Amit Shah’s knowledge on Bangladesh is limited: Foreign minister

Bangladesh foreign minister AK Abdul Momen has said that the knowledge of Indian home minister Amit Shah regarding Bangladesh is very limited. In many sectors, Bangladesh is far ahead of his country.

The foreign minister made these remarks on Tuesday night when asked about his reaction to the remarks of Amit Shah, also former president of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), published in India’s Bangla language newspaper Anandabazar.

Amit Shah told Anandabazar that the poor people of Bangladesh come to India as even now they do not get enough to eat in their own country. Infiltration from Bangladesh will be stopped if BJP comes to power in West Bengal.

BJP is fighting hard in the elections to gain control of the provincial assembly of West Bengal.

Momen also said such remarks are unacceptable especially when relations between Bangladesh and India are so deep. Such remarks create misunderstanding.

“There are many wise people in the world who do not see even after looking, and do not understand, even after knowing. But if he (Amit Shah) had said something like that, I would say his knowledge about Bangladesh is very limited. No one dies of hunger in our country now. There’s no 'monga' (seasonal poverty and hunger in northern districts of Bangladesh) either,” the foreign minister said in response to Amit Shah’s remarks.

Mentioning that Bangladesh is ahead of India in many social indices, Momen said whereas almost 90 per cent of the people in Bangladesh use fairly good latrines, over 50 per cent people in India do not have proper toilets.

He further said if they that is how they think, they need to expand their knowledge. There’s a shortage of jobs for educated people in Bangladesh, but no such scarcity for the less educated. Besides, over 100,000 people of India work in Bangladesh. We do not need to go to India, he added.