India summoned Bangladesh’s envoy in New Delhi yesterday after Dhaka lodged a formal protest over ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s remarks.
Comments attributed to Hasina were “made in her individual capacity in which India has no role to play”, India’s external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in response to media queries at a briefing.
“Conflating this with the Government of India’s position is not going to help add positivity to bilateral relations,” he added.
Md Nural Islam, the Bangladesh acting high commissioner in New Delhi, went to the South Block office of the ministry at 5:00pm.
The summons came a day after India’s acting high commissioner in Dhaka was summoned by the Bangladesh foreign ministry to lodge a formal protest over Hasina’s “fabricated and provocative” comments in a speech on Facebook Live two days ago.
Jaiswal said Nural was told 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.”
According to Jaiswal, “While the government of India will make efforts for a mutually beneficial relationship, we expect that Bangladesh will reciprocate similarly without vitiating the atmosphere.”
