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The Indian government is now considering Bangladesh's request for a bilateral meeting between interim government chief adviser Muhammad Yunus and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the upcoming BIMSTEC summit, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar told a parliamentary committee meeting.
Sources said that in the first meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee on Foreign Affairs this year on Saturday, several MPs raised concern over the attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh and asked what steps India was taking in this regard. Then Jaishankar told the members that the interim government of Dhaka has claimed that the attacks on Hindus were "politically motivated" and were not "targeting minorities".
What did S Jaishankar say about the meeting between Yunus and PM Modi?
When Jaishankar was asked if there was any possibility of a bilateral meeting between PM Modi and Yunus at the BIMSTEC meeting, the Foreign Minister did not give a direct answer and said that Yunus' request was under consideration.
MPs from many parties, including Congress MPs KC Venugopal, Manish Tiwari, Mukul Wasnik and Priyanka Chaturvedi of Shiv Sena UBT, strongly raised the issue of atrocities against Hindus in Bangladesh and the need to stop it in the meeting. On this, Jaishankar said that the Government of India is in touch with the interim administration of Bangladesh at various levels and these issues have been raised. The government will continue to do so in future as well.
SAARC inactive because of Pakistan: Jaishankar
Jaishankar briefed the MPs about relations with Bangladesh, Maldives, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. He said that he would talk about Pakistan and China separately later. Jaishankar also said in the meeting that SAARC is inactive due to Pakistan's attitude and hence India is trying to strengthen BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation).
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