BANGLADESH VIOLENCE & URGENCY OF CAA

Dussehra or Vijayadashami, the festival of Hindus, represents the culmination of 9 days (Navraathri) or 9 nights of celebration. The 10th day is called Vijayadashami or Dussehra. The festival denotes the victory of good over evil, during a fierce battle of 9 days between goddess Durga and Mahishasura a vicious demon. On the 10th day, the victory is celebrated according to the Hindu mythology. In most parts of India the festival is celebrated with fervor. In Bengal, Durga Pooja is one of the most important festivals. However, in the erstwhile East Bengal, which became East Pakistan in 1947 and then Bangladesh in 1971, this year the festival turned out to be bloody and devastating. An engineered blasphemy episode snow-balled into a major catastrophe for Bangladeshi Hindus. Reportedly, one Iqbal Husain had placed a copy of the Holy Quran at a Durga Pooja venue in Comilla. According to the police he was seen in CCTV footage-placing a copy of Quran at the knees of a Hanuman idol at the Durga Pooja mandap in Comilla. One Fayaz Ahmed reportedly videographed the Quran being in the mandap in Comilla and ShaukatMandal, a student of philosophy at Carmichael College in Rangpur uploaded the video on the FaceBook platform. With the help of one Rabiul Islam, a cleric, ShaukatMandal instigated Muslims in villages through announcements on loudspeakersabout the “blasphemous act” around Friday prayers time on 15th October. Soon thereafter violence broke out. According to the police, around 70 Hindu houses were torched. Some 6 people died in the attack that followed with dozens injured. Mob violence that started in Comilla in Chittagong district turned into attack on both temples and homes of Hindus, besides Durga Pooja pandals and ISKCON’s Hare Rama temple in Naokhali. Violence then spread to other parts of Bangladesh as well. ISKCON Kolkata (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) has written a letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations (reproduced on P/14) on the atrocities committed on minorities in Bangladesh. Here, it is pertinent to note that there is a history of violence against Hindus in Bangladesh. This appears to be a sad truth, despite the fact that Bangladesh wouldn’t have become a reality without the help of Hindu majority India. Bangladesh Muslims have conveniently forgotten India’s humungous role and contributions in its struggle for liberation from Pakistan in 1971. As a matter of fact Bangladeshis have become increasingly more inclined towards Pakistan, if anything. Absconding preacher Zakir Naik is more popular in Bangladesh than he is anywhere else in the world. Tablighi Jamaat and Deoband, Ahle Hadees sects of Islam are all over the country. All these seminaries spew venom against Hindus and their religious practices. US Human Rights Activist Richard L Benkin, in “A Quiet Case of Ethnic Cleansing: The Murder of Bangladeshi Hindus” writes that Hindus in Bangladesh face the threat of ethnic cleansing. He informs that Hindu population in Bangladesh had witnessed major decline and it was even likely that the entire community would be wiped out in the future if there were no effective intervention. Hitherto it was always thought that Pakistan to be persecuting Hindus more. But the situation in Bangladesh may be same, if not worse. In 1947, Hindus were 35% of East Bengal or East Pakistan’s population. But as per 2016 census figure of Bangladesh, it has dwindled to a mere 7%, a decline of 80%. According to a study by the Economics Department of Dhaka University, around 11.3 million Hindus left Bangladesh between 1964 and 2013 due to persecution and discrimination. Writing on “Deprivation of Hindus in Bangladesh: Living with vested property”, Prof Abdul Barkar of Dhaka University writes “Bangladesh Hindus had lost 2.6 million acres of land in the country in the last five decades”. Thus, the undercurrent of ethnic cleansing seems to be present since the days of independence from the British. Sumit Paul, an advanced research scholar of Semitic languages, civilization and cultures, who travels often to Bangladesh has his own take on the deteriorating communal environment in that country.He writes “The gods and goddesses of Hindus are openly ridiculed and jeered at. You get to hear objectionable word Kafir (infidel) most frequently and nonchalantly used in Bangladesh. Even Pakistanis and Saudis don’t use the word Kafir for a Hindu, so casually, as Bangladesh Muslims do. Forcible conversions of Hindus are more rampant in Bangladesh than in Pakistan. Rapes of Hindu women by Muslim men often go unreported in Bangladesh. As a known atheist I never faced any issue in Pakistan, but Bengali speaking morbid Sunny Muslims in Bangladesh always insisted that I embrace Islam as I know so much of Islam and speak Arabic and Persian fluently like native speakers. I could never convince Bangladeshi ‘scholars’ of Islam that man could exist without any faith in God or manmade religion”, while adding “Islam is basically an intolerant and violent faith. Its intolerance is all the more apparent in Bangladesh where the desecration of Hindu temples are everyday incidents, and