Bangladesh’s request for a meeting between its interim government’s Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the upcoming Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) Summit in Bangkok is under consideration, External Affairs minister S Jaishankar is learnt to have told a Parliamentary panel meeting here. At this year’s first meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee for External Affairs on Saturday, several MPs raised concerns on attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh, asking what steps was India taking in this regard, sources said. They said Jaishankar informed the members that the interim government in Dhaka has claimed that the attacks on Hindus were “politically motivated” and not “minority targeted”.
Jaishankar briefed the MPs on ties with Bangladesh, the Maldives, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. He said he would speak about Pakistan and China separately at a later date.
Jaishankar was also learnt to have told the meeting that SAARC was inactive because of Pakistan’s approach and thus India is trying to strengthen BIMSTEC.
He indicated that Prime Minister Modi may attend the BIMSTEC Summit in Bangkok from April 2 to 4 in Thailand, but did not confirm the visit at the meeting, the sources said. He also informed the meeting that PM Modi would visit Sri Lanka next month. Asked whether Modi is expected to meet Yunus and hold bilaterals with him on the sidelines of the BIMSTEC summit, Jaishankar remained non-committal saying it is under consideration, the sources said.
Several MPs including K C Venugopal, Manish Tewari (both Congress), Priyanka Chaturvedi (Shiv Sena-UBT) and Mukul Wasnik (Congress) raised the issue of targeted killings of Hindus and what the government was doing to stop them.
