By TON Bangladesh

India passed the Citizenship Amendment Act in 2019 which changed the citizenship laws of the state. The act specifically targeted Muslim minorities to exclude them from India's naturalization process. India’s domestic move has the potential to affect other states of the region as well. It will trigger a kind of mass migration that the politically unstable South Asia is not ready to face.

Bangladesh being one of the Muslim majority states of South Asia is at risk of this migration. Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajid questioned the act, saying that it was unnecessary. At the same time, she did not criticize it and said that CAA is India’s internal matter. Since Bangladesh is considered India’s strategic backyard, it has maintained a soft foreign policy toward India. This is criticized by the political opposition as well as the Bangladeshi public. While the government, being pro-India, remains silent on the issue, the Bangladeshi population is furious at India’s actions that are targeting Muslims.

Anti-India sentiments are on a rise in Bangladesh with the Citizenship Amendment Act, because not only does it target the Muslim minority but it also provides space for the possibility of identity politics along religious lines. This in turn provides space for religious fundamentalist organizations to strengthen their foothold in the region.

For the first time in the history of India, citizenship is granted on a religious basis. This is against the secular ideals of the Indian state and will have destructive repercussions for India domestically. It has regional implications as well. Bangladesh was disappointed on being equated with Pakistan and Afghanistan in the context of minority persecution, through CAA.

Even the Afghan ex-president Hamid Karzai verbally criticized the act stating that India is carrying out targeted persecution of Muslims. Even a state like Afghanistan did not carry out targeted persecution of a specific minority. Indian Home Minister Amit Shah has given such problematic statements regarding the Muslim minority. He called them termites, and at times equated them with Nazi Jews to hint at their systematic persecution. This triggers the Muslim majority population of Bangladesh while the government stays silent. India-Bangladesh bilateral relations remained unaffected even after the Citizenship Amendment Act. It did expose some tensions between the two states, but there was no significant disturbance in their bilateral relations.

The political opposition in Bangladesh believes that India played a significant role in the last two elections in Bangladesh to keep the current government in power. The government of Sheikh Hasina Wajid is pro-India, it enables Bangladesh to be treated as India’s backyard. The state has many issues with India, including its water hegemony on the Ganges river by building a barrage that disrupts water flow to Bangladesh. The water dispute cannot be resolved with the government’s appeasing attitude towards India.

The people of Bangladesh suspect a reverse exodus from India. There is a growing view that CAA is India’s deliberate attempt to send millions of undocumented Indian citizens into Bangladesh. India and Bangladesh already have issues of a porous border, illegal migration, and illicit drug trade. The illegal trade of Yaba tablets across the India-Bangladesh border is a serious issue and India accuses Bangladesh of being negligent. Yaba is a drug prepared with Meth and Caffeine, usually called the ‘crazy medicine’. The narcotics trade route allegedly goes from Bangladesh to reach India.

India continues to maintain an upper hand in its bilateral relations with Bangladesh. India's hegemonic designs in South Asia should be based on a good neighbor policy. Instead, it has developed disputes and grievances with its neighboring States. Since Bangladesh is a smaller state in the region, it has adopted the appeasement policy and aligned itself with India strategically for its survival. But the growing dissent in the Bangladeshi population cannot be curbed unless the government takes a harder stance. The strategic partnership of Prime Ministers Sheikh Hasina Wajid and Narendra Modi gives way to speculations that India has interfered twice in Bangladeshi elections and helped Sheikh Hasina stay in power. There is rampant corruption in Bangladeshi politics and a major chunk of the population is against the government. The politically aware section of the society, along with scholars and critics complain about the corruption of the Bangladeshi political elite, stating that they have retained power because of external help. This is why the Bangladeshi political elite stays silent on the issue of CAA, while other states of the region criticized it verbally.

Pakistan and Afghanistan have shown their discontent openly because they are two of the three states that are targeted explicitly through CAA. While Bangladesh remains neutral about the issue. It does not want to aggrieve India. The non-Muslim expatriates of Bangladesh have praised the act for providing them with an easier and fast-track naturalization process in India. The act does that at the expense of Muslims. This signifies the targeted and systematic discrimination of Muslims who will eventually be stateless. The Muslim majority state of Bangladesh should stand firm against India because eventually, Bangladesh will have to face a large influx of people fleeing India.