PM Manmohan’s faux pas
Delhi apologizes to Dhaka
NEW DELHI: Delhi Saturday sent an apologetic note to Dhaka over Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s faux pas regarding Bangladesh’s political situation and anti-India stance of a certain segment of Bangladeshis under the influence of an Islamic party.
The clarification came as the remark of the head of government of India created uproar in Bangladesh and the press in India also appeared critical of the inadvertent observations ahead of his important Dhaka trip.
“This is one faux pas that Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh could easily have avoided just before his trip to Dhaka. At least this is the contention of senior politicians cutting across party lines,” the banglanews correspondent reports, quoting local views.
The PM had said that while India’s relations with Bangladesh are quite good, he believed that a section of the Bangladeshi population was ‘anti-Indian and these people were being led by Jamaat-e-Islami and, often, the Pakistan-based ISI’.
“Understandably, the reactions have caused uproar in Bangladesh. Today, in a damage-control exercise, India– specifically the Ministry of External Affairs--sent out an apologetic note to say that the remarks by the Prime Minister were by ‘no means intended to be judgmental’," says the report.
"Our attention has been drawn to some off-the-record remarks attributed to the Prime Minister during his interaction with editors in New Delhi. It is clarified in this regard that these attributed remarks were by no means intended to be judgmental," said an official spokesperson for the ministry of external affairs.
The spokesperson went on to mention that Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and his government and the people of India had “great affection” for the people of Bangladesh. “The relations with Bangladesh are of the highest importance.”
The remarks of the Prime Minister, it was clarified, were made off the record, but somehow appeared in the official transcript of the interaction between the Prime Minister and the editors. The portion of the interactions has now been taken out from the official transcript.
The official spokesperson also pointed out that India recognized the democratically-elected government as well as its stability and was committed to the non-interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states.
The spokesperson also said: "In recent years, ties between India and Bangladesh have seen exceptional heights with close cooperation in a wide range of areas. The focus on both sides has been development cooperation, poverty alleviation, capacity building and education.”
He added: “It is in this context that the External Affairs Minister of India is undertaking an official visit to Bangladesh. We ware fully committed to our bilateral relationship with the people and the government of Bangladesh.”
Meanwhile, there have been reactions from former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the chief of the main opposition PML-N– once again about what Dr Manmohan Singh said to the five editors.
The Indian Prime Minister had said that Pakistan should "l leave Kashmir alone, because they have their own share of internal problems" or else the peace talks between the two countries would face difficulties.
In a meeting with reporters, Sharif commented: "This is not a political statement. Such statements complicate matters. The Indian prime minister should not have made such a statement, and there was no need for it."