Bangladesh has denied requesting India seeking a written assurance that the latter will not send Muslim migrants across the border after the enactment of a controversial citizenship act.
The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) fast-tracks citizenship for persecuted Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians who arrived in India before the end of 2014 from Muslim-majority Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Critics say the law is discriminatory and goes against the secular spirit of India’s constitution.
On Monday, Indian news outlet The Print cited unnamed Indian Foreign Ministry sources claiming that “Bangladesh wants ‘written’ assurance from India that it won’t send immigrants after CAA.”
But, quoting Farid Hossain, press minister at the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi, on Wednesday, Saudi news outlet Arab News reported in a Dhaka-datelined report that he had “no idea” about any such exchange.
Mohammad Sarwar Mahmood, director general for South Asia at the Bangladeshi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the CAA was an “internal issue” of the Indian government.
“I have no such information about seeking any written assurance from the Indian government. If there was any discussion regarding this at any government level, I should have been aware of it,” he told the Saudi newspaper. “Bangladesh to date has not planned anything like this.”
Diplomatic tensions between Bangladesh and India have increased since India’s parliament passed the CAA on December 9.
Bangladesh foreign minister AK Abdul Momen said the CAA would weaken India’s position as a secular country, while home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal cancelled his and Momen’s scheduled visit to New Delhi citing “internal affairs.”
Mohammad Touhid Hossain, a former foreign secretary of Bangladesh, said the CAA was now a “major irritant” in bilateral ties and that a “message” had been sent through the visit’s cancellation. “It indicates that our government is unhappy with the situation,” he told the English-language daily.
There have been protests across India as well as killings and violence, mostly in areas controlled by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party such as northern Uttar Pradesh state.
Senior diplomat Mohammad Zamir said parties should exercise restraint as it remained unclear what was currently happening in India.
“Today (Wednesday), Indian prime minister Narendra Modi called our prime minister Sheikh Hasina to greet her in the new year and they talked for around 15 minutes,” he told the same newspaper.
“We still don’t know the details of their discussion. So, we should wait before making any comment over the situation.”
