New Delhi:
Update (15:40 h): The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Friday confirmed that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s meeting in Guwahati with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi “is not happening now”.
The MEA wrote on Twitter: “With reference to the proposed visit of Japanese PM @AbeShinzo to India, both sides have decided to defer the visit to a mutually convenient date in the near future.”
A day after Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen cancelled his India trip, media reports quoting Japan’s Jiji Press suggests Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is now considering cancelling his trip to India. The trip was scheduled to begin on Sunday.
Abe was scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 15. The venue of the meeting was Guwahati, the capital of Assam — a state that is at the heart of street protests in the aftermath of the passing of the contentious Citizenship Amendment Bill.
The army had to be brought in to quell the violent turn the protest took.
Abe’s reconsideration of his visit comes in the wake of these protests. However, when IANS approached the Ministry of External Affairs, it did not respond to queries.
MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar had said on Thursday: “We don’t have any update to share.”
This comes a day after Bangladesh Foreign Minister Abdul Momen cancelled his visit to India.
However, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday said that linking the cancellation of the visit to Citizenship (Amendment) Bill is “unwarranted”.
“I think we need to delink the visit… it is related to his scheduling. You have to accept what Bangladesh foreign minister is saying,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said, on Thursday.
Indefinite curfew was imposed in Assam’s Dibrugarh municipal area. But on Friday, it was relaxed for five hours, while the Army and security forces have continued flag marches in Guwahati city, a day after two persons were killed during the violent anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB), 2019 protests.
On Thursday evening, the Assam government had imposed night curfew in Jorhat, Golaghat, Tinsukia and Charaideo districts and imposed fresh curfew in Assam’s Tezpur and Dhekiajuli towns.
As per the Bill, members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan till December 31, 2014, and facing religious persecution there will not be treated as illegal immigrants and will be given Indian citizenship.
The legislation was passed by Rajya Sabha on Wednesday and by the Lok Sabha in a midnight sitting little past Monday.
It got President Ram Nath Kovind’s nod on Thursday night.
