India has issued a reminder of the robust and profound relations it enjoys with Bangladesh amid a ‘boycott India’ campaign by a section of Bangladeshis.
During a routine press briefing in New Delhi on Thursday, a journalist asked the Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Randhir Jaiswal if the ‘India Out’ campaign would hurt exports to Bangladesh.
He responded by saying: “India and Bangladesh relations are very strong and deep”.
“We have a very comprehensive partnership that spans across sectors from economy, to trade, to investment, development cooperation, connectivity, people-to-people contact.”
“You name any human endeavour, it is part and parcel of India-Bangladesh relations. That is how vibrant this partnership is and it will continue to be so.”
The BNP has stirred a debate by throwing its support behind a campaign to boycott Indian products over its ‘influence’ on Bangladesh’s politics, especially the last general election.
Some BNP supporters launched the campaign after the Awami League formed the government for a fourth straight term with a landslide victory in the Jan 7 general election.
The BNP stayed away from the polls because its demands for the resignation of the Sheikh Hasina administration and the installation of an election-time caretaker government system were not met.
BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi recently said: “India does not support the people of Bangladesh, but the Awami League. This is why people are venting their anger by boycotting Indian products. They are enthusiastically protesting through the ‘Bharat Hotao’ [India Out] campaign.”
The plot thickened with his symbolic act when he threw his Kashmiri shawl into the flames in solidarity with the boycott campaign.
BNP leader Zainul Abedin Farroque also said India’s position on the election went against people’s expectations, which led some Bangladeshis to launch the boycott campaign.
Prime Minister Hasina then slated the BNP for backing the campaign and dared its leaders to demonstrate their commitment to boycotting Indian products by burning their wives’ Indian sarees.
Her remarks briefly ignited a political firestorm in Bangladesh and a huge interest in the Indian media.
India, through its foreign ministry and the high commission in Dhaka, has maintained that it always supports a peaceful and democratic election, as expected by the people, in Bangladesh.
BD News24
