Delhi ‘yet to confirm’ Dhaka request for Muhammad Yunus-PM Modi meet next month

Jaishankar is learnt to have informed the MPs about Dhaka’s claim that the attacks were “politically motivated” and not targeted at minorities.

This was the first meeting of the Consultative Committee for External Affairs in the NDA government’s current term. Consultative committees, constituted by the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry, are a forum for informal discussions between MPs and government representatives.

Besides the state of ties with Bangladesh, which has seen violent protests and the resultant toppling of the Sheikh Hasina regime change over the last year, Jaishankar is learnt to have briefed MPs on the situation in some of India’s neighbouring countries.

This included India’s relations with the Maldives, especially after the India-Out campaign by incumbent President Mohamed Muizzu and his recent visit to New Delhi, the volatility in Myanmar and the issue of Indian citizens being forced to work in cyber scam centres in the country.

There was also a discussion on Sri Lanka, sources said, with Prime Minister Modi expected to visit the country over the next few weeks. Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who came to power in September, visited India for the first time in December.

The External Affairs Minister made no comment on the state of ties with Pakistan or China, sources said, but assured members that a discussion on this would take place at a later time.

He is learnt to have told the MPs that while SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) was currently inactive because of Pakistan’s approach, India was throwing its weight behind BIMSTEC (The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation).
The Prime Minister is expected to be in Bangkok between April 2 and 4 for the BIMSTEC summit. While Yunus is also attending, and Bangladesh has officially sought a meeting between the two leaders on the sidelines, India has not confirmed the meeting yet.

The Foreign Affairs Adviser to the interim government of Bangladesh, Md Touhid Hossain, had told reporters last week: “We have made a diplomatic approach to India to hold a bilateral meeting between our two leaders at the sidelines of the BIMSTEC summit.”

Asked about this, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal had said Friday: “I do not have any update to share at this point.”

Relations between India and Bangladesh have been strained over a range of issues — attacks on minorities, border disputes, water sharing and trade agreements. In February, Jaishankar met Hossain on the sidelines of the Indian Ocean Conference in Oman and raised the issue of minorities.

The consultative panel is headed by Jaishankar and includes Ministers of State Pabitra Margherita and Kirti Vardhan Singh, besides 22 MPs from both Houses.

The meeting was attended by several Opposition MPs, including Congress’s K C Venugopal, Manish Tewari and Mukul Wasnik, and Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Priyanka Chaturvedi.

The minister, sources said, assured the MPs that the government would continue to engage with the interim dispensation in Bangladesh on issues of minorities as well as other matters.

Cyber scam issue flagged

At the meeting, MPs across party lines were learnt to have flagged the issue of thousands of Indian citizens being trapped to work in cyber scam centres across South East Asian countries, especially in Myanmar. Jaishankar told them that the government is in touch with authorities in those countries and has been able to rescue many Indian nationals forced into employment in these centres.

Last week, the government brought home 549 Indian nationals who had been lured with fake job offers and forced into cybercrime activities in Southeast Asia. Of these people, 65 were from Uttar Pradesh, 61 from Maharashtra, 57 from Gujarat and 48 from Punjab. They were flown home in two batches in military aircraft. Many of them had been trafficked to scam centres operating in Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos.

Some MPs from southern states are also learnt to have raised the issue of fisherfolk’s livelihood and their problems with Sri Lanka. According to government data, 528 Indian fishermen were arrested in Sri Lanka last year.