Attacks On Minorities In Bangladesh, Lankan Action On Indian Fishermen Discussed By Jaishankar With Parliamentary Panel

The external affairs minister assured the members of the panel that the Indian government has raised this matter at various levels and multiple platforms.

On being asked about India’s engagement with the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government and if Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be meeting him any time soon and raising the matter in person, a conservative response came in from the minister on any commitments of any meeting with his Bangladeshi counterpart. However, it is learnt that PM Modi will also attend the BIMSTEC summit in Thailand, where he may meet Bangladesh’s Yunus.

“Nobody else raised the matter of the attacks on minorities before our government did. We will continue to do that," Jaishankar told the MPs, said sources. He further elaborated that, as per the constitution of Bangladesh, they cannot even have a caretaker government, but an unprecedented situation has been witnessed in the neighbouring nation for the last several months. It has also been conveyed to the members that formal discussions could take place elaborately with Bangladesh since the country does not have a formal government in place.

The members also asked if the government had decided its stance on China because many aspects of what was happening in the neighbourhood were also because of the interference of Beijing. While conveying to them that the discussion of China would take place later, as it was not part of Saturday’s agenda, the minister said that India has always maintained a very cordial relationship with all its neighbours. “We had the recent visit by the Maldives President, and it is an example of how we continue to engage with our neighbours and work on improving relations," the minister told the committee, said sources. The committee was also informed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to travel to Sri Lanka next month as part of his engagement with India’s neighbours.

The external affairs minister also explained to the committee what happened at SAARC and why therefore BIMSTEC would be important.

Many members of Parliament, especially those from the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, were extremely keen on understanding what steps the government of India was taking to protect fishermen who were being arrested and punished by the Sri Lankan authorities.

It is learnt that the minister explained to them how India was engaging with the Lankan authorities, but it would be some time before a final solution was found.

“I do not wish to do politics over the entire matter, but the Katchatheevu matter has a lot to do with this, and it is a legacy issue that the present-day government is trying to sort," Jaishankar is said to have told the panel.

Many members of the committee were extremely concerned about the influence of drugs, especially those coming in from hostile neighbour Pakistan into states like Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, etc, and whether the Indian government was trying to expose Islamabad. The panel was told that the government was concerned about the matter, but a discussion on this would take place in another meeting.

The issue of refugees was also raised by the members, and they also wanted to understand from the government if there was any communication from these neighbouring nations about people wanting to get Indian citizenship. The government told the committee that this data would be provided at a later date.

“The meeting was held in a very cordial manner, and nobody was trying to score a political point," a top government source told News18.

This was the first meeting of the Consultative Committee for External Affairs after it was constituted following the Lok Sabha elections last year. A few rounds of meetings are expected to take place in the next few months in continuation with this one to talk about India’s neighbourhood policy.

In fact, just before Sheikh Hasina’s arrival in India, there was an all-party meeting that the government of India had called in Parliament. During this meeting, the external affairs minister had conveyed to party leaders that he would brief MPs on India’s neighbourhood policy the moment the constitution of the consultative committee took place.

Apart from Dr Jaishankar, minister of state for external affairs Pabitra Margherita and officials of the MEA attended the meeting. Among the members of Parliament present were Mukul Wasnik, Manish Tewari, Gurjeet Singh Aujla, and KC Venugopal from the Congress. Priyanka Chaturvedi from Shiv Sena (UBT), Anil Firojiya from the BJP, GK Vasan from the Tamil Manila Congress, and Rajya Sabha member Vaiko were also in attendance.