the 2015 Land Boundary Agreement lay in four Indian states — West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura — every one of which touches Bangladesh. Arunachal Pradesh does not: its international frontiers run with Bhutan, China and Myanmar, and it is separated from Bangladesh by the whole width of Assam. A state that shares no boundary with Bangladesh could hold no Indian enclave inside Bangladesh and no Bangladeshi enclave inside itself, so it could not be touched by the exchange. That makes it the odd one out.

• (a)West Bengal — West Bengal was the state most affected of all. The great cluster of enclaves, the chhitmahals, lay along its northern districts, and the bulk of the territory exchanged in 2015 was on that stretch of the border.
• (b)Assam — Assam is one of the four states named in the settlement. Its long boundary with Bangladesh in the Dhubri sector carried adverse possessions that the agreement regularised.
• (c)Tripura — Tripura is surrounded by Bangladesh on three sides and is one of the four states covered by the agreement. It is the option that looks unlikely because it is small, but size has nothing to do with it — sharing the border does.

The India-Bangladesh boundary carried a legacy of the 1947 partition — pockets of one country's territory completely surrounded by the other, plus tracts held by one side but legally belonging to the other. The 1974 Indira-Mujib agreement and its 2011 protocol set out to swap them, and India gave effect to the deal through the Constitution (One Hundredth Amendment) Act, 2015. Under the exchange, 111 Indian enclaves covering about 17,160 acres passed to Bangladesh and 51 Bangladeshi enclaves covering about 7,110 acres passed to India; residents were allowed to choose their nationality.

This is a border-geography question dressed as a treaty question, and it can be answered without knowing a single clause of the agreement. Work out which states touch Bangladesh — West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram — and the answer falls out, because Arunachal Pradesh is not among them. Three of the five border states appear as options here; the fourth, Meghalaya, was also affected and could as easily have been listed. The parliamentary route is worth carrying separately: the Bill was introduced as the 119th Amendment Bill in December 2013, was passed by the Rajya Sabha on 6 May 2015 and the Lok Sabha on 7 May 2015, received assent on 28 May 2015 and became the 100th Amendment, and the physical exchange ran from 31 July 2015 to 30 June 2016.

• The enclaves affected by the 2015 settlement lay in four Indian states — West Bengal, Tripura, Assam and Meghalaya.
• The agreement was given effect by the Constitution (One Hundredth Amendment) Act, 2015, which received assent on 28 May 2015.
• India transferred 111 enclaves covering about 17,160 acres to Bangladesh and received 51 enclaves covering about 7,110 acres.
• The exchange was implemented between 31 July 2015 and 30 June 2016.
• Arunachal Pradesh's international boundaries are with Bhutan, China and Myanmar, not Bangladesh.

• Assuming every north-eastern state touches Bangladesh; Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur do not.
• Forgetting Meghalaya, the fourth affected state, which is often left out of the list.
• Reading the question as being about the size of the exchange rather than about which state could be involved at all.

Asked as a NOT question, so the mark goes to the one state that fails the test rather than to the three that pass it.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Land Boundary Agreement between India and Bangladesh was given effect in India by

  • (a)the 99th Constitutional Amendment
  • (b)the 100th Constitutional Amendment
  • (c)the 101st Constitutional Amendment
  • (d)an executive order of the Ministry of External Affairs

  Answer(b) the 100th Constitutional Amendment — passed in May 2015 and assented to on 28 May 2015.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following States of India does NOT share a boundary with Bangladesh ?

  • (a)Mizoram
  • (b)Meghalaya
  • (c)Nagaland
  • (d)Tripura

  Answer(c) Nagaland — the states bordering Bangladesh are West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram.