Like it has unfailingly done over the last many decades, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha (ABPS), that just concluded in Bengaluru, expressed its unequivocal solidarity with the beleaguered Hindus of Bangladesh. The ABPS issued a clarion call “to stand in solidarity with the Hindu society of Bangladesh” and expressed “its serious concern on the unbated and planned violence, injustice and oppression faced by the Hindu and other minority communities at the hands of radical Islamist elements in Bangladesh.” It termed such continuing violence against and oppression of minorities in Bangladesh a “serious case of violation of human rights.”
Whitewashing Failure
The head of the interim arrangement in Bangladesh Mohammed Yunus has been dismissive, in a callow manner, of the communal attacks and atrocities on Hindus and other minorities in Bangladesh, as politically motivated and not religion based violence. Yunus is on record having said that the reports on attacks on minorities were exaggerated. Such statements were made in order to minimise or whitewash his failure in protecting citizens’ lives especially that of Hindus and other minorities in Bangladesh. The ABPS called out that bogus argument, stating that denying the “religious angle of these incidents by claiming them to be only political, is negation of truth as scores of victims of such incidents belong to Hindu and other minority communities only.”
Between August 5, 2024, and October 28 2024, for instance, 300-plus documented incidents of attacks, harassment and intimidation of Hindus had occurred in Bangladesh, exposing Yunus’s postulation as hollow and hypocritical. Chakmas in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Christian churches were attacked, Bangladesh Christian Association flagged Christian churches and homes being attacked in Mymensingh, Thakurgaon, Dinajpur and Naogaon. Buddhist villages were attacked, their crematoriums occupied, Kathin Chivara Dana ceremony, one of the most significant events in the Buddhist religious calendar, had to be called off in places like Rangamati, Khagrachari, Bandarban and in some other places had to be undertaken under military protection.
Ethnic tribal minorities have also faced the brunt of the prevailing lawlessness in Bangladesh with their homes, shops being set on fire and their lands being grabbed. The alibi that some of the members of the Yunus arrangement put forward accusing the Indian media and intelligentsia of spreading misinformation does not stand scrutiny, because well-documented facts speak otherwise.
ABPS Resolution
Just war memorials commemorating the 1971 Liberation War were vandalised across the country, tribal icons Sidhu-Kanu’s statues were vandalised in Dinajpur triggering protests among the members of the tribal community. There have been more than thousand cases of extortion aimed at the Hindus and other minorities. The ABPS resolution also flagged the “persecution of Hindus and other minority communities, especially Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Bangladesh at the hands of fanatic Islamist elements.” The release from prison by the Yunus dispensation, of certified terrorists such as Jashimuddin Rehmani, chief of the terror outfit Ansar-ul-Bangla, have exposed the regime’s actual intent which is of trying to create instability in the neighbourhood, of abetting radicalisation and pushing Bangladesh towards a radical Islamic state where a multi-party democracy, Constitution, rule of law are all absent or become subservient to the writ of Islamism. With minorities living a marginal existence, their rights snatched away and their voices muzzled or silenced. Rehmani is on record calling for India’s dismemberment, for the separation of India’s North East and calling for West Bengal to separate itself from India. Though these empty rhetorics have no impact whatsoever on India, it nevertheless encourages radical and separatist elements in India and also exposes the subversive design of those who have the patronage of the Yunus dispensation in Bangladesh.
When the radical Islamist Hefazt-e-Islam called for banning ISKCON, terming it a terrorist organisation, it exposed the mindset of those who call the shots in Bangladesh today. While the Hefazat was allowed to call the ISKCON a terrorist organisation, Yunus’s suave advisors ensured that pro-Liberation War journalists and activists were imprisoned and silenced. Hindu academics heading institutions of higher learning were dismissed. Vice Chancellors of BUET, Kazi Nazrul University, Pro-VC of Chittagong University, Vice Chancellor of the Khulna University of Engineering and Technology were all dismissed because they were Hindus. Over 1,500 teachers from various schools, colleges and universities across Bangladesh were forced to resign. Hindu police officers were targeted and were summarily dismissed from service.
