Distinguished Professor Ali Riaz is quoted in the Asia Times in a report about the impacts of the National Registry of Citizens (NRC) and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) of India on Bangladesh. The NRC, recently completed in the state of Assam has disenfranchised 1.9 million people and the CAA will enable Indian government to provide citizenship to non-Muslims from neighboring countries.
In the past month Indian citizens are demonstrating against these two actions of the BJP government. These are described as discriminatory to Muslims. A large number of Bengali speaking Muslims have fled to Bangladesh fearing persecution. These laws and Indian policy towards Bangladesh is contributing to the growing anti-Indian sentiment, argued Riaz. He insists that there are multiple reasons for the growing anti-Indian sentiment in recent days. There has always been a strand within society and politics which felt that India acted like a “big brother.”
“However, the primary source of the recent discontent lies with the fact the relationship has become very lopsided while the ruling Awami League insists on ‘a golden era of relationship’. The unqualified support to Awami League while its authoritarian bent has become more pronounced is contributing to the sentiment. In some measures, a large segment of Bangladeshis blame India for the absence of democracy in Bangladesh,” he said.
