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Indian envoy summoned in Dhaka over PM's 'gaffe'

Lankan Ranger

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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."

All these comments, of course, remain on the website.

Indian envoy summoned in Dhaka over PM's 'gaffe' - The Times of India
 
Shows the Indian frustration that the BD population are not all Indian puppets.

MMH Singh has realised that Awami League do not represent the whole of BD thinking and it must frustrate him that another power is growing in the East that may not be an automatic Indian ally.

If India wants an equal relationship with BD, they are welcome. Bangladeshis would never accept being dictated to by anyone, whether they are white, yellow or brown.
 
another power?

:rofl:



If you do not think that BD's fast growing economy will not eventualy translate into a heavily-militarised state then keep living in your fantasy land.

The only reason why BD is not investing more money into massive arms purchases now is that around 1/3rd of it's population still do not have enough to eat. Once this is eliminated in the next decade or so, just watch the amounth of arms that flow into BD. The eventual aim of BD will be a conventional military on a par with Pakistan.

Unlike some other countries, BD believes in feeding it's population first before becoming a massive dump for the world's arms merchants
 
If you do not think that BD's fast growing economy will not eventualy translate into a heavily-militarised state then keep living in your fantasy land.

The only reason why BD is not investing more money into massive arms purchases now is that around 1/3rd of it's population still do not have enough to eat. Once this is eliminated in the next decade or so, just watch the amounth of arms that flow into BD. The eventual aim of BD will be a conventional military on a par with Pakistan.

Unlike some other countries, BD believes in feeding it's population first before becoming a massive dump for the world's arms merchants


Thats why we are spending billions in building a fence around BD so that the all powerful Bangladesh Army could not invade India so easily.:azn:
 
If you do not think that BD's fast growing economy will not eventualy translate into a heavily-militarised state then keep living in your fantasy land.

The only reason why BD is not investing more money into massive arms purchases now is that around 1/3rd of it's population still do not have enough to eat. Once this is eliminated in the next decade or so, just watch the amounth of arms that flow into BD. The eventual aim of BD will be a conventional military on a par with Pakistan.

Unlike some other countries, BD believes in feeding it's population first before becoming a massive dump for the world's arms merchants

You must understand what are the inputs required to be a 'power'.

Don Quixote also thought he was a power.

Feeding the population is good.

Bhutto and Pakistanis ate grass to become a nuclear state. You must have heard him saying so in the UN General Assembly.

That is what makes one reckonable!

There is an English idiom - Pigs will fly
 
If India wants an equal relationship with BD, they are welcome. Bangladeshis would never accept being dictated to by anyone, whether they are white, yellow or brown.


Fair enough!. We do want an equal and an equitable relationship (don't go by what is expressed on this forum, most of that arises from the sheer anti-India cussedness that some BD members show and is not representative of normal Indian opinion). I also agree that this was an gaffe by the PMO. While that opinion could possibly be held, it was extremely foolish to allow it to come out in the public domain and unnecessarily embarrass a friendly government.
 
Thats why we are spending billions in building a fence around BD so that the all powerful Bangladesh Army could not invade India so easily.:azn:

The so called insurgents of NE India is enough... illegal immigrants is just an excuse as it is mostly a myth... if true indian government would have officially raised it long ago n definitely bd government would ask to show proof 500k people crossed per year or 1600 people per day for the last 40 years... n if true then definite demand would be to ban useless n incompetence BSF.
 
You must understand what are the inputs required to be a 'power'.

Don Quixote also thought he was a power.

Feeding the population is good.

Bhutto and Pakistanis ate grass to become a nuclear state. You must have heard him saying so in the UN General Assembly.

That is what makes one reckonable!

There is an English idiom - Pigs will fly

I am not going to get into an academic discussion on what the inputs are to become a "power". It would mean different things to different people. You probably have a definition that is different to mine and someone else has another different definition.

I think a lot of Indians do not realise just how large that BD is in comparison to India. It is not another Sri Lanka or Bhutan. It's population is around an eight of that of India and could quite easily attain a very capable conventional military if it truly wanted one. It does not as it has a different philosophy to that of India - it would like to reach a higher level of development before investing more massive sums on arms purchases.

@Bang Galore - some sensible comments. Let us hope that there are more like you in India as otherwise I can see BD and India growing apart which would harm the interests of both countries in the long run.
 
Now this is Bangaldeshi power!

You are not even known to exist!

So India has influence on pretty much everything we do. The way we dress, what we eat, what we buy, what we watch etc etc. . .the list goes on. That’s for the Bangladeshi population though but what about the rest of the world? Well, obviously India is known all over the world. .thanks to Bollywood and butter chicken! But how does what affect us? Trust me it does and no one knows better than me.
4 years living in North America I had to correct the people saying “I am NOT Indian, I am Bangladeshi!” Just because we have the same complexion and dress the same way does not make us Indian. Gosh! (ok, I did not overreact) but sometimes it was aggravating going all “National Geographic” and “Discovery” on people while trying to explain them where Bangladesh was located and that it was a different country.
I recall a conversation between me and my grade 9 Biology teacher. She was nicely bonding with me over a Bollywood movie and told me how much she loved Shahrukh Khan. I knew what she was talking about but at the same time I knew exactly what she was thinking- she thought I was Indian. I went on talking but I had to correct her, I told her I was Bangladeshi. She looked a little embarrassed (poor her, that wasn’t my intention though) and told me she knew Bangladeshis in her university. (Phew, at least she knew the country!) . At the end of school year most of my classmates and teachers knew where Bangladesh was (Yay! Mission accomplished) but I guess I celebrated too soon. On my graduation day, when they were reading what the graduates would do after school . .mine went something like this ” and Fariba will go to college in her homeland PAKISTAN!” (SERIOUSLY!) arrggg.

Posted in Bangladesh, Bollywood | Tagged Bangladesh, India, North America
The Indian Impact

No one knows where is Bangladesh and they mistake you for either being an Indian or a Pakistani!

So, let us not waste time on delusions that you chaps conjure about yourself!!
 
Who gives a rat's arse that Bangladesh is not as well known as India or Pakistan!

Fact is that more people know about BD now than even 10 years ago. As it econonomy gets larger and it gets more integrated with the world economy, more and more people around the world will be aware of it.

If BD had got the same start at Independence(25 year younger than both) as either India or Paksistan did, then there is very little doubt that it would be ahead of both countries economically now.
 
Who gives a rat's arse that Bangladesh is not as well known as India or Pakistan!

Fact is that more people know about BD now than even 10 years ago. As it econonomy gets larger and it gets more integrated with the world economy, more and more people around the world will be aware of it.

If BD had got the same start at Independence(25 year younger than both) as either India or Paksistan did, then there is very little doubt that it would be ahead of both countries economically now.

I am sorry I have no experience as you have to observe a rodent's rectum. Therefore, I concede you the honours!

The fact is for all to see and so delusions need not find place!

Keeping to the topic and not veering off inspite of provocation, I still maintain, it is Bangladesh's right to call the Indian High Commissioner.
 
If BD had got the same start at Independence(25 year younger than both) as either India or Paksistan did, then there is very little doubt that it would be ahead of both countries economically now.
You are already ahead of both of us in literacy so :cheers:

btw the Indian PM had to chew his words and they removed them from website
 

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