NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh claimed many Bangladeshis are “very anti-Indian”, in controversial remarks posted on his official website which were later removed for being “off the record”.
The comments, splashed in Bangladeshi newspapers on Saturday, could strain relations between the South Asian neighbours just as they have been improving.
Singh’s statements to newspaper editors in New Delhi earlier in the week come ahead of an official visit to Bangladesh by Indian foreign minister S.M. Krishna set for July 6 to 8.
Singh’s claim, posted on the prime minister’s website on Wednesday, said “we must reckon that at least 25 percent of the population of Bangladesh swear by the Jamaat-e-Islami and they are very anti-Indian”.
The Jamaat-e-Islami is Bangladesh’s largest Islamist party and was part of the four-party Islamist-allied government between 2001 and 2006.
Singh added that Jamaat-e-Islami members “are in the clutches, many times, of the ISI so the political landscape in Bangladesh can change at any time.”India has long suspected members of the ISI, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency, of planning attacks on India, including the deadly 2008 assault on Mumbai by Pakistan-based guerrillas.
The prime minister’s office removed the remarks from his website on Friday, saying they had been made “off the record”.
“We put it out by mistake,” the Indian Express quoted the prime minister’s media adviser, Harish Kharem, as saying.
The gaffe came as Singh has been battling opposition criticism that he is an ineffective, lame-duck premier who has turned a blind eye to a recent slew of domestic corruption scandals.
Singh’s comments became headline news on Saturday in Bangladesh’s mass-circulation daily Samakal, which titled its lead article: “Uproar over Manmohan’s comments”.
The paper quoted Bangladesh agriculture minister Motia Chowdhury as saying Singh’s claim was “not based on fact” noting that Jamaat-e-Islami got just four percent of votes in the last parliamentary elections, two-and-a-half years ago.
Jamaat-e-Islami also denied in a statement it was anti-India, saying the party “believes in the principle of having a good relationship with India.”In a damage-control move late on Saturday, India said Singh’s statements were “by no means intended to be judgmental.”The people of India “have the greatest affection for the people of Bangladesh,” the Indian High Commission (embassy) in Dhaka said in a statement.
Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan, won independence in 1971 with Indian military help but relations between the two countries have suffered rocky periods.
New Delhi regularly accused Dhaka of harbouring Indian insurgents and fostering militancy when Bangladesh was ruled by the Islamist-allied government.
But ties have improved in recent years, especially since Premier Sheikh Hasina came to power. Singh in his comments praised her for helping “in apprehending anti-Indian insurgent groups” operating from Bangladesh.
Source: Dawn News
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