Bangladesh Minister of Information Hasanul Haq Inu said Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah’s comment describing Bangladeshi migrants as termites was unwanted, The Hindu reported on Monday. The Bangladeshi minister said Shah was not qualified to speak on India’s ties with his country.
“We in Dhaka do not give any importance to his [Amit Shah] statement as it does not carry the gravity of an official statement of India,” Inu told the newspaper. “We have maintained that the National Register of Citizens process in Assam and the welfare of the Bengali-speaking citizens of India are internal issues of India.”
The Bangladeshi minister said India’s Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had assured Dhaka that people excluded in Assam’s National Register of Citizens exercise would not be sent to Bangladesh.
On Sunday, Shah told people at a rally at Gangapur in Rajasthan’s Sawai Madhopur district that Bangladeshi migrants will soon be removed from the electoral rolls in India, and credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration with developing Assam’s National Register of Citizens.
Shah repeated his controversial comment in Delhi later on Sunday and vowed to conduct a nationwide campaign to identify illegal Bangladeshi migrants and send them back if voted to power.
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