On December 11, 2019, Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen expressed concern over India’s Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and said in Dhaka that it could weaken India’s historic character as a secular nation. He also rejected the allegations that minorities were persecuted in Bangladesh, terming Indian Home Minister Amit Shah’s comments “untrue” that minorities were persecuted in his country – Bangladesh. Next day on December 12, the visits of Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen and Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan to India were abruptly cancelled. Abdul Momen was to arrive in New Delhi for a three-day visit to India while Asaduzzaman Khan was to visit Shillong on invitation of Meghalaya Chief Minister primarily to attend an event relating to Bangladesh’s freedom struggle.
On December 13, Bangladesh protested against the attack on the convoy of its senior diplomat and vandalizing of signposts of the chancery of its mission outpost in Guwahati by anti-CAA protestors. Convoy of the Assistant High Commissioner of Bangladesh was attacked when the diplomat was going to Guwahati City from the airport.
According to media reports, one person was shot by security personnel when the convoy was being attacked. Two signposts 30 yards from the chancery were also ripped off. According to Bangladesh’s state news agency, acting Foreign Secretary Kamrul Hasan had called Indian High Commissioner Riva Ganguly Das to his office to lodge the protest. Das assured Hasan that Indian authorities have been “immediately alerted to enhance security of Bangladesh chancery and its Assistant High Commissioner’s residence in Guwahati.
Following the cancellation of Bangladesh Foreign Minister and Home Minister visits to India, Bangladesh postponed two meetings with India on river management; one was a joint committee meeting and the other was a technical level meeting. Officials from the Ministry of Jal Shakti were to meet their Bangladeshi counterparts on December 18 and 19. A member of Joint River Commission from the Bangladesh side was to lead the meeting. India and Bangladesh share waters of several rivers. However resolution to the Teesta water issue remains unresolved much to Bangladesh’s chagrin.
In September 2019, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had taken up the issue of National Register of Citizens (NRC) with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during their bilateral meeting in New York on sidelines of the UN General Assembly, saying that the NRC has become a matter of “great concern” for Bangladesh.
According to media, Modi is learnt to have replied that there is “nothing to be worried” about since India and Bangladesh have good relations. After the roll out of the NRC in Assam, the MEA stated that people left out of it are not “stateless” and will continue to enjoy all the rights as before till they exhaust all remedies available under the law.
During the visit of PM Sheikh Hasina to India in October 2019, she again raised concerns with PM Modi over roll out of NRC in Assam, even as India conveyed to Bangladesh that the issue was an internal matter of the country.
Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque later said at a press briefing, “Prime Minister Modi has explained to Prime Minister Hasina the process that India has put up in terms of making sure that everybody is eventually included in this (NRC). “We were told that this is an internal matter of India. Our relationship is best of the best at present. But at the same time we are keeping our eyes open (on the issue).” Asked about Home Minister Amit Shah’s comments that illegal Bangladeshi’s from Assam would be deported, Shahidul Haque said, “We should not make a crisis out of nothing at this stage and we should be able to wait and see.”
Going by Shahidul Haque’s remarks “we should not make a crisis out of nothing at this stage”, it appears that the “crisis” appears to have arrived with the CAA coming as complete surprise to Bangladesh. From the foregoing, it appears that the issue was deliberately kept ambiguous to Bangladesh in contrast to the need to play the cards straight and build a politically acceptable narrative for Sheikh Hasina, unless the aim is only to de-franchise those out of the NRC and not deport them. Surely, this could have been worked out with Bangladesh.
There also appears an apparent mismatch between the MHA and MEA whether by default or design. Note the annual summit between PM Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Guwahati was announced weeks in advance, which had to be cancelled or shall we say postponed (to next year?). Even if the parliament session was ending, could we have not held the Modi-Abe summit in Guwahati before enacting the CAA by preponing the meeting or extending the parliament session? Do we expect the traditionally cautious Japanese to invest in the northeast with increased turbulence? Couldn’t we have avoided this faux pas?
Media quotes Bangladesh Foreign Minister A K Abdul Momen stating on December 16 that Bangladesh has requested India to provide a list of any Bangladesh nationals living illegally in the country and it will allow them to return, adding, “We will allow them (Bangladesh citizens) as they have the right to enter into their own country.” This is a good sign but how this will work out remains to be seen. But concurrently there are also reports of people being pushed into Bangladesh from the Indian side. India.
Asif Nazrul, professor at Dhaka University says, “The discussions prior to the promulgation of this Act (CAA) and the content of this Act have already created deep scars in the minds of Bangladeshi people…. particularly because Bangladesh was lumped together with Pakistan and Afghanistan… India does not have any border with Afghanistan, and Pakistan will resist any push-in of India citizens very strongly… Bangladesh is the only place that Indian Muslims would flee to.”
Asif Nazrul’s comments may well be biased (talking of Indian citizens, not illegal migrants) but rubbishing them altogether would be naïve. There have been regional reports of non-Muslims in Dinajpur district of Bangladesh being threatened by the majority community to leave or face consequences.
Bangladesh has the third largest Hindu community in the world after India and Nepal. Hinduism is the second largest religious affiliation in Bangladesh (8.6% of total population) with around 14 million people identifying themselves as Hindus.
Present India-Bangladesh relations are excellent but these need to be handled with care from both ends, not allowing CAA to create fissures. This would be in the interest of both countries, much that China would want to play on dissent to draw Bangladesh into its strategic influence away from India (like Nepal) and destabilize India’s northeast in conjunction its lackey – Pakistan.