'We Don’t Need To Go To India': Bangladesh Foreign Minister Retaliates Over Amit Shah's Comment On Infiltration

Amit Shah had said that poor people from Bangladesh come to India because they don’t have enough to eat in their own country. Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen has responded to the remarks.

File Photo (Twitter/@akabdulmomen | PTI)

New Delhi: Bangladesh foreign minister AK Abdul Momen has responded to Indian Union Home Minister Amit Shah's remarks on poverty in the neighbouring country recently visited by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Amit Shah had said that poor people from Bangladesh come to India because they don’t have enough to eat in their own country. Reacting to this, Momen termed Shah's knowledge of Bangladesh as "limited". He also called them "unacceptable especially when relations between Bangladesh and India are so deep".

"Such remarks create misunderstanding," he added.

Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen responded to the remarks by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday night when he was asked about the same while speaking to a Bangladesh-based Bengali daily 'Prothom Alo'.

In its report, the Indian Express has quoted Momen as saying, "Prithibi-te onek gyani lok aachhen, dekheo dekhen na, jeneo janen na. Tobe teeni (Amit Shah) jodi seta bole thaken, aami bolbo, Bangladesh niye taar gyan seemito. aamader desh-e ekhon keu na kheye morey na. Ekhane kono monga-o neyi. (There are many wise people in this world, some who don’t want to see even after looking, they don’t want to understand even after knowing about it. But, if he (Amit Shah) has said that, I would say that his knowledge about Bangladesh is limited. Nobody dies of hunger in Bangladesh. There are no Monga (seasonal poverty and hunger in northern districts of Bangladesh)."

He also asserted that Bangladesh is far ahead of India in many sectors.

Previously, Amit Shah had said that Bangladesh's poor people come to India as even now they do not get enough to eat in their own country. Raking up the matter of infiltration in West Bengal amid election campaigning, he claimed that Bangladeshi  infiltration will be stopped if BJP is voted to power in the state.

The Bangladesh Foreign Minister highlighted how the country is faring better than India on various social parameters while stating that almost 90 percent of the people in his country use fairly good toilets as opposed to India where he claimed over 50 percent of people do not have proper toilets.

"We do not need to go to India," he said stating that over 1 lakh Indians work in Bangladesh.