Despite Mohammed Yunus’s declarations, there are nearly 1,000 less Durga Pujas in 2024. It clearly showed the atmosphere of fear and intimidation among minorities. Islamic songs were sung in a number of Durga Puja pandals, nearly 50 per cent property and places of worship of Hindus saw vandalisation and attacks. Idols of Hindu Gods and Goddesses were targeted as well. In 19 pavilions across 14 districts, Durga idols were vandalised and Hindus were prohibited from carrying out their rituals or chanting mantras during azan. It is evident that the Yunus dispensation had no interest in protecting minorities – neither their human rights, nor their right to carry on with their worship and practice of their religion.
In Sathkhira’s famous Jeshoreshwari Kali Mandir, regarded to be one of the Shakti Peethas, Goddesses golden crown, gifted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2021, was stolen. The administration’s response was expectedly lackadaisical and it blamed the Hindus for not being careful. The act of theft itself was meant to inflame the region and inflict greater insecurity in the minds of Hindus.
Existential Crisis for Hindus
The ABPS spoke of the “continuous decline of Hindu population in Bangladesh (from 22 percent in 1951 to 7.95 per cent today)” observing that this depletion indicated the ‘existential crisis for them.” It also flagged as cause of serious concern “the governmental and institutional support for violence and hatred that was witnessed” in 2024. An important aspect which the ABPS flagged was the “persistent anti Bharat rhetoric in Bangladesh” which could “severely damage the relationship between the two countries.” In December, while addressing political parties, Yunus himself referring to “big countries” tangentially spoke of India not happy with Bangladesh’s freedom. There could be nothing further from the truth. He seemed to be indulging in such innuendos simply in order to cover-up on his abysmal failure to reign in the radical and violent elements within his set-up.
Ethnic tribal minorities have also faced the brunt of the prevailing lawlessness in Bangladesh with their homes, shops being set on fire and their lands being grabbed
Continuous anti-Bharat chants were heard from within the so-called anti-Sheikh Hasina students protest in Dhaka in July and August. Had the protest been genuine on an issue that is purely internal to Bangladesh, why would its leaders and cadres attack Bharat?Yunus’s advisor on religious affairs, for instance, AFM Khalid Hossein is the Nayeb-e-Ameer of Hefazat-e-Islam and advisor to the Islami Andolan, Bangladesh. It ought to be recalled that the Hefazat had carried out violent protests which led to 13 people killed and many more injured in 2021, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on an official visit to Dhaka to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Liberation War. The anti-Bharat rhetorics are an emanation of an essentially anti-Bharat mindset that most in the Yunus dispensation nurture.
The ABPS also spoke of a “concerted effort on the part of some of the international forces to foment instability in the entire region surrounding Bharat by creating an atmosphere of distrust and confrontation pitting one country against another.” It appealed to thought leaders and scholars of international relations “to keep vigil on such anti-Bharat atmosphere, activities of Pakistan and the Deep State and expose them.” It underlined the undeniable historical fact that the entire region “has a shared culture, history and social bonds because of which any upheaval at one place raises concern throughout the region.” It praised the Hindu society of Bangladesh’s effort to resist atrocities in a “peaceful, collective and democratic manner.”
Besides urging the Government of Bharat to “make all possible efforts to ensure the protection, dignity and wellbeing of the Hindu community in Bangladesh along-with engaging Government of Bangladesh in a continuous and meaningful dialogue” it also observed that that it was “incumbent on the International organisations like UN and global community to take serious note of the inhumane treatment meted out to Hindus and other minority communities in Bangladesh and pressurise Bangladesh government to put a halt to these violent activities.” The UN and other international organisations including those which thrive on human rights activism the world over have not been as forthcoming as they ought to have been on the situation in Bangladesh. The ABPS resolution serves them as a reminder of their duties and responsibilities in such situations.
Selective Silence
Those intellectuals, especially from West Bengal and others, well-accomplished and recognised globally, who have chosen to be silent on the atrocities on Hindus in Bangladesh or to minimise them, should search the depths of their own conscience and should take a while to peruse the RSS ABPS resolution. Their selective silence is indicative of their approval or their complicity with these acts of oppression and of violence against Hindus in Bangladesh. Their concern for human rights cannot be selective and piecemeal. That they have remained silent for the last eight months is in itself a criminal act that can never be forgotten or forgiven.
