Upset over the Prime Minister?s ?off-the-record? comments that 25 per cent Bangladesh nationals are anti-Indians, the Bangladesh Foreign Office has summoned the Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka on Sunday. Sources told The Sunday Express that High Commissioner Rajeet Mitter has been called on Sunday since Saturday is a government holiday in Bangladesh.
In New Delhi, in a bid to control the damage, the Ministry of External Affairs on Saturday said the government is committed to ?non-interference? in the internal affairs of sovereign countries and that the remarks were not meant to be ?judgemental?.
?The Prime Minister and his government and the people of India have the greatest affection for the people of Bangladesh and hold our relations with Bangladesh to be of the highest importance,? MEA spokesperson Vishnu Prakash said in a statement.
?It is clarified in this regard that these attributed remarks were by no means intended to be judgemental,? said the spokesperson.
The ?off-the-record? comments by the Prime Minister during his interaction with editors were posted on the PM?s website for over 30 hours.
Singh had said, ?But we must reckon that at least 25 per cent of the population of Bangladesh swear by the Jamaat-e-Islami and they are very anti-Indian, and they are in the clutches, many times, of the ISI.?
?So, a political landscape in Bangladesh can change at any time. We do not know what these terrorist elements, who have a hold on the Jamaat-e-Islami elements in Bangladesh, can be up to,? he said.
With an effort to assuage concerns in Dhaka ? where the media highlighted the comments ? the MEA spokesperson said, ?India recognises the stability of the democratically elected government and is committed to the non-interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states.?
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