Dhaka expects no situation in India to affect harmony in Bangladesh: Rizvi
Prime Minister’s international affairs adviser Professor Dr Gowher Rizvi on Monday said Dhaka will not prefer to see any situation in India that could affect Bangladesh’s secular social fabrics as he joined a seminar with Indian foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla being the keynote speaker.
“Our commitment to secularism is completely central and we usually do not want to see any situation where our secularism will be threatened anyway,” he told the seminar titled “Bangladesh and India: A promising Future” at a hotel in the administrative centre.
Rizvi, a former senior faculty of Harvard and Oxford, expressed Dhaka’s willingness for continued close cooperation with India to make certain that “our secularity in society grows from strength to strength”.
He said minorities in Bangladesh were “absolutely equal citizens” with government attaching highest priority in protecting and addressing their rights and issues and there is no chance Bangladesh would ignore a predicament when minorities were damaged in any possible way.
Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) and Indian High Commission in Dhaka jointly staged the seminar at Pan Pacific Shonargaon Hotel when Indian High Commissioner Riva Ganguly Das and BIISS Chairman Fazlul Karim also spoke.
Rizvi described India’s National Register of Citizens (NRC) issue as a burning one but expected it to stay as an interior or domestic affair ofthe neighbouring country as stated repeatedly by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi having no effect on Bangladesh.
“We've accepted that (repeated assurance) and we have good reasons to think that we should not worry,” he said.
The Bangladesh premier’s adviser referred to as “heavenly” the Dhaka-Delhi ties saying the two neighbours right now resolved the seven-decade-old land boundary disputes in a calm manner, setting an example for the other parts of the world though there were some outstanding issues “as all neighbours do have”.
But Rizvi said he was unhappy with the prevailing pace of progress in resolving the outstanding issues which “we've agreed previously” fearing that “opportunities to be lost by the delay could possibly be costly”.
“It is in our interests, it is to your benefit just since it is to India’s benefit and there is absolutely no issues that can't be resolved,” he observed.
He expressed his satisfaction that the process of water sharing issues of transboundary rives have been resumed and insisted on expediting the procedure and simultaneously expected the disbursement of Indian’s pledged line of credit to Bangladesh will be quickened as well.
“We need to take fresh look and imagine articulating new vision how far Bangladesh and India can go,” he said.
Shringla arrived in Dhaka on a two-day visit each morning and after arrival at Hazrat Shahjalal AIRPORT TERMINAL, he was received by his Bangladesh counterpart Masud Bin Momen.
