New Delhi, Apr 9 (PTI) India conveyed its concerns over attacks on minorities and radicalisation in Bangladesh at the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and head of the neighbouring country’s interim government Muhammad Yunus last week, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Wednesday.
Jaishankar underscored India’s push for holding fresh polls in Bangladesh, saying elections are essential to democracies, and asserted that “no country wishes Bangladesh well more than us”.
Modi and Yunus met for the first time in Bangkok since the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina government in August last year in the face of a massive anti-government protest.
“I think the main messages from our side which came out at the meeting — one that our relationship with Bangladesh for historical reasons is a very unique relationship. It’s very fundamentally a people-to-people connect,” Jaishankar said at the News 18 Rising Bharat Summit.
“No country wishes Bangladesh well more than us; that’s almost in our DNA. As a well-wisher, as a friend, I think we hope they go the right way and do the right things,” he said.
Jaishankar said the Indian side was very open in sharing its concerns over the current situation in Bangladesh.
“We have concerns about radicalising tendencies. We have concerns about the attacks on minorities. I think we were very open about sharing those concerns,” he said responding to a question on what PM Modi conveyed to Yunus.
“As a country which has a democratic tradition, democracies require elections. That’s how mandates are given and mandates are renewed. So, we hope that they go down that path,” Jaishankar said, underlining India’s push for holding fresh elections in Bangladesh.
India-Bangladesh relations nosedived dramatically after the interim government headed by Muhammad failed to contain attacks on minorities, especially Hindus, in that country.
Last week, the Indian side was upset over the Bangladeshi version of the meeting between Modi and Yunus.
Yunus’ press secretary Shafiqul Alam, in a Facebook post on Saturday, said the chief adviser raised with Modi Bangladesh’s request for the extradition of Hasina and the “response was not negative”.
People familiar with the matter described the version as “mischievous and politically motivated”, especially the aspects relating to attacks on minorities and Dhaka’s request for extraditing former premier Sheikh Hasina, people familiar with the matter said on Saturday.
The characterisation of the Indian prime minister’s remarks regarding the relationship with Yunus and the previous Bangladesh government were “inaccurate”, they said.
New Delhi has so far not responded to the request made by Bangladesh’s interim government last year for the extradition of Hasina.
Hasina has been living in New Delhi since she fled Dhaka in August last year.
In the meeting in Bangkok on Friday, Modi conveyed to Yunus India’s deep concerns about the safety of Bangladesh’s Hindus and other minorities.
“The prime minister urged that rhetoric that vitiates the environment is best avoided,” an Indian readout of the meeting said.
PM Modi underlined India’s concerns related to the safety and security of minorities in Bangladesh, including Hindus, and expressed his expectation that the government of Bangladesh would ensure their security. PTI MPB RT RT RT
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