‘Riddled with untruths about Bangladesh and BNP’

BNP yesterday criticised Indian Home Minister Amit Shah for “unwarranted labelling” of BNP as repressive while passing the much-discussed Citizenship Amendment Act in the country’s parliament.

While addressing the Indian parliament, Amit Shah referred to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia -- blaming her for repression of minorities when she was in power, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said at a press conference at the party chairperson’s Gulshan office in Dhaka.    

Giving a “lame excuse”, Amit Shah claimed the trend of oppressing minorities in Bangladesh is still ongoing and thus India was forced to pass the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Fakhrul said.

“A speech riddled with untruths about Bangladesh and BNP was delivered in the Indian parliament.  We expect that the Indian government would withdraw the statement for the greater interest of both nations, and this should not be repeated for the sake of cooperation,” Fakhrul said.

He further said the Indian home minister compared Bangladesh to Pakistan and Afghanistan randomly in the course of supporting the citizenship act and claimed that religious minorities in Bangladesh are being repressed as Islam is its state religion.

Through his comments, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah has deliberately attempted to brand BNP as repressive to support the controversial act, the BNP leader alleged. 

“Diplomatically, Bangladesh-India relation is now going through a golden chapter. However, Amit Shah blamed a friendly neighbour for repression of Hindus, Buddhists and Christians,” Fakhrul said.

The political atmosphere in the region is being pushed towards a conflict in a bid to establish a Hindu state, balancing the gun on the shoulders of Bangladesh and BNP, Fakhrul said.

“BNP strongly believes that Indian Home Minister Amit Shah’s and official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs Raveesh Kumar’s statements in this regard are untrue, unprofessional, unilateral, biased, misleading and extremely questionable,” Fakhrul said.

Terming the CAA as undemocratic, discriminatory, unconstitutional and against humanity, Fakhrul said the act has been passed targeting the Muslim minority in India. 

Fakhrul also blasted Bangladesh government for its silence over the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in India and said it is a threat to Bangladeshis and the country’s sovereignty as well.

The Bangladesh government is claiming that the issue of NRC is India’s internal matter while Bangla speaking people are being pushed in through border areas from India, he said.