none talks about it. The neighboring West Bengal and its Islam loving Chief Minister says nothing about the persecution of Bengali Hindus in Bangladesh. It’s, therefore, time to focus our attention on the plight of Hindus in Bangladesh” he concludes. Thus the issue, hitherto little known, has suddenly appeared so catastrophic for the very survival of Hindus and other minorities in Bangladesh. Asaduzzaman Khan, the Minister of Home Affairs of Bangladesh, has gone on record that “it was a pre-planned conspiracy to disturb the communal harmony in the country”, while reacting to the wide spread and large scale violence against Hindus. Of course it is another matter that there was hardly any ‘communal harmony that has gone haywire’, if only we go by what American Human Rights activist Richard Benkin has been saying since long about the plight of Hindus and other minorities in Bangladesh. While maintaining “the communal violence in Bangladesh is an internal matter”, minister did inform that some 70+ cases were registered and some 450 suspects arrested. Replying to a media query, Radharaman Das of ISKCON, Kolkata has stated “It is a matter of huge concern that despite arrests, violence has continued. Electricity, mobile networks and even internet services have been suspended from Hindu areas. A 10 year old girl was gang raped. Following which she died. Women aren’t safe and homes of Hindus have been burnt. All of these have shaken the confidence of the community”. Anguished over the anti-Hindu violence in Bangladesh, writer Taslima Nasreen has said “Hindus and Buddhists in Bangladesh have become third class citizens. All governments since 1971, including the present one used religion for political purposes. They made Islam the state religion, so Hindus and Buddhists have become third class citizens and subject to persecution like this. Bangladesh has not remained Bangladesh, it has become Jihadistan. This growing anti-Hindu mindset is alarming”. No wonder those who are concerned about the communal violence in Bangladesh have started to talk about the need for the CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) and the possible extension of date beyond December 31, 2014. The current deadline for allowing migrants from the persecuted minority communities of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to stay freely in India requires them to have entered the country before December 31, 2014. Under the Foreigners Act 1946 and Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920, illegal migrant can be imprisoned or deported from the country. The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) would effectively exempt those who are part of the minority groups such as the Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians, from these two acts. Since Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan are Muslim majority countries that have Islam as the state religion, inclusion of Muslims in the CAA would be clearlycontradictory. Logically, how can one provide refuge to the very people that the persecuted are trying to escape from? There has been opposition to the CAA from different quarters especially Muslims under the politically motivated fear of losing citizenship ever since it was enacted. Despite clear interpretation, Muslim leadership was led on a garden path by some vested interest and India has seen Shahin Bagh kind of instigated protest in different parts of the country. Media, besides some political parties have been giving CAA a religious colour. Now that the controversial Farm Bills have been repealed by the Union government, some political parties with vested interests are already on the job to demand the repeal of CAA. The news report in the print media “Buoyed by farm stir result, TMC to fuel CAA agitation”, says it all. Trinamool Congress, which has a questionable record of sustaining illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, has been at the forefront of opposition to CAA since the beginning. Recent report informs that efforts are already on by TMC functionaries including their leader Mamata Bannerji to revive the agitation aimed at withdrawal of CAA. These attempts to sabotage the CAA have to be nipped in the bud. The central government should publish a white paper on the intelligence gathered report on the situation of minorities including Hindus in Bangladesh and give it wide-spread publicity including approaching the UNO. Government of India needs to call the bluff of this opposition supported, media inspired, liberal-articulated anti-CAA movement. It is sad, only because CAA has been enacted by a BJP led union government headed by Narendra Modi, that these opponents of CAA are making it a common cause with vested interest and misplaced and false fear psychosis of a section of Indian Muslims. With what happened in Bangladesh during the recent Durga Pooja celebrations to Hindus, it becomes very urgent that New Delhi hastens the implementation of the enactment CAA at its earliest so that a message is sent to all those suffering religious persecution in these countries to look-upto India that they will be welcome in India. Hope it happens sooner than late.