Staff Reporter :
India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday stated that no country wishes Bangladesh more than India.
“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 thing,” he said while participating in an interactive session at the Rising Bharat Summit in New Delhi organised by News18TV.
He said, “Democracies require elections. That’s how mandates are given and mandates are renewed. So, we hope that they go down that path.”
“Our relationship with Bangladesh for historical reasons is a very unique relationship. It’s very fundamentally a people-to-people connect,” he said.
Jaishankar said, “No other country wishes well for Bangladesh more than India.”
His remarks came days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Bangladesh’s Chief Adviser to the Interim Government Prof Muhammad Yunus on the sidelines of the 6th edition of the BIMSTEC Summit in Thailand.
During the bilateral meeting, India Prime Minister expressed his conviction that all issues of mutual interest between the two countries would continue to be addressed and resolved bilaterally through constructive discussions, in the interest of their long standing and mutually beneficial bilateral relationship.
Enunciating India’s people-centric approach to the relationship, Modi highlighted that cooperation between the two countries has brought tangible benefits to the people of both countries.
He underlined India’s desire to forge a positive and constructive relationship with Bangladesh based on pragmatism. The same remarks pertaining to people-to-people connectivity was echoed from Jaishankar, but in reality this has not been reflected.
Bangladeshi citizens who are looking for Indian visas are not getting full-fledged visas due to India’s steps to decreasing visa issuance after the fall of Sheikh Hasina in a mass uprising last year.
During the meeting, Prof. Yunus raised several key matters of national interest, including the extradition of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, her recent incendiary comments made in India, the recurring incidents of border killings, and the urgent need to renew both the Ganges Water Sharing Treaty and the long-pending Teesta Water Treaty.
Despite India’s people-centric affinity, the border killings have not been stopped by their Border Security Force (BSF).
Even on Thursday, the BSF detained one Bangladeshi citizen who was standing just near the border at border of Nagarvita under Baliadangi Upazila in Thakurgaon district.
When the Yunus government has been looking for cooperation with India, Delhi is withdrawing the transshipment facility so that any products from Bangladesh cannot move to any third country using Indian territory.
When Jaishankar is asserting that India is the best well-wisher of Bangladesh, such unfriendly attitude regarding visas and border killings do not sync.
