Kolkata: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said the Centre should approach the United Nations (UN) and seek deployment of the UN Peacekeeping Mission in Bangladesh to repatriate persecuted Indians.
Banerjee, while speaking at the Winter Session of the state assembly, said she would urge Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take up the issue of persecution of Indians with the interim administration of Bangladesh at the earliest.
Expressing concern over the mental trauma of those who have relatives and friends in India's Western neighbour, Banerjee said since the matter was a bilateral issue, she had hardly any say on this. She also demanded that the external affairs minister, S Jaishankar, issue a statement in the Parliament on the present situation Bangladesh going through.
"We urge the Centre to take effective steps in ensuring that there is no persecution of Indians. The Prime Minister should talk to the administration of that country. If he is tied up in his schedule, the external affairs minister can have a dialogue. The foreign minister should brief the Parliament on the situation and the steps taken by the ministry. We want our people to return if the current situation prevails. If they return, we will have enough food to feed them. We will share half of our bread with them, but we surely do not want any persecution of Indians," Banerjee told the assembly.
Urging the Centre to take the Bangladesh issue to the UN, she said, "The central government should take up the issue with the United Nations and talk to them about the deployment of the UN Peacekeeping Mission. It will help our citizens to return safely".
Speaker Biman Bandopadhyay informed the legislators that the CM’s statements on Bangladesh will be dispatched to the PM as an official communique. Banerjee told reporters that her party MPs will raise the Bangladesh issue in both Houses of Parliament on Tuesday.
Expressing displeasure over the Centre’s reaction towards the grim situation in Bangladesh, Banerjee said for the past 10 days the Centre was not reacting enough.
"A few days back, 79 of our fishermen inadvertently started into Bangladesh waters. Earlier, we could not know about the whereabouts of our fishermen if they entered foreign waters. Now, they have trackers and cards through which we came to know that they were first taken to a police station and then to the prison. We have informed the Centre about this multiple times, but nothing has happened. The fishermen are still languishing in Bangladesh prison," she said, hoping cordial relationships prevail between all communities in Bangladesh.
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