In plain Bangla (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 2: International Relations
Prelims level : India-Bangladesh
Mains level : Strategic imbalances between India-Bangladesh relations

Context:

• With the uproar over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the proposed countrywide application of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), the India-Bangladesh relationship threatens to become less frictionless.

Background:

• Hasina and Modi had met bilaterally on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly and in October 2019, when she visited Delhi for the India Economic Summit of the World Economic Forum.
• She had said that she was satisfied with Modi’s assurance that the NRC in Assam would not affect Bangladesh.
• Now, however, in an interview to Gulf News in Abu Dhabi, Hasina has described the CAA as “not necessary”, and as a step whose purpose mystifies her.
• In response to the ongoing domestic agitation against the Act, the government has repeatedly explained that the specific purpose is to confer citizenship on minorities (read Hindus) fleeing persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
• It is founded on the implicit premise that India’s neighbours, including Bangladesh, are engaged in the persecution of minorities, and a reaction from the neighbourhood was inevitable.

Criticism from Bangladesh:

• This addressing the Indian state rather than the government or its chief executive, and terming the citizenship issue as its internal affair.
• But Bangladesh has officially denied any out-migration to India due to religious persecution, and Hasina herself has clarified that there is no movement in the reverse direction either.
• India had to hasten to clarify that persecution had happened before her term, yet the damage seems to have been done.

Conclusion:

• At a time when regional geopolitics is changing rapidly, India cannot afford to alienate neighbours for the compulsions of domestic politics, or cause strain in a strong and necessary relationship.

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Prelims Questions:

Q.1) With reference to the Sinkholes, consider the following statements:
1. They are depressions formed in the ground when layers of the Earth’s surface start collapsing into caverns.
2. Their formation can be caused only due to natural processes.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer: A
Mains Questions:
Q.1) Do you think the Citizenship Amendment Act have imbalances the relationship between India and Bangladesh? Comment.