NEW DELHI: Deportation of Bangladeshis is easier said than done. A Bangladeshi minister told a TV channel that the lakhs, who face the prospect of being declared “illegal migrants”, are not Bangladeshi nationals. He also claimed that since 1971, all those who had crossed over to India have been repatriated and rehabilitated in Bangladesh. Washing its hands of the matter, Bangladesh Information Minister Hasanul-Haque Inu told the CNN IBN in an exclusive chat: “This is an internal issue for Assam and India, Bangladesh has nothing to do with it.”
Inu also said that there was no reason for Bangladesh to respond because of two reasons: First, the Government of India has not had any official communication with Bangladesh and, secondly, these 40 lakh people are not Bangladeshis. Rather, it was his opinion that the 40 lakh ‘stateless’ people probably belonged to neighbouring states of Assam.