By P.K.Balachandran
Colombo, August 8: The newly appointed Chief Advisor to the Interim Government of Bangladesh, Nobel Laureate Dr.Muhammad Yunus, has called for an end to the violence and vandalism that are continuing even after the flight of the despised dictator Sheikh Hasina.
President Mohammad Shahabuddin has asked policemen who had left their posts fearing violent retribution, to return to their posts in 24 hours. In the absence of the police, university students are directing traffic on roads and have formed committees to protect the lives and properties of the Hindus including their temples that were being targeted allegedly by the supporters of the Jamaat-e-Islami and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).
The government of India, which is particularly concerned about the safety of the Hindu minority, has not taken a hostile stand and is hoping that the new regime will protect the minorities. But the same cannot be said about sections of the Indian media which are using the current spurt in attacks on Hindus to sharpen anti-Muslim feelings in India and benefit from it politically.
This stand would not only add fuel to the communal fire in Bangladesh, but create tension between New Delhi and Dhaka putting India’s huge investments in Bangladesh in jeopardy.
Yunus’ Plea
On arrival from Paris after accepting the post of Chief Advisor to the Interim Government, Dr. Muhammad Yunus said: “Let us not let this victory slip away because of our mistakes. I fervently appeal to everybody to stay calm. Please refrain from all kinds of violence. I appeal to all students, members of all political parties and non-political people to stay calm. This is our beautiful country with lots of exciting possibilities. We must protect and make it a wonderful country for us and for our future generations.”
“Our youth is ready to give this leadership in creating a new world. Let us not miss the chance by going into any senseless violence. Violence is our enemy. Please don’t create more enemies. Be calm and get ready to build the country.”
“If we take the path of violence everything will be destroyed. Please stay calm. Help those around you to stay calm.”
“Let us make the best use of our new victory. Let us not let this slip away because of our mistakes.”
Rights Groups Plea
Rights groups, eminent citizens and socio-cultural organisations have demanded immediate steps to protect the religious minorities and bring the assailants to justice, describing the attacks on Hindu homes, businesses and temples as an “evil attempt to destroy communal harmony”.
A statement by 29 eminent citizens said they received reports of attacks on Hindus in at least 35 districts, including Khulna, Jashore, Satkhira, Jhenaidah, Dinajpur, Thakurgaon, Narail, Munshiganj, Noakhali, Meherpur and Dhaka.
Ahmadiyya people in Panchagarh and Rangpur, ethnic minorities in Rajshahi, Dinajpur, Naogaon, Chapainawabganj and Patuakhali, and Hijra community people in Jamalpur also came under attack, the statement pointed out.
According to The Daily Star, the signatories of the statement include Sultana Kamal, Hameeda Hossain, Khushi Kabir, Rasheda K Choudhury, Syeda Rizwana Hasan, ZI Khan Panna, Saleem Samad, Shahnaz Huda, Shireen Huq, Kajal Debnath, Tabarak Hussain, Subrata Chowdhury, Sumaiya Khair, Faustina Pereira, and Shamsul Huda.
At a rally under the banner of “Pratibadi Samajik-Sangskritik Sangathan” 31 organizations condemned the destruction of sculptures. Mofizur Rahman Laltu, general secretary of Bibartan Sangskritik Kendra, called upon everyone to unite to resist the attacks, while Zakir Hossain, president of Gono Sangskritik Kendra, described the miscreants as “agents of fascism”.
Amit Ranjan Dey, general secretary of Bangladesh Udichi Shilpigoshthi, read out a declaration on behalf of the 31 cultural and social organisations, presenting their vision for the type of government they want in the country.
Dipok Suman, chief of Tirandaz Natya Dal, and poet Hasan Fakir recited poetry at the event. Charan Sangskritik Kendra, Udichi Shilpigoshthi, Democrazy Clowns, and Bibartan Sangskritik Dal sang songs on communal harmony.
The Workers’ Party of Bangladesh criticised the army chief for not playing a visible role in maintaining law and order even after promising to protect people.
“Temples are being attacked, vandalized and looted,” Nahid Islam, a top leader of the students movement said in a statement on Tuesday, blaming the attacks on those who want to “destroy” the student movement.
