Indian envoy summoned in Dhaka over PM's 'gaffe'
Rajit Mitter, India's High Commissioner to Bangladesh, has been summoned by the government in Dhaka to explain Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's remarks against Bangladeshis earlier this week. The prime minister's office posted a transcript of the PM's meeting with editors earlier this week, where the PMO quoted him saying, "we must reckon that at least 25% of the population of Bangladesh swear by the Jamaat-ul-Islami and they are very anti-Indian, and they are in the clutches, many times, of the ISI (of Pakistan)."
The prime minister's publicized remarks on Bangladesh have not only embarrassed India and the PM personally, but created a storm in the neighbouring country. Its timing could not have been worse. Foreign minister S M Krishna is expected to visit Dhaka from July 6 to 8, and sources said he can expect some tough questioning there. Krishna's visit is expected to prepare for Singh's trip to Dhaka later this year.
The MEA put out an apology against the gaffe. The spokesperson, clarifying that the remarks "we're not intended to be judgmental" said, "Prime Minister and his Government and the people of India have the greatest affection for the people of Bangladesh and hold our relations with Bangladesh to be of the highest importance."
Reports from Bangladesh said former foreign minister in the Begum Khalida Zia government, Morshed Khan, was leading the political protests against Singh's comments. He was quoted as saying, "such comments from a person like Manmohan Singh is frustrating for Bangladesh".
The PMO took over 30 hours to notice the gaffe on Bangladesh, and remove it from its website.
The MEA said, "India recognizes the stability of the democratically elected Government and is committed to the non-interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states."
The Awami League government in Dhaka was trying to put a brave face on it, but sources said this masked a deep feeling of dejection. The regime has been very sympathetic to New Delhi's concerns about the insurgents from India's northeast operating from within Bangladesh territory and has often been attacked by domestic opponents for not holding its own in dealings with the bigger neighbour.
Bangladesh's Jamaat-e-Islami on Friday condemned Singh's remarks, where he had said the JI drew its inspiration and directions from Pakistan's ISI. "The comment of Indian premier that Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami is anti-Indian, and acts in accordance with advice of the ISI is false, baseless and it does not go with the status of the premier," said the party's acting secretary general A T M Azharul Islam in a statement. Jamaat said it wanted a good relationship with India maintaining Bangladesh's sovereignty and interests.
The diplomatic gaffe is troublesome for India in different ways, say highly placed government sources. Remarks like this play into the hands of Pakistan and China. Beijing, for instance, takes advantage of India's stinginess on market access to open up its own markets to Bangladeshi goods. The PM's remarks comes at a time when the bilateral relationship is being seen as rocky, largely because India is being seen to be stingy with an least developed nation neighbour like Bangladesh. Certainly, on issues like market access or tariff rates, India is seen as less than forthcoming, doling out tiny goodies like garment imports. Former diplomat Ronen Sen observed, "We should not make half-hearted gestures. For instance in the area of trade, we should grant them duty-free access completely. It will be a small fraction of our imports."
The PM was equally candid about Sri Lanka, Pakistan and China, none of which have been removed from the website. On Sri Lanka, the PM not only dwelt on the "reality" of Sinhala chauvinism, but also said, "Tamil problem does not disappear with the defeat of the LTTE. The Tamil population has legitimate grievances. They feel they have been reduced over the years to second-class citizens. And our emphasis has been to persuade the Sri Lankan government that we must move towards a new system of institutional reforms, where the Tamil people will have a feeling that they are equal citizens of Sri Lanka, and they can lead and live a life of dignity and self-respect. It is not easy because within Sri Lanka's population, there are hotheads..."
Showing he was no political babe-in-the-woods, Singh was more than gracious to Jayalalithaa, the new Tamil Nadu CM. By saying she "understood" his compulsions; the PM was also subtly drawing a distinction with her predecessor, Karunanidhi, whose government needed a lot of hand-holding on the Lankan issue.
Singh also took potshots at China's economic figures openly. It's a fact that Indian economists have believed that China fudges some of their figures, but it's unusual for the PM to say it openly. About the `exaggerated' economic figures put out by Beijing, he said, "The Chinese system is opaque. They have a very small visible fiscal deficit. But there are reports that the banking system is financing their infrastructure out of their non-performing assets which is leading to debts."
