Indian external affairs minister S Jaishankar on Sunday said that Bangladesh needed to make up its mind what kind of relationship it wanted with New Delhi, stressing that the two neighbours shared a very special history that went back to 1971.
鈥業f every day someone in the interim government stands up and blames India for everything, some of those things if you look at the reports are absolutely ridiculous. You cannot, on the one hand, say I would now like to have good relations with you, but I get up every morning and blame you for everything that goes wrong. It is also a decision that they have to make,鈥� Jaishankar said while speaking at the Delhi University literature festival.
He said that India had sent a very clear signal to Dhaka that it would like to see things 鈥榗alm down鈥� and the resumption of normal bilateral ties, but it was unhappy with the constantly hostile messaging emanating from across the border.
Jaishankar shared two aspects of what is 鈥榲ery troubling鈥� for them.
鈥楾he spate of attacks on minorities in Bangladesh, obviously it is something which impacts our thinking and it is something we have to speak up about, which we have done,鈥� he said, sharing the first aspect of the situation.
鈥楾he second aspect is they [Bangladesh] have their politics, but at the end of the day, the two countries are neighbours,鈥� Jaishankar said, adding, 鈥楾hey have to make up their minds on what kind of relationship they want to have with us.鈥�
鈥榃e have a long history with Bangladesh. We have a very special history with Bangladesh. It goes back to 1971,鈥� Jaishankar said.
He said that Dhaka could not claim to want normal ties with India while continuously blaming New Delhi for its domestic issues.
Jaishankar said that they obviously did not want to see messaging and signalling which was continuously hostile in a way to India.
