Title: At least say 'yes' for the minority
Author: Sanjoy Banerjee
Publication: The Daily Star News
Date: Nov 20, 2001
URL: http://www.dailystarnews.com/200111/16/n1111602.htm#BODY4

It is indeed a matter of great regret and pain that all over the country tortures on minorities, especially Hindus, have been perpetrated more than any time before after the just-concluded eighth national parliamentary election. Minorities in the remote areas of the country are still being victimized by the opportunity seekers and local pressure groups, so to say, in the absence of any effective action by the administration.

It is sad that the present Bangladesh which was once, a land of peace and harmony has been metamorphosed now-a-days into a region of disharmony, and anxiety for the minority people. The seed of communalism and religious intolerance was perhaps first sowed in the subcontinent by Mr Mohammed Ali Zinnah. His two-nation theory which preached that Hindus and Muslims cannot live together helped so many opportunity seekers to embark on communal riots and numerous Hindus and Muslims who had lived together for centuries were killed. This part of the subcontinent was stained more by Hindu blood in the riots. It is known that about 37 per cent of the total population of the then East-Bengal, when India was divided, was Hindu. But for being the members of 'minority community' and timid as such they only received dishonour, torture, rape and death; or left the country.

Days changed, time made Bangladesh an independent, sovereign state in 1971 by way of a war of liberation when a good number of Hindus and Muslims together embraced death for the liberty of the people with a view to establishing a democratic secular state. But the hard fact is that Bangladesh has moved away from the ideology on which it was founded. It is said every now and then that Bangladesh is a land of communal harmony; but, what is in speeches and papers, is just different from reality. Minorities are repressed almost everywhere in their day-to-day life. To escape teasing and disrespect, many married Hindu women do not wear vermillion and conch-bangles on their head and hands as is their ritual. In the BCS viva voce, once a Hindu candidate was asked how many houses he had in India, how many relatives there, etc. Are these the questions to be asked in a public service commission examination? Not only this, there are other cases of embarrassment, too.

Unfortunately, often it is found that in Waz-Mahfils and Khutbahs at Jumma prayers divisions between Hindus and Muslims are preached. If a man cannot think another person of different ideology as a friend and a man like him, how can he be a seeker of welfare for the greater humanity? One of the significant causes that works behind minority torture at present is the use of religion and religious sentiment in politics and election. Of course there so many who believe in equal rights and honour for all but there are also a considerable number of others who are apparently anti-Hindu or think Hindus as lesser beings. This mind set must change for a harmonious society.

There are several kinds of tortures which the minorities had to experience after the Jatiya Sangsad election. In Barisal, Bhola, Bagerhat, Satkhira, Natore, Naogaon, Gazipur, Magura, Faridpur, Chittagong and in many remote areas of the countries, the terrorists with the silent support of the local administration created panic in the minority areas and are still doing what they can. At Daulatkhan Upazilla of Bhola district, it was reported in many daily newspapers that the minorities hang white papers on their windows writing "Do whatever you wish, we have lost the language of protest". In many business places where Hindus deal with good amount of money transactions, they are asked to give 'demanded money' to the newly formed extortionist groups. How touchy are the scenes! The most pitiful it seems when we find the Home Minister himself terming even the partial newspaper reports on minority repression as 'exaggerated', 'planned' and 'politically motivated'.

There are reports that hundreds of minority families have fled to India, and many are getting themselves prepared to leave the land of their forefathers only to escape torture. Actually Bangladesh is a land of communal harmony as the Hindus and other minority groups never utter a single word to protest the unlawful actions taken against them for fear of further torture. It seems that they have been made habituated to tolerate everything repressive with their mouths shut. The other disheartening thing is that the tortured minority often do not find many from the society and virtually none from the government to their help, as it happened this time. Rather, many local pressure groups with tacit help of the administration are compelling the afraid Hindus to say 'everything is OK' to the media hiding their tear in their aching breast.

When one of tortured youth says they are being shown '71 as they did not see it, it is felt that the motherland itself is crying. When another says that there are only three options before them first, to protect themselves by their own efforts, second, to leave the country and third, to be converted as Muslims, it is felt that they are usurped of the real option, the right to live in own country. They ask what should they do? The answer lies with the government. It must take immediate measures to save the minority community, especially the Hindus, from torture and fear. And to do it, first the government say 'yes' i.e. should admit the facts of torture, repression, arson, rape and also killing of minority citizens of the country.

The writer is a college teacher.