Diplomatic Correspondent

Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla yesterday said the Citizenship Amendment Act passed by Indian parliament late last year was misunderstood in many senses.

“This is a proactive legislation that has been undertaken on humanitarian grounds. In other words, the people who were refugees or faced political persecution and came to India within a cut off time were allowed fast track citizenship,” he told a seminar in the capital.

The seminar, Bangladesh and India: A Promising Future, was organised by Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) and Indian High Commission in Bangladesh at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon hotel in the capital.

Shringla arrived yesterday on a two-day visit meant to prepare the groundwork for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit on March 17-18. Modi is coming to Bangladesh to attend an event observing Bangabandhu’s birth centennial.

Shringla also held meetings with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen, Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen and Roads and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader.

Shringla’s visit comes against the backdrop of violence in Delhi that claimed over 40 lives and injured some 200 others since February 23 over protests in Delhi against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).