India summons Bangladesh envoy after Dhaka protests Sheikh Hasina's remarks

India on Friday summoned Bangladesh's Acting High Commissioner to India, Muhammad Nural Islam, over recent statements by authorities in Dhaka that portrayed India in a "negative light".

"The Bangladesh Acting High Commissioner to India, Mr. Md. Nural Islam, was summoned by MEA to the South Block today, February 7, 2025, at 5:00 pm," Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in an official statement.

Further giving details of the summons, Jaiswal said, "It was conveyed that India desires a positive, constructive and mutually beneficial relationship with Bangladesh, which has been reiterated several times in recent high-level meetings. It is, however, regrettable that regular statements made by Bangladesh authorities continue to portray India negatively, holding us responsible for internal governance issues. These statements by Bangladesh are in fact responsible for the persistent negativity".

The MEA spokesperson also said that comments attributed to former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina "have been made in her individual capacity in which India has no role to play".

"Conflating this with the Government of India's position is not going to help add positivity to bilateral relations," Jaiswal pointed out.

"While the Government of India will make efforts for a mutually beneficial relationship, we expect that Bangladesh



will reciprocate similarly without vitiating the atmosphere," he added.

The development comes days after deposed Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, during her virtual address from exile in India, called upon the people to organise a resistance against the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government.

While she was delivering her speech, a large group of protesters vandalised and set fire to her father and Bangladesh founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's residence in Dhaka.

"They can demolish a building, but not the history. But they must also remember that history takes its revenge," Hasina said in her address on Wednesday night.

"They are yet to have the strength to destroy the national flag, the constitution and the independence that we earned at the cost of lives of millions of martyrs with a bulldozer," she said in an apparent reference to the Yunus-led interim government.

Bangladesh on Thursday lodged a protest with India's Acting High Commissioner over the "false and fabricated" remarks by Hasina, calling it a "hostile act". Dhaka emphasised that such "activities by Sheikh Hasina, are considered as a hostile act towards Bangladesh and are not conducive to the efforts at establishing a healthy relationship between the two countries".

Dhaka also asked New Delhi to take appropriate measures to stop her from making such comments.