NEW DELHI : Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has not responded adequately to the process of National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, a leading opposition figure of Dhaka has told The Hindu .
Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, General Secretary of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) cautioned that NRC will vitiate India-Bangladesh bilateral ties and accused the Prime Minister of compromising the interest of the country.
“We have not seen any formal official response on NRC in Assam from Sheikh Hasina’s government. There is a public perception in Bangladesh that PM Hasina does not want to raise contentious issues with India and as a result, in many cases interest of Bangladesh is being compromised,” said Mr Alamgir in an interview with The Hindu highlighting BNP’s desire to forge ties with India on the basis of “mutual respect”.
Sheikh Hasina’s government has maintained that NRC is an internal issue of India. The Hindu had reported earlier that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has conveyed to the leadership of Bangladesh that deportation of the NRC-excluded is not on the cards.
Mr. Alamgir however pointed out that Bangladesh has refused to address this issue in a transparent manner with India and urged Delhi to stop the negative fallout of NRC on bilateral ties. “NRC will create problems between the two countries and between the people of our countries, and contribute to trust deficit. This is also not the right step for Indian diplomacy”, he said.
Mr. Alamgir is in charge of BNP’s political negotiations with the opposition alliance known as the ‘Jatiyo Oikko Front’. The JOF formally met in the first week of October and has accused Prime Minister Hasina of unleashing a political witch hunt in the country. He said that the NRC issue will figure in the political season in Dhaka which has warmed up further after BNP leader Begum Khaleda Zia was handed 7-year jail term on a case of corruption.
The BNP General Secretary cautioned Delhi about the impact of NRC on the population of Assam and described it as a “step in the wrong direction”. “Migration from East Bengal took place in 1947 and this remains a well documented historical truth. What is the point of opening these old issues? This shows that those championing such moves are trying to polarise people and create division among them,” he said.
