India protests social media post by aide of Bangladesh chief adviser
In the post that has been deleted, Mahfuj Alam had used a map showing some Indian territories as part of Bangladesh.
India has registered “strong protest” against a now-deleted social media post by the interim Bangladesh government’s student adviser Mahfuz Alam, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Friday.
In a Facebook post, Alam had used a map showing certain areas of West Bengal, Assam and Tripura as part of Bangladesh. He had allegedly added that Bangladesh’s liberation struggle would remain unfinished unless the country was freed from its “trap of geography”, according to The Wire.
The post that has now been deleted, was made on December 16, which is Bangladesh’s Victory Day that marks its 1971 Liberation War victory over Pakistan.
“We would like to remind all concerned to be mindful of their public comments,” ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, acknowledging that the Bangladeshi official’s social media post had been deleted.
“While India has repeatedly signalled interest in fostering relations with the people and the interim government of Bangladesh, such comments underline the need for responsibility in public articulation,” Jaiswal added.
Former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted and forced to flee to India on August 5 amid protests against her Awami League government. Nobel laureate economist Muhammad Yunus took over as the head of an interim government on August 8.
Diplomatic ties between New Delhi and Dhaka have been strained since Hasina fled to India, following which incidents of violence against religious minorities were reported in several parts of Bangladesh.
Earlier this month, Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri visited Dhaka, marking the first high-level diplomatic meeting between the two countries after Hasina’s ouster.
Misri, during a meeting with his Bangladeshi counterpart Mohammad Jashim Uddin, conveyed that New Delhi wanted “to build a positive and constructive relationship” with Dhaka “based on mutual trust and respect and mutual sensitivity to each other’s concerns and interests”.