Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on 2 December It has asked Delhi to send a UN peacekeeping force to maintain communal harmony in Bangladesh. His was the latest Indian statement to express concern about the state of Bangladeshi Hindus. Banerjee’s speech was particularly notable given that she, like the Indian Bengali media, has been relatively even-handed in her analysis of the situation in Bangladesh. This time, however, she appeared to align with the BJP, Hindutva leaders, and other global far-right actors who suggested that the violence in Bangladesh had turned into persecution, if not genocide.
Meanwhile, Dhaka has seen the Indian statements, including Banerjee’s, as an unnecessary escalation in its neighbour’s delusional smear campaign to discredit the interim government. However, the truth lies between the alarming sounds of persecution and Mohammed Yunus’s assertion in September that there is no sectarianism in Bangladesh.
Anti-Hindu violence has occurred in Bangladesh since the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government as part of a broader pattern of anarchy, but the violence is not state-sanctioned persecution, especially compared to violence against indigenous peoples, Indian Muslims or minorities in Bangladesh. Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The interim government and the student movement have made insufficient efforts to prioritize secularism. It is also a departure from Bangladesh under the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which oversaw systematic violence against Hindus accused of supporting the Awami League (AL).
The latest flare-up comes after Bangladesh police arrested former ISKCON monk Chinmoy Krishna Das for insulting the Bangladeshi flag. Das’s supporters protested his arrest in Chattogram and riots broke out, in which one lawyer was killed and six others injured. Many people have been arrested. The lawyer’s family has blamed AL for his death.
Some sections of the Indian media described the tragedy as the latest in a pattern of state-sanctioned anti-Hindu violence in Bangladesh, which is now fueling a cycle of hatred on both sides of the border. In Tripura, Hindutva extremists attacked the Consulate General in Agartala and called for the boycott of Bangladeshi Muslims from hospitals and restaurants. Hardliners in Bangladesh are stepping up their attacks on ISKCON, calling for it to be banned because of Das’ actions, just as ISKCON expelled Das a few months ago. Thankfully, the Bangladesh High Court and the interim government have rejected these requests. However, they must also reject the rise of religion-based politics that has fueled the anti-Iskan campaign.
Furthermore, Bangladesh’s interim government responded to the violence by organizing a series of meetings on national unity (including religious leaders) and sending additional forces to secure temples across Bangladesh. In contrast, the Uttar Pradesh government put up literal roadblocks against Indian MPs who wanted to meet with Indian Muslims terrorized by police and Hindutva mobs in Sambhal. And the Indian government continues to persecute prominent Muslims like Nadeem Khan and Mohammad Zubair.
Meanwhile, the voices of Bangladeshi Hindus are being drowned out by misinformation from Hindutva and Islamist extremists that unfairly associate them with India. Bangladeshi Hindus are an integral part of Bangladesh’s past, present and future. They deserve to be accepted on their own terms and live in a country that takes their fears seriously.
Yunus and the interim government should listen to Hindu protesters and go beyond reacting to anti-Hindu incidents by extending public holidays, protecting the Durga Puja festival and promptly addressing the handful of pandal attacks. It should actively protect Hindus and other minorities, as they have been continuously demanding since August.
First of all, the interim government should immediately form the Ministry of Minority Affairs and the Commission. It should be led by minority communities, including tribals and Hindus, and the interim government should consult with minority leaders when they are formed. Once Parliament is reconstituted, it must pass laws to expressly protect minority rights and re-establish quotas for politicians from these communities. Minorities and rights groups have been consistently demanding these from various iterations of the country’s government over the years.
Second, as Professor Naomi Hussain points out, the interim government should convene an independent human rights commission to issue a report on the state of minority rights in Bangladesh over the past decade, including official documentation of attacks on minorities since the fall of the Hasina government. It should be continuously updated and used to counter misinformation about the status of minorities in Bangladesh.
Finally, police must break the habit of knee-jerk law enforcement. Trained for generations to respond to revenge-driven waves of Bangladeshi leaders, the police have disproportionately arrested AL members since Hasina’s flight. The police went after AL rivals during the Hasina years and BNP rivals and minorities during the Khaleda Zia years. No one in Bangladesh, especially minorities, will feel truly safe until there is a change in the police.
No one should expect the interim government of Bangladesh to solve all the problems in less than four months. But it is beyond time for Yunus and his advisers to take concrete, proactive steps to regain the confidence of minorities. As Bangladesh prepares for Vijay Dibos (commemoration of its independence), it must build a new Bangladesh worthy of a second victory against tyranny.
The author is senior policy director at Hindus for Human Rights