(Bloomberg) -- India has sought to reassure Bangladesh that the establishment of a National Register of Citizens in the border state of Assam would have no implications for its neighbor’s government or citizens.
“This is a process that is entirely internal to India,” Harsh Vardhan Shringla, India’s foreign secretary, said in a speech in Dhaka on Monday. “Therefore there will be no implications for the government and people of Bangladesh. You have our assurance on that count.”
Shringla said the process of listing Indian citizens through a registry in Assam was done at the direction of India’s Supreme Court. Since the verification process was set in motion last year some 1.9 million people have been left stateless after being unable to prove their citizenship. Assam shares a border with Bangladesh.
Plans announced by India’s home minister Amit Shah to implement a nationwide citizens’ register, along with a new religion-based law that fast-tracks citizenship for non-Muslims from three neighboring nations including Bangladesh, have led to protests and violence in India since December.
While most demonstrations against the new law are driven by criticism that its religious criteria goes against India’s secular ethos, in Assam there are fears it may lead to an influx of migrants from Bangladesh. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has defended the new law and its citizenship policies, rejecting assertions that it discriminates on religious grounds.
Bangladesh’s foreign minister AK Abdul Momen and home minister Asaduzzaman Khan both canceled visits to India in December after the protests erupted. Shringla is in Dhaka to prepare for Modi’s visit to Bangladesh later this month.
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