Zee Media Bureau/Ritesh K Srivastava
New Delhi: The election campaign of BJP`s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is making waves across the subcontinent in Bangladesh, which on Tuesday warned that the `illegal immigrant row` if not handled amicably will affect Dhaka`s ties with New Delhi.
“Any hasty steps taken by the new government will hit bilateral ties,” Bangladesh Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said stressing that there are “no illegal immigrants from Bangladesh in India”.
He said this in response to Modi`s recent statement that all illegal Bangladeshi migrants in India should pack and leave on May 16 when the results of the world’s largest democratic exercise would be announced.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader Shamsher M Chowdhury also reacted by saying, “This is nothing but sheer politicking by BJP.”
At the domestic front, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today said, “Narendra Modi is a divisive leader. He wants to divide the state but won`t succeed. We won`t tolerate any attempt by him to divide the state.”
Modi has recently created a political uproar by saying that all illegal immigrants from Bangladesh will be sent back to their country of origin.
Though he later clarified his statement and said that he would make every effort to improve relations with Bangladesh should he come to power.
However, concerns were expressed on social media over Modi`s remarks and some said that the BJP leader has made those statements only to communalise the elections.
Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat, had been in office when the 2002 riots broke out in Gujarat and has been accused of not acting enough to stop the violence.
However, he has not been indicted for his role in the 2002 riots by any court of law in the country.
Modi’s party BJP had earlier insisted it would build a temple on the Babri mosque site which was destroyed in 1992. But it later softened its stance on the issue to woo minorities and even aplogised for “unintentional past mistakes” in order to ensure that it wins at least 272 seats required to form to form a government at the Centre.
