India strongly responded to Bangladesh on Friday after it made comments about recent violence in West Bengal.
Shafiqul Alam, press secretary to Bangladesh’s Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus, had asked both the Indian central government and the West Bengal state government to protect the Muslim minority after violent clashes in parts of the state. He also criticized the violence that caused loss of lives and property damage.
In reply, Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for India’s Ministry of External Affairs, rejected these remarks. He said Bangladesh should stop “virtue signalling” and instead focus on protecting the rights of its own minority communities.
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Jaiswal also said that Bangladesh was trying to distract attention from the serious issues minorities are facing there. According to him, this is a “disguised and dishonest attempt” to avoid responsibility.
Recently, areas like Murshidabad in West Bengal have seen violent clashes between communities. The violence started after protests by Muslims against changes made to the Waqf Act.
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India and Bangladesh’s relationship has become strained since former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina left office in August last year following major protests. Things got worse when the current temporary government led by Muhammad Yunus failed to prevent attacks on minority groups in Bangladesh, especially Hindus.
