Why should India protect the remaining Hindus and other religious and ethnic minorities in Bangladesh?

Sitangshu Guha

Sitangshu  Guha, a columnist, a former college assistant-professor, a Human Rights defender, is playing a pivotal role against persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh and campaigned worldwide to save Bangladesh from the grasp of militant Islamists. Guha, a Bangladeshi, currently living in the USA has compiled and published several books. He can be reached via email: guhasb@gmail.com; and what’s app 001-646-696-5569.

India should protect the remaining Hindus and other religious ethnic minorities of Bangladesh not only as a humanitarian obligation, but for its own interest, too. If the Islamists can eliminate the remaining 20 million Hindus in less than 30 years as has been predicted by Professor Barakat based on statistical analysis of the current trend of their exodus to India under duress, Bangladesh will become another Pakistan or Afghanistan. This reality should be a cause for concern not only in New Delhi but everywhere in the community of civilized nations.

While all the non-Muslim minorities have been targeted for elimination, particularly the Hindus are infinitely more vulnerable than the Buddhists and Christians because the Islamists fear that the U.S., E.U., China, and Japan might be displeased, which in turn might hurt Bangladesh economically. The vicious campaign of eliminating Hindus and other religious-ethnic minorities has persisted regardless of which government has been in power, varying only degrees of intensity.

Every government, including the Awami League, has seized millions of acres of land and businesses from the Hindus by using the Enemy (Vested) Property Act. The Digital Security Act (DSA), now the CSA (Cyber Security Act) is used against Hindus as a substitute to the blasphemy laws. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is reluctant to bring the minority persecutors to justice, thus, exactly like BNP-Jamaat, granted the Islamists complete impunity, in other words, licensed the Islamists to exterminate the religious and ethnic minorities and forced them to flee to India.

If the Hindus and Buddhists of Bangladesh are protected, this twenty million strong body of population can in and of itself serve as a bulwark against the rising tide of militant Islam in the country. In the past, it was only Jatiya Party and BNP-Jamaat who promoted Islamic extremism by reinstating the Islamists in national politics and partnering with them in governance, but from 2013 Awami League has also partnered with the Islamists. As is well known this Kwami madrassah network has trained Islamic jihadists since the 1980s, now with the ARSA, ARSO, AQIS, IS-Bangla having joined forces with BNP-Jamaat, AL the country is headed toward a complete Talibanization.

This process (the process of Talibanization) must be stopped; and in dealing with this dangerous issue, enabling the country’s 20 million religious & ethnic minorities, and empowering them economically and politically can be extremely helpful. As indicated, their inclusion in every government, semi-government, and private sector would constitute an obstacle to radicalizing schools, colleges, offices, and industries.

In order to achieve this goal Prime Minister Hasina needs to be persuaded into taking the following steps, and India has a legitimate right to ask Prime Minister Hasina to act without further delay to stop minority exodus into India (They are entering India approximately @ 760 per day and is projected that the remaining 20 million will enter India in the next 30 years unless the process is stopped by taking necessary measures by the Bangladesh Government).

To look for a solution Bangladesh PM can pass a ‘Minority Protection Act’ and a ‘Minority Commission’ immediately by making an effective use of her absolute majority in the Parliament. The minorities of Bangladesh are an extremely vulnerable group much like children and women, who are incapable of protecting themselves. Therefore, an extremely strong Minority Protection Law is required to ensure their safety and security.

A separate National Minority Commission is indispensable because the existing National Human Rights Commission is unable to manage the daily incidents of human rights violations, persecution, and atrocities that the minorities are being subjected to. In addition to these, there are frequent large scale mayhems and pogroms being conducted. If a national Minority Commission is formed and empowered and mandated to directly call upon the RAB and High Court to act immediately as the pogroms unfold the minorities will be much better protected. Such a commission will also be able to produce a quarterly report of violence against minorities which can be shared with various nationals and international human rights groups as well as the foreign embassies in Dhaka. This will serve as a powerful deterrent against minority persecution.

Bangladesh government should immediately start the process of prosecuting and punishing the minority persecutors in the proposed fast-track courts under the proposed Hate Crime & Speech Law, starting with the list of persecutors that was submitted to Sheikh Hasina government in April 2011 by the Judge Mohammad Shahabuddin Commission Report, a.k.a. the Probe Commission Report. And produce a comprehensive list of perpetrators of crime against the minorities from October 1972 through the Temple/Deities destruction mayhem on February 4-5, 2023, and then turn it over to the Fast-Track courts for prosecution, trial & punishment.

The government’s deliberate failure to prosecute and punish the minority persecutors, in other words the government’s grating the Islamists’ impunity is the main reason the vicious campaign of religious & ethnic cleansing has persisted for decades. If the process of prosecution and trial begins violence against the minorities will decline drastically.

The Bangladesh government should Stop incarcerating the minorities, particularly the Hindus, on fictitious charges of “hurting the Muslims’ religious sentiment” by using the Digital Security Act (aka, CSA) as a substitute for a Blasphemy Law. Reinstating the original constitution of the country (1972) will also help. Declaration of Islam as the State Religion has been interpreted by the common Muslims as a license for ridding the country of its non-Muslim population through violence. And, of course according to one religion the status of State Religion automatically renders the others inferior and it contradicts the principle of secular democracy that the country was at birth.

Bangladesh government should Stop the practice of promoting hatred or prejudice against the Hindus and other minorities by the clerics by regulating waaz ‘religious sermons in mammoth gatherings’ in which they liken the Hindus and other non-Muslims to animals and tell the Muslims  that they could use non-Muslim women for gratification and grab their property.’ The Salafi Islamist clerics directly incite the common Muslims to engage in violence against the non-Muslim citizens. Therefore, this practice must stop and make it a punishable crime.

The Bangladesh government should Reinstate non-Muslim writers in the textbooks. Fully implement the Enemy Property Return Act; Implementation of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord Affirmative Action, Political empowerment, Nominate minority candidates in substantial numbers at every level of administration – parliament down to the Union Council. Restoration of the Indigenous peoples’ rights etc.