India has strongly rejected recent comments made by Bangladesh regarding the situation in West Bengal, calling them an ill-conceived attempt to deflect from the ongoing persecution of minorities in Bangladesh.
Randhir Jaiswal, the Official Spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), slammed the remarks on Friday, asserting that Bangladesh’s comments were a “disingenuous attempt” to draw false equivalences between the two countries.
“We reject the remarks made by the Bangladesh side with regard to the incidents in West Bengal. This is a barely disguised and disingenuous attempt to draw a parallel with India’s concerns over the ongoing persecution of minorities in Bangladesh, where the criminal perpetrators of such acts continue to roam free,” Jaiswal said.
In a post on X, the MEA further criticized Bangladesh for engaging in “virtue signalling” instead of focusing on safeguarding its own minority communities.
The controversy stems from recent communal violence in West Bengal’s Murshidabad, which reportedly involved foreign elements. An initial probe by India’s Ministry of Home Affairs suggested the possible involvement of Bangladeshi miscreants, according to media reports.
Responding to this, Bangladesh’s interim government, as reported by the Daily Observer, denied any link to the violence and condemned the alleged attacks on Muslims in West Bengal. Shafiqul Alam, press secretary to Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus, urged Indian authorities to protect the Muslim community and ensure peace and security.
Amid these developments, a National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) team arrived in West Bengal’s Malda on Friday to assess the situation on the ground in both Malda and Murshidabad, the areas affected by unrest linked to protests over the Waqf (Amendment) Act.
The Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2025, passed in both houses of Parliament in early April and received presidential assent on April 5. While opposition parties have voiced concerns over the legislation, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has launched a ‘Waqf Reforms Awareness Campaign’ to inform the Muslim community of the Act’s benefits. The campaign will run from April 20 to May 5.