Assam NRC: No deportation for excluded, Modi reportedly told Hasina
What's the story
On Friday, a top Bangladeshi government official claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had personally told Sheikh Hasina that those left out of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) would not be deported to Bangladesh.
The comment comes months after Home Minister Rajnath Singh assured Bangladeshi leadership that there would be no deportations.
However, the BJP is yet to comment on it.
Here's more.
Details
What the top Bangladeshi official had to say
Speaking to PTI, H T Imam, the political adviser to Bangladeshi premier Sheikh Hasina, said that PM Modi "personally assured" Sheikh Hasina that those excluded from the NRC in Assam would not be deported to Bangladesh.
Imam added that the Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka, Harsh Vardhan Shringla, had also "repeatedly" assured Bangladesh that no deportations would take place.
Quote
Imam's exact words about PM Modi's personal assurance
"Indian Prime Minister Sri Narendra Modi personally assured our premier [Sheikh Hasina] that those who were excluded from the list under the NRC exercise will not be sent to Bangladesh," Imam told PTI, without elaborating on the exchange between the two.
Timing
The comment comes ahead of Bangladesh's national elections
The comment by Imam comes at time when Bangladesh is gearing up for its national elections, to be held later this year.
Since the NRC was updated in July this year, Bangladesh had been tense about the possibility of deportations and consequent political instability.
Tensions particularly soared in September after BJP general secretary Ram Madhav said that those excluded would be deported.
NRC
On July 30, the NRC excluded 40 lakh Assam residents
On July 30, the Supreme Court-monitored update of the NRC in Assam saw 40 lakh people labelled as illegal immigrants.
It marked the first update of the NRC since it was constituted in 1951.
The exclusion of the 40 lakh people resulted in political controversy that saw politicians like BJP chief Amit Shah, TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, and others engage in a slugfest.