“Should India promote one party and not the whole country?”, asked Gayeshwar Roy.

New Delhi: Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has expressed displeasure over Sheikh Hasina's stay in India. “If you help our enemy, it will be difficult to honor mutual cooperation between Bangladesh and India,” said senior BNP leader Gayeshwar Roy.

“Should India promote one party and not the whole country?”, asked Gayeshwar.

Sheikh Hasina left Bangladesh and came to India after resigning as Prime Minister on August 5. Since then she has remained in India, while some reports say that Sheikh Hasina is continuing her “temporary stay” in India.

For the uninitiated, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Bangladesh Awami League or simply Awami League are the two major political parties in the country and are bitter rivals, almost to the point of hostility.

Gayeshwar Roy, a member of the BNP's standing committee, its highest decision-making body, said India should “behave” in the spirit of mutual cooperation between the two countries.

“Our former foreign minister (in the Hasina government) had said here before the last election that India would help Sheikh Hasina's return to office. India is taking the responsibility of Sheikh Hasina. Indians and Bangladeshis have no issues with each other. But should India promote one party and not the whole country? asked Roy, as reported by TOI.

On reports of alleged attacks on Hindus, their property and temples, Roy said that there is a perception of BNP as being anti-minority otherwise BNP is made up of people from different communities in Bangladesh and is for all religions.

“BNP is a nationalist party but we believe in individual rights of all communities,” he said.

“When I was a minister in 1991, I started the system of giving donations for Durga Puja and since then no government has stopped this policy, it is still going on. This is done by our party government,” he said on the issue of BNP being anti-Hindu.

On the allegation that the BNP is anti-India, Roy asserted that there is no “perceived” fact that his party is anti-India.

“India has helped us get independence, we cannot be against India,” Roy said.

Meanwhile, Sheikh Hasina is said to be staying in Delhi for some more time. She and her sister Sheikh Rehana are currently in a safe house under the protection of Indian intelligence agencies.