Author: Sandhya Jain
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: October 23, 2001
Intoxicated, or perhaps exhausted,
by its exuberant diplomacy with the United States for a share of the action
against international terrorism, the BJP-led government has failed to take
note of the orchestrated violence against Hindus in Bangladesh, and the
dangerously rising levels of Islamic fundamentalism there. Over three weeks
after the victory of the Bangladesh National Party-Jamaat-e-Islami alliance
resulted in virtual genocide against Hindus, and to a lesser extent Buddhist
Chakmas and Christians, the Vajpayee regime has reacted to the sordid events
with deafening silence. The Prime Minister, Home Minister, and even the
BJP president did not see fit to mention the outrages while observing the
fiftieth anniversary of the founding of their anti-pseudo-secular party.
They have come a long way.
Yet an India that is mute witness
to such momentous events will never be taken seriously as a world power.
Indeed, if we are sincere about tackling the growing menace of Islamic
fundamentalism, we must acknowledge Bangladesh as a problem state, at par
with Pakistan. Unlike Pakistan, Bangladesh is ethnically homogenous; Bengali
Muslims form the majority and the minorities are also mainly Bengali-speaking.
Its potential to destabilize India is thus far greater than that of Islamabad,
which is coming under increasing stress as a result of internal tensions
compounded by the American action against the Taliban. In coming weeks,
Gen. Pervez Musharraf's problems will aggravate as it is public knowledge
that American ground troops are using Pakistani bases. The death of Osama
bin Laden's minor son is also likely to inflame opinion in that country.
Most Indians are conscious of the
Bangladeshi threat in the form of the drastically altered demographic profile
in several Indian states (West Bengal, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, even Delhi)
and neighbouring Nepal. But there is less awareness that the poor, illegal
Bangladeshi immigrants are a favourite recruiting ground for Pakistan's
ISI, which actively facilitates their entry into the country. Their role
is to provide safe-houses and logistical support for ISI's subversive activities,
such as the sensational attack on the Red Fort in the capital. It hardly
needs be said that the invading Bangladeshis have little gratitude for
the hospitality and livelihood they are getting in this country, and are
a dangerous fifth column which gets sickening support from political parties
determined to nurture a communal votebank at any cost.
Many Indians are unaware that Bangladesh
has poor credentials as a friendly country, or even as a civilized democracy.
One of the largest Muslim countries in the world, it has always played
truant on the issue of religious freedom and rights. Hindus have been systematically
discriminated against, with laws ensuring a kind of religious apartheid
being enacted to deprive minorities of their land and property. Minorities
are routinely targeted in times of crisis. Today, the Hindu population
which was thirty per cent in 1947, has dropped to merely ten per cent,
a chilling statistical inventory of state policy towards minorities.
The grotesque victimization of minorities
in the wake of Mrs. Khaleda Zia's electoral triumph may thus be seen as
an exceptionally bloody milestone in the lived history of the erstwhile
East Pakistan. According to newspaper and eye-witness accounts from Bangladesh,
Hindus and other religious minorities have been openly terrorized by cadres
of the ruling party and Islamic fundamentalist organizations. The reports
suggest that the torture, looting, gang raping, and other atrocities surpass
the barbarism of 1971, which ironically, is the reason why the then Indian
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi braved hostile international opinion and went
to war.
It is alleged that in the worst-affected
districts of Barishal, Bagherhat and Firujpur, women were publicly gang-raped,
their eyes gouged out, the men killed. The minorities were looted of their
possessions, their houses torched, and temples in several districts damaged.
Last Saturday, a fifteen-year-old Hindu girl attended a press conference
in Dhaka and said she had been abducted from her village in northern Sirajganj
district and gangraped (The Times of India, 22 October 2001).
The Bangladesh Government and police
have moved with remarkable sloth to protect the minorities, a situation
that suggests the complicity of which the Awami League accuses them. According
to the daily Janakantha, the government has not provided food or shelter
to the displaced victims, and Prime Minister Khaleda Zia has refused to
condemn the violence. I view Dacca's decision to cancel the forthcoming
Non-Aligned Nations meeting on grounds of the prevailing international
situation and financial difficulties, as motivated by anxiety to avoid
international opprobrium in the wake of these shameful events, which have
attracted the ire of the European Commission, Amnesty International, and
other international bodies. In India, unfortunately, news of the atrocities
has been virtually purged by the media, with puny items on the Zia regime's
assurance that security will be provided for the Durga Puja celebrations.
It will be short-sighted of India
to not recognize that profound civilizational issues are at stake in this
latest evidence of barbarism on the eastern border, even though the raped
women and battered men are Bangladeshi nationals. India is being targeted
by fanatical forces on account of its rich non-millennarian traditions
and majority-Hindu face; it cannot be indifferent to any attack upon Hindus
on account of their religious persuasions. What is more, Mrs. Khaleda Zia's
BNP is allied with two extremist Islamic political groups which have publicly
proclaimed support for Osama bin Laden. Her cabinet includes two Jamaat-e-Islami
members, famed for their role against Bangladesh's independence in 1971.
India should not forget that only
in April this year, officials of the Bangladesh Rifles, owing allegiance
to Mrs. Zia, captured, tortured, mutilated and cold-bloodedly murdered
sixteen Border Security Force jawans in Meghalaya. Readers would recall
the offensive manner in which the bodies were returned - slung across poles
like hunter's 'kill.' Mrs. Zia is now in power, and her regime has already
placed its bloody signature tune upon the minorities. With the attention
of the international community focused upon Afghanistan and Pakistan, her
government may offer support and sanctuary to terrorists and unleash terrorism
from its soil, as Pakistan is doing in Jammu & Kashmir. With a fundamentalist
government firmly ensconced in Dhaka, there is a real threat of Bangladesh
becoming another Afghanistan.
It is high time India discarded
the self-created myth that Bangladesh is a friendly country which shares
a common civilizational heritage with West Bengal, and is grateful to us
for freeing it from the yoke of General Yahya Khan and his goons. Bangladesh
has no love for India, and notwithstanding the common Bengali language,
rejects its non-Islamic civilizational heritage (as do Muslim societies
all over the world). Its leaders have never regretted the fact of Partition
as has Pakistan's Mohajir leader Altaf Hussain.
One can understand that Mr. Vajpayee
would like to focus on tackling the grim situation in Kashmir, especially
as America's insular ideas about its self-interest threaten to inhibit
firm military retaliation by India. But the de facto ground situation calls
for equal vigilance on both borders. What is more, Mr. Vajpayee will be
effectively disarming himself (as America and the West have done) if he
does not recognize that India's foundational ethos is being challenged
by a hostile civilizational entity that easily frog-leaps national boundaries
and can pop up anywhere (like our own Jama Masjid). The need of the hour
is to defend our civilizational ethos. To do this, we must demand justice
for the dishonoured women of Bangladesh.
