Giving its side of the story, the high commission said: 'We believe that exchange of visitors between the two friendly countries is an important aspect of our bilateral relations and we value people-to-people contact.'

The Indian High Commission in Dhaka, and its affiliated offices at Chittagong and Rajshahi, together issues around half-a-million visas annually.

In 2006, 2007 and 2008, the total number of visas issued by the high commission was 472,644, 481,064 and 523,322 respectively.

In 2008, visas were issued to 255,696 individuals for visiting relatives and pilgrimage; 55,489 for medical treatment; 6,786 for business which includes significant proportion of long-term multiple entry visas, and 2,374 for students.

New Age newspaper that ran an editorial calling Chakravarty's remarks 'arrogant', said the reaction of the Bangladesh government was 'half-hearted' and came 48 hours after the envoy's remarks.

Indian High Commission also clarified that the high commissioner was highlighting a well-known problem of 'touts and brokers' forcibly occupying the visa queue, thereby displacing and harassing genuine visa applicants.

It said his remarks have been taken out of context and misreported, leading to misunderstanding and unwarranted controversy.