Bangladeshi version of Modi-Yunus meeting in Bangkok ‘motivated’

A Bangladeshi version of a meeting between chief adviser Muhammad Yunus and PM Narendra Modi was “mischievous and politically motivated”, especially the aspects relating to attacks on minorities and Dhaka’s request for extraditing former premier Sheikh Hasina, people familiar with the matter said on Saturday.

In a Facebook post on Saturday, Yunus’ press secretary Shafiqul Alam said during his meeting with Modi in Bangkok, the chief adviser had raised Bangladesh’s request for the extradition of Hasina and the “response was not negative”. He further claimed that Modi had said: “We saw her (Hasina’s) disrespectful behaviour towards you (Yunus).”

The characterisation of the Indian PM’s remarks regarding the relationship with Yunus and the previous Bangladesh government were “inaccurate”, the people cited above said on Dhaka’s official readout on the meeting and the Facebook post by Alam.

The people cited above said Modi had responded to various issues raised by Yunus by saying that these were best discussed by the foreign ministers of the two countries. “PM Modi spoke of the progress in our bilateral relationship since 2014 and characterised it as a deep friendship between our societies and peoples,” they said.

The people said the PM also mentioned the importance of elections as the basis of legitimacy in any democracy and that a continued procrastination in this regard would damage the chief advisor’s reputation. “The Bangladeshi contention that attacks on minorities were a social media concoction was dismissed as being in contradiction to facts on the ground,” said one of the people.