Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s bold pledge to take on the Taliban-Pakistan-backed Islamic fundamentalists in Kashmir is somewhat undermined by his government’s shocking silence at the continuing atrocities against Hindus in Bangladesh. Press reports from Bangladesh itself suggest that the incidents following the victory of Mrs. Khaleda Zia and her Bangla National Party (BNP)-Jamaat-e-Islami alliance threaten to dwarf the horrors of 1971, when mass rapes and untold atrocities on women became the single-most compelling factor behind Mrs. Indira Gandhi’s decision to go to war, even in the face of an exceedingly hostile international environment.
Mr. Vajpayee cannot claim ignorance of the Bangla events (reported by the BBC), as the Indian envoy in Dacca would have sent a report to the Government. Indeed, European Commission envoy Antonio de Souza Menezes has already urged the Khaleda Zia regime to take action against the perpetrators of the violence. The Commission has asked BNP leaders to control their cadres, and expressed disapproval that the attacks are continuing. The assaults follow the defeat of Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League, which is widely believed to have garnered most of the country’s minority vote.
Confirming this, Awami League MP-elect, Suranjit Sengupta, has appeal to President Shahabuddin Ahmed to help curb the nation-wide violence against the minority community. Mr. Sengupta has pointed out that despite the mayhem, Prime Minister Khaleda Zia has not once formally condemned the violence. There is little doubt that Dacca’s Tuesday decision to cancel the forthcoming Non-Aligned Nations meeting on the pretext of the prevailing international situation and financial difficulties, is equally motivated by the desire to avoid international opprobrium in the wake of these shameful events.
Unfortunately, even the Indian media has virtually purged the news of the Bangla outrages; stray reports mutedly refer to Hindu/minority delegations meeting Mrs. Zia for succour. Some reports mention low-key Durga Puja celebrations as a mark of protest by the Hindu community, without stating the ugly truth about why it is protesting. It should be clearly understood that Bangladesh’s Hindu community is not protesting against the victory of Mrs. Zia; rather, it is being victimized by that country’s resurgent Islamic sentiment that made her victory possible. This can readily be gauged from the growing support for Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden in Dacca.
To their credit, conscious citizens in Bangladesh have recorded their dissent against minority-bashing. The Sammilito Samajik Andolon (SSA) organized a protest rally at the Shaheed Minar, and its general secretary Hayat Mamood asserted that every citizen had the democratic right to cast or not cast a vote in favour of any candidate. Prof. Mezbah Kamal of University of Dhaka questioned why religious minorities would be targeted for voting for a specific party, is a serious indictment of Mrs. Zia’s fledgling regime by its own citizens.
Those concerned at the growing pressures on adherents of non-millennarian traditions must understand that profound civilizational issues are at stake in this latest act of barbarism on the eastern border. It is true that the raped women and battered men are all Bangladeshi nationals. Yet, an India that is being targeted by fanatical forces on account of its majority-Hindu face cannot be indifferent to these developments. In fact, it was in recognition of this reality that when fratricidal conflict broke out in Sri Lanka and Hindu-Lankan refugees began to arrive on our shores, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi responded by setting up a southern command of the army for the first time.
It should not be forgotten that only in April, Bangladesh Rifles’ officials owing allegiance to Begum 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 a hunter’s ‘kill.’ Unfortunately, a misplaced concern for the electoral prospects of Sheikh Hasina Wajed inhibited the Vajpayee Government from demanding full accountability and apology for the outrage.
This lily-livered approach to international diplomacy is perhaps the reason why, close on the heels of the grisly attack on the Jammu & Kashmir Assembly by the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad, which saw thirty-eight dead and several wounded, the US should nevertheless dare tell New Delhi to dialogue with Islamabad! Secretary of State Colin Powell’s assertion that Kashmir is the crux of the dispute between the two countries, should serve as a grim warning to South Block that nations that do not assiduously guard their own interests (as Tel Aviv does) will travel the Czechoslovakia road.
The present situation in Bangladesh is the direct consequence of New Delhi’s perceived weakness in handling recalcitrant neighbours. Newspaper and eye-witness accounts from Bangladesh itself state that Hindus and other religious minorities are being openly terrorized by the government and Islamic fundamentalist organizations. The Hindu village of Ramshil (Kutalipara sub-district of Gopalganj) has overnight turned into a refugee camp as post-electoral violence has forced over fifteen thousand families to take refuge in schools, colleges and open fields there. Reports suggest that the torture, looting, gang raping, and other atrocities surpass the barbarism of 1971.
The worst-affected districts are Barishal, Bagherhat and Firujpur, where women have allegedly been publicly gang-raped, their eyes gouged out, and several slaughtered. Ponds have reportedly been poisoned, and minorities looted of their belongings. Several temples have been attacked and damaged. Similar reports are pouring in from Rajshahi, Pabna, and other northern districts. Hindus from Dinajpur, Takurgawn, Gopalpur, Tarash Sirajganj, Ullapara, Gaibanda and Shahajadpur are already leaving the country. This means nearly two lakh refugees are on their way here. Neither the Bangladesh Government nor police have moved to protect minorities anywhere, a situation that certainly suggests complicity.
India must recognize that as in the case of Pakistan, there is a hostile regime on the eastern border. We must discard the self-created and self-perpetuated myth that the former East Pakistan 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. The truth is that 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 in the manner of Pakistan’s Mohajir leader Altaf Hussain.
This is why the ISI could gain a foothold in Bangladesh within a decade of its independence, and use that country’s soil to fund the mushroom growth of madrasas in the border districts of West Bengal, penetrate the north-eastern states, and convert the entire Indo-Nepal border into a hotbed of militancy.
It is understandable that the Prime Minister would like to concentrate his government’s energies in tackling the grim situation in Kashmir, especially as America’s warped perceptions of its self-interest threaten to put breakers in the way of firm military retaliation by India. But the de facto ground situation calls for vigilance on both borders. Also, like America, Mr. Vajpayee will be disarming himself 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 (for example, in Jama Masjid). Like it or not, the hour demands that we defend our civilizational ethos. The recognition of the obligations imposed by our dharmic traditions made us give refuge to the Dalai Lama and the Karmapa; it must now make us demand justice for the dishonoured Hindu women of Bangladesh.
The Pioneer, 16 October 2001