It was certainly not a friendly gesture of Momen. This reflected the deep anguish and pain of the Sheikh Hasina government of Bangladesh. The Bangladesh leaders were feeling hurt at the statement made by Amit Shah in parliament while piloting the Citizens Amendment Bill. He had in fact told the house that persecution of Hindus was taking place in Bangladesh when he stated that the persecution of Hindus has not stopped in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan forced by which he has brought the CAB.

Momen who was to come to India on an official tour cancelled it. Though he did not say it publically the sources confirmed that he had cancelled his tour a day after describing as “untrue” Amit Shah’s comments on persecution of religious minorities in Bangladesh, fuelling speculation that Dhaka was conveying it was unhappy over the Citizenship Amendment Bill. Momen while termed the accusation as false in a very tactful manner also questioned the intentions and wisdom of Modi government saying the new Indian law was contradictory to the country’s historic secular values.

Even the Bangladesh Home Minister Assaduzzaman Khan Kamal said adopting or amending legislation was India’s internal matter but the allegations about the torturing of minorities in our country are “totally baseless and false”.

Bangladesh government would not like to strain the bilateral relation but one thing is absolutely clear that it would vitiate the atmosphere of trust between the two countries which was of late getting strengthened. Shah may boast that strengthening relation was not important than pushing the Hindutva agenda, but the fact remains that the development would question the credibility of India in global arena.

Already a good number of countries including UN are cut up with the Modi government, this would further create problems for him. It is a coincident that Modi’s friend Donald Trump is facing the worst crisis of his political like. With impeachment drive gaining momentum it is uncertain to what extent he could be of any help to India.

With Momen asking for the correct figure of the illegal migrants residing in India, Amit Shah has to hurry up the process. The fact of the matter is Amit Shah does not have correct number of illegal migrants. Primarily Assam has been the state where large chunk of these people had taken shelter. But in the wake recent NRC exercise it transpired that only 20 lakh people were not the residents of Assam. Incidentally 15 lakh of them are Hindus belonging to Hindi heartland. Only nearly 5 lakh are Muslims. But shockingly Shah was creating the impression that around 40 lakh migrants were in Assam.

No doubt Bangladesh has assured to take back its citizens but the onus would be on Modi government to establish the veracity of the fact that they are Bangladeshis. Shah use of words has turned this move suspect in the eyes of the global fraternity. One word dominated Amit Shah’s speech in the Lok Sabha on Monday night: “Sharanarthi”, refugee in Hindi. Through this word he wanted to make the people believe that it is humanitarian concern for refugees that guided the government’s decision to change India’s citizenship law, but the knew that it was simply a façade. Modi government was simply fulfilling the desire of Sangha.

Interestingly Shah was supposed to discuss this issue with Momen when he was in India on August 7. But it is not known what prevented him from doing so. Probably by raising this at that stage he might not have got so much of political mileage as he achieved now.

Shah by his assertion has turned India vulnerable in the eyes of the Bangladeshi people. Shah has vowed to eject illegal migrants from West Bengal. His statement makes it abundantly clear that he lacks the proper global perspective. Though he intends this issue to brow beat TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, out wittingly his stand would alienate the Modi government. When the global situation is not conducive he has been raising it only for the benefit of his party and RSS. His obstinacy that the NRC will be implemented in West Bengal would certainly land the government in deep trouble.

The NRC is a list of people who can prove they came to India by 24 March 1971, the day before Bangladesh was declared an independent country. The process in Assam has been long and controversial, and many have criticised the human toll. Families have been split apart, people are believed to have killed themselves because of it, and scores of people have been placed in detention centres on the suspicion of being "foreigners".(IPA Service)