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Amit Shah's remark on infiltration emerges as irritant in India-Bangladesh relations

Shah’s remarks came just a few weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Dhaka
Last Updated 15 April 2021, 20:22 IST

Union Home Minister Amit Shah's recent remark on Bangladeshi infiltration has not gone down well with the neighbouring country, with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government in Dhaka conveying to New Delhi its displeasure over the statement.

Shah recently told the ‘Anandabazar Digital’, a news portal in West Bengal, that poor people from Bangladesh infiltrated into India as they did not have enough food in their own country. Shah made the statement while campaigning for the BJP in West Bengal, where the saffron party made alleged influx of illegal migrants from Bangladesh a major poll issue.

His comment, however, triggered a sharp reaction from Bangladesh Foreign Minister A K Abdul Momen.

“There are many wise people in the world who do not see even after looking at something. They also do not understand, even after knowing about something,” Momen told the newspaper ‘Prothom Alo’. “But if he (Home Minister of India) has said something like that, I would say his knowledge about Bangladesh is very limited,” he was quoted saying. “No one dies of hunger in our country now," the minister added.

Sources told DH that Dhaka had also informally conveyed its displeasure to New Delhi.

Shah’s remarks came just a few weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Dhaka. Modi lauded Hasina’s government for the socio-economic development of Bangladesh.

This is not the first time that remarks made by Shah upset the Bangladesh government. His December 2019 statement about religious persecution of minority Hindus in Bangladesh had also irked Dhaka.

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(Published 15 April 2021, 19:18 IST)

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