Indian foreign secretary Vikram Misri told a parliamentary committee that Sheikh Hasina was using ‘private communication devices’ to make her comments and India was not involved in providing her with any platform or facility that enabled her to carry out her political activity from Indian soil.
He made the comments in his briefing to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs on his recent visit to Bangladesh, which was the first-high profile visit from New Delhi to Dhaka since Hasina’s downfall, Indian media reported on Wednesday.
He also told the panel that an early national election in Bangladesh was also expected, the Hindu reported.
It reported that Vikram described Hasina’s criticism of the interim government of Bangladesh as a pinprick and that India did not endorse deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina.Â
Vikram Misri told the parliamentary committee that Hasina was present in India in line with its culture and civilisational ethos of protecting friends, reported Indian Express.
Vikram made the comment when the parliamentary body sought to know the status of Hasina in India, where the deposed prime minister of Bangladesh went on August 5 fleeing a student-people uprising against her misrule of 15 years.Â
Most of the Indian media reports on Vikram’s briefing tsaid that his reply to the question of Hasina’s status was either not known or that he avoided replying.
Diplomatic tension between the two neighbouring countries recently ran high. India is accused by protesters in Bangladesh of acting like a big brother, taking advantage of Bangladesh by its sheer size.
The Hindu reported Vikram saying that India did not view the relation with Bangladesh as one based on ‘reciprocity’ but as one that was grounded on ‘good neighbourly relationship.’
Vikram also informed the committee that the issue of review of bilateral treaties did not feature in his conversation with chief adviser Yunus, the Hindu said.
Vikram said that India was concerned about the lack of acknowledgement of the alleged incidents of violence against minority communities but welcomed the latest report that authorities in Bangladesh had arrested 88 people related to the violence against minorities after the fall of the Hasina government, the Hindu reported.Â
For India, he said, the Bangladesh authorities’ decision to release many of the convicted ‘terrorists’ who indulged in anti-India rhetoric, remained an issue of deep concern. The Bangladesh authorities, meanwhile, flagged the ‘disinformation’ campaign in the Indian press about the events unfolding in that country.
Some parliamentary committee members raised the arrest of ISKCON monks in Bangladesh, the Hindu reported, but Vikram made no reply.
Vikram, however, told the committee that during his visit to Dhaka, he informed the authorities there that there had to be an ‘acknowledgment’ of the incidents of attacks on temples and the Indira Gandhi Cultural Centre.
He said that while there was an attempt by the interim government of Bangladesh to describe the reports as exaggeration or media creation, there were ‘credible’ organisations that documented some of the incidents that required to be addressed.
