Deportation of people who didn’t make it to the final National Register of Citizens (NRC) to Bangladesh is likely to strain Dhaka-Delhi ties, according to experts.

On Saturday (Aug 31), India released the NRC— a list of genuine citizens in the state of Assam, stripping 1.9 million people of citizenship amid fears they could be rendered stateless.

Some see terming these people as ‘illegal trespassers from Bangladesh’ as a political ploy by Indian Home Minister Amit Shah and other politicians.

According to former Bangladesh envoy to China Munshi Foyez Ahmed there is still no reason to panic but the situation does call for careful monitoring.

“If India, like Myanmar, tries to send those people to Bangladesh then the friendly ties between the two countries will definitely be affected negatively,” he said.

“These people have been residing in Assam for a very long time now. They should’ve been granted citizenship in a regular process,” he added.

The former envoy said that these people being excluded is part of the ruling Bharatiya Janta Party’s “ploy to win votes by using Bangladesh” as a political pawn.

Saying that Bangladesh’s economy is quite stable now, he added that Muslims have no reason to leave and go to the hostile situations in India.

Meanwhile, former foreign secretary M Towheed Hossain said, “Indian Foreign Minister Jaishankar said that NRC is India’s internal issue and that well and good. But concerns arise when Indian Home Minister Amit Shah publicly declares those excluded as illegal trespassers from Bangladesh.”

He said that more vigilance is in order as no one wants those people to be Bangladesh’s responsibility due to India’s internal politics.