India has responded to top-level remarks expressing fears of “pushback” — forcibly sending people across the border — into Bangladesh after the BJP’s victory in the West Bengal assembly election. On Thursday (7 May), India’s foreign ministry said such remarks should be seen in the context of returning illegal Bangladeshi migrants to their own country. New Delhi also called on Bangladesh to quickly complete its citizenship-verification process.
A foreign ministry spokesperson, Jaiswal, said more than 2,860 citizenship-verification cases are currently pending with the Bangladesh government, many of them awaiting resolution for more than five years. “If the verification process is completed quickly, sending illegal migrants back can be done easily and in an orderly way,” he said.
Earlier, Bangladesh’s Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed had expressed concern about possible pushback at the border. Speaking to journalists on Wednesday (6 May), he said he did not expect such incidents after the BJP’s West Bengal win, but added that Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) had been instructed to stay alert and watch the border situation.
Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman also commented. In a statement published on the BNP’s official Facebook page, he said that if “push-in” — forcibly pushing people in — occurred at the border after West Bengal’s political change, Bangladesh would take the necessary measures.
On the Teesta river water-sharing issue, Jaiswal said in reply to a question that India and Bangladesh share 54 common rivers and that a well-organised bilateral framework exists to discuss all such river-related issues. On Thursday he said existing joint processes on water-sharing and river management are progressing through regular meetings, but he gave no details of any new progress or specific timeline on a Teesta deal.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report