Syed Khalique Ahmed
NEW DELHI, JANUARY 19—Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed has said that she does not understand why the Indian government has passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, or CAA.
In an interview to Gulf News, she said, “We don’t understand why the Indian Government did it. It was not necessary”.
CAA offers citizenship to non-Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, facing religious persecution in those countries.
Hasina, however, told the newspaper that she considered CAA and NRC international affairs of India.
“(Still), it is an internal affair,” Hasina said. “Bangladesh has always maintained that the CAA and NRC are internal matters of India”, she said during the interview.
She said that the Government of India also on its part had repeatedly maintained that the NRC was an internal exercise of India. “Prime Minister Modi has in person assured me of the same during my visit to New Delhi in October 2019,” Hasina told the newspaper.
During the interview, Hasina categorically said that there was no migration from Bangladesh due to religious persecution. She also clarified that “there is no reverse migration of Muslims from India to Bangladesh though. But within India, people are facing many problems.”
However, the action of the Government of India seems to be having a negative impact on Indo-Bangladesh relations. Bangladesh Foreign Minister Shahriar Alam cancelled his visit India to attend the Raisina Dialogue organised by Indian External Affairs Ministry annually this week. Earlier, home minister of Bangladesh had also cancelled his trip to India soon after passage of CAA.
Bangladesh seems to be upset with India, for clubbing it with Pakistan and Afghanistan. Bangladesh is also upset after declaration of 19 lakh people in Assam as foreigners, considered by local people as Bangladeshis. Bangladesh suspects that these people might be pushed into Bangladesh while it was already burdened with lakhs of Rohingya refugees.
Ever since the law was passed by Indian Parliament on December 11, 2019, there has been protest all over India, particularly by Muslims and students of Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligrah Muslim University. Gradually, students from dozens of university all across the country joined the protest in solidarity with Jamia students.
Women in Shaheen Bagh have been blocking the NOIDA-Delhi road for over a month, demanding repeal of CAA and abandoning of NRC exercise as they say CAA is based on religious discrimination against Muslims and was violative of the secular principals of the Constitution of India. Inspired by women of Shaheen Bagh, women in UP, Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujarat, West Bengal and many other states have also taken to round the clock protest despite cold winter.
Despite provocation by the BJP leaders to convert the CAA into an Hindu-Muslim issue, the saffron party has badly failed. A big section of Hindus are openly supportive of the Muslims on the issue and addressing the protesters from Jamia to Kolkata.
Though Prime Minister Narendra Modi tried to pacify the Muslims that CAA was not against the minority community, nobody is ready to take him at his face value because of their experience with him in the past. Modi did nothing to stop mob lynching of Muslims. He also lost credibility among Muslims after his government criminalised Triple Talaq while divorce in other religions still remain to be a civil matter.
