Tour cancellation stirs speculation about neighbour’s ire at Shah’s claims
As protests continue in the North-East, Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen and Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan cancelled their visit to India leading to speculation that Dhaka is upset with Home Minister Amit Shah’s comments on persecution of minorities in Bangladesh during the debate on the Citizenship (Amendment) 2019 Bill in Parliament.
Momen cancelled his three-day visit here beginning Thursday hours before his scheduled arrival, a day after he termed as “untrue” Amit Shah’s comments on persecution of religious minorities in Bangladesh.
Khan was scheduled to arrive in Shillong on Friday on a three-day trip, primarily to attend an event relating to Bangladesh’s freedom struggle, but he cancelled the visit due to widespread protests against the Bill.
While Bangladesh officially said their visit was called off due to pressing engagements at home, India said it never criticised the neighbour about persecution of minorities there. Making this clear, External Affairs Ministry (MEA) Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar cautioned against reading too much into Momen’s decision.
“We know the visit has been cancelled... I understand the Foreign Minister has given an explanation. Our relations are strong, like our two leaders have said repeatedly, and I don’t think this cancellation will have any effect,” Raveesh said.
The Bangladesh Minister in a statement said, “I had to cancel my trip to New Delhi as I have to participate in Buddijibi Debosh (Martyred Intellectuals Day — December 14) and Bijoy Debosh (Victory Day of Bangladesh — December 16) and more so as our State Minister is out of the country in Madrid and our Foreign Secretary is in the Hague. Given increasing demand at home, I decided to cancel the trip.”
Raveesh said the issue of the cancellation of the Bangladesh Foreign Minister’s visit and the passage of the CAB should not be linked. “We will have to go by the reason stated. As for his comments on CAB, there is some confusion. Religious persecution was in reference to military regime and past Governments,” Kumar said.
Maintaining that the Bangladesh Minister conveyed to India about postponement of his visit from December 12-14 due to scheduling issues, Raveesh asserted Shah never said religious persecution took place in Bangladesh during the tenure of the current Government.
However, diplomatic sources said Momen decided not to go ahead with the visit due to prevailing situation arising out of passage of controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill in Parliament.
Raveesh said any speculation that this development is connected with legislation adopted by Parliament on Wednesday regarding the Citizenship Amendment Bill is unwarranted,” he said, adding ties between the two countries were going through a “golden phase”.
On Wednesday, Momen said the Citizenship Bill could weaken India’s historic character as a secular nation and rejected the allegations that the minorities faced religious persecution in his country.
He also termed as “untrue” comments of Shah that minorities were persecuted in that country. “Many important decisions of our country are taken by persons belonging to different religions...we never judge anybody by their religion,” the Bangladesh Minister had said, expecting the minority community representatives in the country to echo his remarks.
Raveesh said, during debate on the Bill in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, Shah talked about persecution of religious minorities in Bangladesh during the Army rule after the tenure of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
“As long as Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was leading Bangladesh, everything worked very well. But once his Government went, minorities began to be oppressed. I can tell you that a large number of Bangladeshi Hindus had to come here to seek refuge...,” according to transcript of Shah’s comments shared by the MEA.
“The current Government in Bangladesh is also taking care of religious minorities. It is making arrangements also for religious minorities, but there has been a long period in the past in between, during which people came to India on account of religious persecution,” it said.
The Bangladesh Foreign Minister was scheduled to address a combined session of Delhi Dialogue XI and India Ocean Dialogue VI in New Delhi besides holding talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
Protests in Assam have also cast a shadow over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s proposed summit meeting with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe. The two leaders were to meet in Guwahati and Imphal on Sunday and Monday. The MEA spokesperson declined to comment, “saying he had no update to share right now”.