Dhaka: Bangladesh's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has sent a diplomatic note to the Indian government, objecting to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's remarks on offering shelter to refugees in the wake of escalating violence recently following protests over the quota system for government jobs in the South Asian country. More than 160 people were killed in the protests.
According to local media reports, Bangladesh's Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud said Banerjee's remarks could create confusion among people. "With due respect to (West Bengal) Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, I would like to say, we have excellent relations with her. We have deep relations. But her remarks created confusion to some extent and there is scope to be misled," he said.
Hasan said that the foreign ministry has informed the Indian government through a diplomatic note regarding the issue. This came after the West Bengal CM offered shelter to people affected by violence in Bangladesh.
What did Mamata Banerjee say?
While offering shelter at the 'Martyrs Day' rally of the TMC in Kolkata, Mamata Banerjee said Bengal would keep the doors of her state open for people in distress from the neighbouring country. She referred to the United Nations Resolution on refugees as justification for her stand over the possible humanitarian crisis that may emerge in Bangladesh which has been facing violence over the past few days.
“I should not be speaking on the affairs of Bangladesh since that is a sovereign nation and whatever needs to be said on the issue is a subject matter of the Centre. But I can tell you this, if helpless people come knocking on the doors of Bengal, we will surely provide them shelter,” the CM said. She also extended assistance to Bangladeshis who came to Bengal but were facing difficulty in returning home.
Her remarks on July 21 came in the wake of the escalating violence in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka and elsewhere over student protests demanding reforms of the quota system for government jobs. The protesters were demanding an end to a quota system that reserves up to 30 per cent of government jobs for relatives of veterans who fought in Bangladesh's war of independence in 1971 against Pakistan.
What is happening in Bangladesh now?
The Bangladesh government said on Tuesday it would heed a Supreme Court ruling that 93 per cent of state jobs be open to competition, meeting a key demand of students after a week of some of the country's deadliest protests in years. However, students have raised fresh demands including the scrapping of a curfew, restoration of internet services and a reopening of campuses.
The government announced an easing of the curfew imposed to help contain the unrest, lifting it from Wednesday between 10 am and 5 pm to allow people to shop for essentials, with offices reopened between 11 am and 3 pm. Bangladeshi authorities also shut down mobile internet and deployed the army after clashes between protesters and security forces spread across the South Asian country of 170 million.
Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina's government scrapped quotas in 2018 that had reserved 56 per cent of state jobs for various categories of people, including 30 per cent for families of those who fought in the country's 1971 war of independence. But a high court ruling reinstated the quotas last month, triggering the student protests. Students were furious because quotas left less than half of state jobs open to merit amid an unemployment crisis.
Hasina, meanwhile, defended her decision to enforce a curfew with a shoot-on-sight order following violent clashes between the police and protesters, saying the tough measures were taken to ensure the security of the lives and properties of the people. She blamed the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Jamaat-e-Islami and their student wings for the violence.
(with inputs from agencies)
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