Scars In Celebration

Rumor mills cause mayhem unprecedented,
Uncivilized minds fall prey to plan of groups regimented.
Spending more on development of human resources
Could stem the attack planned by evil forces.

Another bout of communal attack against the minority community amid Durga Puja celebration has severely challenged the communal harmony and social fabric of Bangladesh. It happened at a time when Bangladesh is celebrating its 50th anniversary of independence and boasting its achievement in infrastructure projects that even a decade ago none would believe achievable.

What marred the mood of celebration is the negligence of law-enforcement agencies. This year this is second such communal violence that did damage to property and lives and made international headlines. If one googles 50th anniversary celebration of independence of Bangladesh ,one will see news and pictures of agitators pelting stones towards police or seminary students attacking Brahmanbaria rail station in protest of Indian PM's official visit to Bangladesh ,certainly not the celebration news reports Bangladeshis expected in world media. A damaging publicity to brand Bangladesh.

When we have this kind of crowd who are susceptible to agitate on slightest instance of disinformation or custom-made stories then it is indeed hard to create a cohesive and inclusive society, vital for a nation to prosper and set example for others.

This latest bout is different from other incidents as Police played a controversial role and feared such attack amid Durga Puja celebration. And vandalism spread others parts long after the first occurrence at a Puja celebration spot in Cumilla. The culprits behind the Cumilla incident have been arrested. But who are behind them is still being investigated. Here are my observations¹:

1. Long before the latest bout of vandalism, a group of youtubers preached hatred towards Hindus particularly ISKCON.A former Major of Bangladesh Army now staying in Canada in an interview with a Bangladeshi journalist who is now in exile in USA did not hide his antagonism towards ISKCON and claimed former BJP governor to Tripura on a train trip through Bangladesh told his entourage: “these were all Hindu temples once and converted into mosques",pointing the mosques dotted the landscape. The major claimed former governor had requested PM Hasina to transform them into temple again. This kind of disinformation was spread unabated through social media.

2. Former secretary to the Minister of Labor and Immigrants Welfare was charged by Police for the corruption allegations made against him.This personal secretary was known as Mr 15% in Gopalganj. Minister was former Father-in-law of the PM's daughter. He was part of the faction that attacked houses of District General Secretary of ruling party, a Hindu,and his fault was he failed to attend an iftar party.His cases made way to the arrest of ruling party goons,loyalists to ruling party minister.This is a serious development as such high political figure has never been implicated before.

3. Current Police Chief, who had earlier been DG of RAB, in a press conference feared that there might have been attack in Hindu interests during Durga Puja. The information divulged in the wake of Boat Club controversy where a film star was detained for causing troubles at the club where Police Chief is the president, a post not to be held by public servant. Later, embarrassing photographs of a Police officer and the star severely tarnished image of Police. The star's mentor was also grilled in Police custody.

During his term as RAB DG, encounter of a ruling party counselor in Cox's Bazar by a RAB personnel created lots of controversy at home and abroad. He did not do any probe there. In addition, as RAB DG he had also witnessed the worst terror incident in Bangladesh's history. Government did not replace him. Later Police in an announcement said there had been no threat to Durga Puja. Only Ansars,however, deployed to provide security to the Puja Mondops.

4. A Police inspector implicated in the controversy of an e-commerce platform was detained by BSF while he was on his way to Nepal through India for intrusion. He was later handed down to West Bengal Police. Despite repeated request of repatriation, Indian Police turned deaf to Bangladesh Police's call.

5. A Bangladeshi Court recently cleared the way for ensuring Hindu widow's rights over the property of her husband. Many groups objected such radical changes in the law. In addition, corruption verdict of a former Chief Justice,who had left Dhaka under ruling party threat, was scheduled to be held in the middle of October. But the hearing was delayed further following the communal attack.

6. A high-profile Rohingya leader was shot dead at a camp in Cox's Bazar. He was successful to mobilize crowds to observe Rohingya genocide day and helped to prepare evidence against Myanmar Army Chief in Rohingya genocide case. He even met President Donald Trump. In many YouTube channels his killing was portrayed as an act by Indian and Myanmar spy agencies.

7. Recently BNP consulted with leaders and loyalists of various districts and planned to launch a movement to electoral reforms and fresh election.

8. PM is about to set off an official visit to Europe where she may conclude several defense deals. European governments are less reluctant to sell weapons to countries with poor human rights records.

A British Navy ship HMS Kent arrived in an official visit to Bangladesh when the vandalism unfolded.

