A day after the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB) passed in the Lok Sabha, editors in Bangladesh have said that Minorities are safer in Bangladesh.
Two editors from Dhaka in an exclusive chat with Quint slammed the Bill on various counts.
The CAB passed by Lok Sabha seeks to grant Indian citizenship to non-Muslim immigrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
Reacting to Union home minister Amit Shah’s claim that non-Muslim Bangladeshis were fleeing religious persecution, Reaz Ahmad, executive editor at the Dhaka Tribune, said the migration is “mainly to seize economic, commercial and employment opportunities.”
Ahmad said that the narratives given by the BJP and Indian government leadership to justify CAB is neither logical nor true.
“It is not fair at all to say that primary reason for non-Muslim people to migrate from Bangladesh is religious persecution,” he said.
Ahmed said possibility of some Bangladeshis living and doing income generating activities in India in any given time is always there.
“But to claim it to be happening because of religious persecution in Bangladesh is an unfair statement,” said Ahmed.
Zafar Sobhan, editor of the Dhaka Tribune told The Quint that minorities are more secure in Bangladesh than in India today.
“…under the current Awami League government, minorities are doing better in Bangladesh than ever before. Is there still religious persecution? Yes, sadly, this remains a fact of life in the sub-continent, in India as well as Bangladesh, to say nothing of Pakistan. But minorities are more secure in Bangladesh than in India today, to use one measure,” Sobhan said.