Meenakshi Ganguly, the deputy director for Asia at Human Rights Watch, described the reports of violence against Hindus as “extremely concerning.”
Tensions between Muslims and Hindus in Bangladesh have boiled over in the past, including violent clashes across the country in 2021. But compared to the rule of the BNP and the military, Sheikh Hasina’s had ensured greater peace for the minority Hindus. She had filled many high places in the police with Hindus to instil confidence in them. Hindus were 10.7% of the Bangladeshi population in 2015.
Lessons from Arab Spring
The aftermath of the pro-democracy “Arab Spring” movement should teach Bangladeshis that it is of the utmost urgency to restore order and sanity after a revolution, if the country is not to return to dictatorship.
The Arab Spring mass agitation overthrew Tunisia’s Ben Ali and Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, with just one slogan “Bring Down the Regime”. The movement brought out the pent-up frustrations and socio-economic grievances of the masses, the youth, the middle and lower classes, over the inequality and injustice fostered by corrupt dictatorships.
Writing on the subject in The Daily Star Ramisa Rob says: “Though the Arab Spring led to the fall of seemingly invincible leaders—like Sheikh Hasina seemed a week ago—the victory was short-lived in most countries, as the downfall of the reviled regimes instead led to further turmoil. Libya and Syria collapsed into civil war. Egypt witnessed a military coup followed by the rise of a leader even worse than the one they got rid of.”
Therefore, understanding the underlying reasons for the failure of the Arab Spring nations to transition to democratic regimes is crucial as Bangladesh navigates uncharted waters of a seismic regime change, unlike any before, Rob adds.
The incoming interim government should serve longer than previous ones in Bangladesh’s history, in order to strategically start rebuilding the nation before groups with vested interests hijack the political vacuum, she recommends.
Economic Reform
Rob points out to Anand Gopal’s analysis of the failure of the Arab Spring movement and says that the post-Arab Spring rulers had failed to change the neoliberal economic policies of the old regimes. The masses who continued to be frustrated tuned to communalism and intolerance.
Therefore, if the political economy of Bangladesh remains the same and justice to the masses is not rendered, there will be anomie, or societal normlessness, and senseless aggression against State structures and also sitting ducks like the minorities will take place.
To control disorder, a dictatorial ruler might come up, as it happened in Egypt, negating the aims of Arab Spring.
Therefore, the Bangladeshi revolution has to be followed by concrete steps to build structures and policies to render justice and equality.
“Democracy is an umbrella idea for free speech and free and fair elections. But without addressing deeply unequal systems—which is what triggered Hasina’s fall—will lead us down the same path as the Arab nations that went backwards despite a world-changing moment,” Rob warns.
Citing Egypt’s example she says: “During Egypt’s uprisings against three-decade ruler Mubarak, minority Orthodox Coptic Christians thought the discrimination would end after the revolution, but it escalated instead. Five years later, as current President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi took office overthrowing an Islamist regime, the violence and divisions between Muslims and Christians have continued to intensify, along with socioeconomic disparity.”
Bangladesh is predominantly a secular country, and its very strength lies in that fact. The student coordinators have insofar stepped into protecting minorities, and minority places of worship. To retain and expand unity of all communities in Bangladesh, the interim government and the Bangladeshi community as a whole, have to work towards changing the existing social contracts which disproportionately affect marginalised people of all religions,” Rob recommends.
Role of India
India and the Indian polity as a whole have a huge role to play in seeing that sanity returns to Bangladesh and its basic issues of poverty, inequality and democracy are addressed to ensure stability and a lasting democracy.
The tendency to drum up the issue of attacks on the Hindu minority, and play up the danger emanating from the Jamaat-e-Islami and other non-secular forces in Bangladesh could do more harm than good.
It is bound to exacerbate communal disharmony not only in Bangladesh but in India too, unleashing forces which hope to gain local political advantage from communal polarization in both countries.
Sections of the Delhi-based media, are constantly running programs and discussions to bring out and amplify anti-Hindu sentiments in Bangladesh only to whip anti-Muslim sentiments in India.
The idea is also to set New Delhi against Dhaka and destroy five decades of friendship carefully nurtured by successive regimes under difficult circumstances, with nary a thought for the fate of billions of dollars of Indian investment in Bangladesh.
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