India on Friday summoned Bangladesh’s Acting High Commissioner to India, Md. Nural Islam, over recent regular statements from Bangladesh authorities portraying India “negatively” and holding it responsible for internal governance issues.
In response to media queries, the MEA released a statement quoting spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal as saying, “The Bangladesh Acting High Commissioner to India, Mr. Md. Nural Islam, was summoned by MEA to the South Block today, February 7, 2025, at 5:00 pm.”
“It was conveyed that India desires a positive, constructive and mutually beneficial relationship with Bangladesh, which has been reiterated several times in recent high-level meetings. It is, however, regrettable that regular statements made by Bangladesh authorities continue to portray India negatively, holding us responsible for internal governance issues. These statements by Bangladesh are in fact responsible for the persistent negativity,” the statement read.
Further, the MEA said that Bangladesh’s act of conflating former Bangladeshi Prime Minister’s stay in India with New Delhi’s stance on Bangladesh will not help anyone. “Comments attributed to former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina have been made in her individual capacity in which India has no role to play. Conflating this with the Government of India’s position is not going to help add positivity to bilateral relations,” the MEA statement read.
The MEA statement further stated that India hoped that Bangladesh would make efforts to make relations between the countries mutually beneficial. “While the Government of India will make efforts for a mutually beneficial relationship, we expect that Bangladesh will reciprocate similarly without vitiating the atmosphere,” the statement read.
Amid reports of vandalization of the memorial and residence of Bangladesh’s founding father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, in a media briefing, said that Dhaka must be fully aware that the responsibility to ensure the safety of diplomatic buildings lies on them.
“We would also like to point out that the safety of diplomatic premises is the responsibility of the host government, and I have no doubt that the Bangladesh authorities are fully aware of their responsibilities in this regard,” he said.
On Thursday, through a protest note handed over to the Acting High Commissioner of India in Dhaka, the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry said that it conveyed the deep concern, disappointment, and serious reservation of the Government of Bangladesh, as such statements are hurting the sentiments of the people in Bangladesh.
The Bangladesh foreign ministry also emphasized that such activities by her are considered a hostile act towards Bangladesh and are not conducive to the efforts at establishing a healthy relationship between the two countries, it added.
The Bangladesh Ministry of Foreign Affairs requested the Government of India to immediately take appropriate measures, in the spirit of mutual respect and understanding, to stop her from making such false, fabricated, and incendiary statements using social media and other communications while she is in India, the statement said.
The latest developments came days after former Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina, during her virtual address from exile in India, called upon the people to organize a resistance against the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government.
During Hasina’s speech, a large group of protesters vandalized and set fire to her father and Bangladesh founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s residence in Dhaka. Rahman’s residence in Dhaka was vandalized during a live online address of his daughter and deposed PM Hasina.
“They can demolish a building, but not the history. But they must also remember that history takes its revenge,” Hasina said in her address on Wednesday night. “They are yet to have the strength to destroy the national flag, the constitution, and the independence that we earned at the cost of the lives of millions of martyrs with a bulldozer,” she said.
(With agencies Inputs)