Thawing relations between Bangladesh and India witnessed boom in RMG export to India and Indian credit line including defense sector for defense purchase. India even offered its credit line to purchase an European fighter that it is currently using. Such communal tension may wipe out such offer from the table and makes way for others.

These incidents and things in part or full contributed to the recent vandalism. Subsequent investigations may shed further light.

But many here tried to portray the rise of nationalistic force across the border a threat to Bangladesh. It is indeed wrong to tag BJP and Sangha Paribar with other dogmatic groups in the region in the same category. We often forget the ruling party in India often sorted many political disputes through legal battle in the court, not through vandalism or muscle power. Here is part of my take on improving relationship and making a lasting bond with the spiritual group behind BJP:

As Bangladesh turned 50, regional connectivity and cooperation echoed in the messages and speeches of leaders of this region. Being the big country of this subcontinent, no scheme would come to fruition without the right kind of support from India. And the group Modi represents holds significant leverage in power corridor, politics, security establishment, corporate India, strategic community and society in India. Unless the group throws its weight around any regional connectivity plan, it will be difficult for the countries to connect the region and accelerate economic activities.

During his stay in Bangladesh, Modi paid visit and offered prayers to two ancient temples: one in Satkhira dated back to the era of Lakshman Sen and the other one in Gopalganj belonging to a community known as "Motua" who holds considerable influence in the politics of West Bengal and other Indian states. There is no doubt after Modiji's visit the two ancient temples will draw bigger crowds in the coming years. Time has come that Bangladesh embarks on a campaign to attract foreign tourists in these sites.

Similarly, Bangladesh government could offer land to spiritual group Modiji represents to set up an institution that will spread the ethos, teachings and the concept of "Hindutya" or "India" to people representing other faith groups.

Bangladesh could be the ideal place for such institution for two reasons. First, Bangladesh is a Muslim majority country and the Muslims are presented in the media as rival to the spiritual group. People from all around the world subscribe to this institution and get an idea of their lessons and visions. Second, it will help removing any ambiguity and dispel propaganda about their pacific beliefs. Bangladesh will have advantage making lasting bond with this group.

Moreover, India shows respect and attaches great importance to the relationship with Bangladesh. In recent years, envoys sent by India as High Commissioners to Bangladesh rose to superior positions in the country's Foreign Ministry. From those positions, they hold leverage to clear and implement any initiative that will bring the countries closer and improve common people's lives. Except few other countries, no other countries show this kind of respect towards Bangladesh.

In that light, inviting Modiji in the celebration of Independence day was right and judicious one. His presence not only bolstered ties but paved the paths for trouble-free future cooperation. Recently World Bank did a study and revealed that regional connectivity would augment Bangladesh's GDP by 17% and India's by 7%. While other nations collaborate on sending missions to Mars and moon and production on vaccine, our region could not emerge from poverty,communal hatred, ignorance, corruption and parochialism.Trivial issues still lead to spilling of blood and destruction of property. These are encumbrances towards forming a common market.

To stem recurrence of communal attack, we need to change the change textbooks and include history,anecdotes and literature on riots, holocaust so that students at tender age understand evil of such hatred and have a negative impression to such heinous acts. On the part of concrete actions, Bangladesh could outlaw such hatred and raised the penalty for such crimes. In addition, Bangladesh could also secure the interests of minority groups by amending the constitution. At the same time, Bangladesh and India could ink special deal to contain the risk emanating from nature or human-made disaster. Under the light of such deal, specialized forces may jointly conduct cross border operations like arrest,investigation,rescue, relief etc that forces of a particular country cannot do because of religious and personal reasons.

Disinformation continues unabated. Many spread falshood in the social media that such attack paved the path for future intervention of Indian Army,which will march down the Dhaka street in near future. Back in August this year,Bangladesh Army units took part in the march past of Indian Independence Day celebration in Delhi. On 16 December, Indian Army along with Russian and Mexican Army will take part in the march past on national parade square on the occasion of 50th anniversary of Bangladesh’s victory.

There is no denying that to fight such disinformation we have to develop our human resources. So we have to invest a lot in this sector. And to get rid of the rumor mill, there is no alternative to a free press. Before spending billions on purchasing arms, it is more sensible to spend few millions on building institutions to make good citizens. This step at least will not put us into shame when we will celebrate 100th anniversary of our independence.

Notes And References:

1 “Connecting Communities “,Rezaul Hoque,https://hoquestake.blogspot.com,March 27,2021Link here