Prof Ram Puniyani | Clarion India
THE events in Bangladesh not only shook that country to the core but also saw a lot of fake news and Islamophobia getting intensified in India. Shaikh Hasina ruled Bangladesh with an iron hand for 15years, totally suppressing the opposition to the extent of imprisoning or imposing house arrests on major opposition leaders. The student protest which erupted in the country on the issue of “reservations for freedom fighters’ children” continued nearly 50 years after the country was formed, when it struggled to get release from the clutches of Pakistan. The issue has been agitating the Bangladesh youth and they met with suppression from the Hasina government, leading to massive unrest.
With Hasina leaving the country, all hell broke loose. There were attacks on Awami League (Hasina’s party) supporters and, the burning of Awami League offices in the main. According to the “Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council and the Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad”, minority communities in Bangladesh faced 205 incidents of attacks in 52 districts since the fall of the Hasina government on August 5.
Prof Muhammad Yunus was the choice of students to lead the interim government. There was a massive rally of minorities calling for their protection. Prof Yunus immediately issued an appeal. He “…urged the student protesters to protect all minority communities, including Hindu, Christian and Buddhists, from being targeted.” Are they not the people of this country? You have been able to save the country. Can’t you save some families?” he asked the student protesters.
This was a powerful appeal and as per Mahfouz Anam, editor of Bangladesh’s Daily Star, the violence against Hindus stopped, to the extent that the right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami formed teams to protect temples. The learned editor, in an interview with The Wire’s Karan Thapar, also pointed out that rightists in Bangladesh and India feed each other. As per him after the fifth day, attacks on minorities came to a complete halt. He and many other YouTubers have pointed out that in India many of the rumours and fake news have been circulated without any fact-check.
One major example is the news and visual that cricketer Litton Das’s House was put on fire. A BBC fact-check revealed that it was the house of another cricketer, who is close to Awami League and had been MP for two terms. Similarly, another visual shows the burning of a temple in Chittagong. It was later found that it was instead an Awami League office close to a temple. Such examples abound, showing the burning of Hindu temples and the killing of Hindus. There are other visuals which have not been shown and those are of students forming teams to protect Hindu temples. “Both, Hindus and Muslims are victims. But they cherry-pick and highlight the politically motivated attacks as communal. When the victim is Hindu, all incidents are widely propagated as communal persecution, which will increase anti-Muslim hatred in India.” (Shohanur Rahman, a fact-checker, to The Quint)
Now the two major powers in Bangladesh are Prof. Yunus and the students who led the protests. Both these are taking the line of the inclusive character of Bangladesh, and strong position about the protection of Hindus and other minorities. Undoubtedly Jamaat-e-Islami dreams of an Islamic state, there is Khaleda Zia of BNP, which is also pro-right, pro-Islamic state, while the major scale is tilted towards the attitudes which Yunus and students are displaying. Prof Yunus, true to his pluralism, visited Dhakeshri Temple(13th August) and met Hindu leaders to assuage their hurt feelings and assure them of safety. That is so reassuring.
Here in India the hate-mongers and votaries of Hindu nationalism are spreading hate and sending inciting messages with gay abandon. BJP’s MP, Kangana Ranaut, tweeted, “Peace is not air or sunlight that you think is your birthright and will come to you for free. Mahabharata ho ya Ramayana biggest battles in the history of the world have been fought for peace. Pick your swords and keep them sharp, practice some combat form daily.” Many others are deliberately calling the People’s Republic of Bangladesh as ‘Islamic Republic of Bangladesh’ with motives which are very retrograde.
On similar lines, many trolls and leaders of the BJP are spreading such things which incite the people. What is needed at the moment? We must stand with the rights of religious minorities in Bangladesh. As the interim government is calling for the protection of minorities and as minorities could successfully stage a demonstration for their rights, it seems there is some space for the democratic secular values which need to be appreciated and supported. Violation of minority rights cannot be selective. We need to stand for it at home to show an ideal to the neighbouring countries.
South Asia as such has been going through a phase of sectarian nationalism. Sri Lanka’s, sectarianism was so much visible a year ago. Pakistan is the major violator of these minority rights and Myanmar is also toeing similar lines. Those indulging in ‘take out swords’ and other hateful messages; get away with such tweets without facing the charges of hate speech and they promote divisiveness.
The responsibility of those striving for pluralism and democracy is immense at the moment. The hate mongers have erected huge machines to do their divisive job. More believers in peace and amity will have to come forward to combat this hate by widening their net and intensifying the process of fact-checking.
Hasina had a dual character. At one level she was very dictatorial and at another, she advocated pluralism. What is needed is adherence to both pluralism and democracy. The Bangladesh government faces the challenge of bringing both components into practice. Prof. Yunus’s visit to the temple gives lots of hope for secularism in Bangladesh. We need to strive for promoting intercommunity relations, affirmative action for minorities and standing for upholding the human rights of all, while shunning hate-mongering against any community.
* Ram Puniyani is an eminent author, activist and former professor at IIT Mumbai. The views expressed here are personal and Clarion India does not necessarily share or subscribe to them.
