Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said she does not understand the purpose of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) passed in India that aims to offer citizenship to non-Muslim minorities that have faced persecution in Bangladesh and other neighbouring countries.
"We don't understand why [the Indian government] did it. It was not necessary," she told Gulf News in an interview in the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi.
"[Still], it is an internal affair," Sheikh Hasina said in her first remark on the CAA.
"Bangladesh has always maintained that the CAA and NRC are internal matters of India. The Government of India, on their part, has also repeatedly maintained that the NRC is an internal exercise of India and Prime Minister Modi has in person assured me of the same during my visit to New Delhi in October 2019," she added.
The Bangladesh prime premier also said that there has been no recorded reverse migration from India. "No, there is no reverse migration from India. But within India, people are facing many problems," Sheikh Hasina said.
Bangladesh, where 10.7 per cent of the 161 million-strong population is Hindu and 0.6 per cent Buddhist, has denied any migration to India because of religious persecution.
According to Hasina, the relationship between Bangladesh and India is currently at its best, with cooperation in a "wide spectrum of areas".