By Ashish Singh
Continuing conversations with my dear friend Anisur Rahman, I asked him about minorities in Bangladesh. As usual, he was not shy in explaining everything in detail.
Ashish Singh: What is happening with the minorities in Bangladesh?
Anisur Rahman: On 16 August, Bangladesh’s ’unconstitutional’ interim government chief Nobel laureate banker Muhammad Yunus over a telephone talk with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged to protect Hindus and other religious minorities under attack in his country reported after the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
The interim regime boss pointed at the news reports describing them as ’exaggerated’ and urged Indian journalists to see the situation without bias. However, he did not give any hints to punish the culprits involved in ongoing attrocities against the minorities.
The situation of minorities in independent Bangladesh has never been as sound as we had until 1975. Sheikh Hasina attempted to balance secularity with Islamist forces in a country where 91% of the 170 million population is Muslim.
In this context, more than 80% of the Muslim population desires Sharia law in Bangladesh, similar to Afghanistan, Morocco, Niger, Pakistan, and Iraq, according to an analysis by the Washington-based Pew Research Center.
Knowing this, instead of finding other ways to curb the growing fanaticism, Hasina prioritised compromising with Islamist groups to maintain control and run the country under a liberal, semi-progressive capitalist regime.
In the 1980s, a military ruler imposed Islam as the state religion, disregarding the country’s 1972 constitution, which was founded on four principles: Democracy, Socialism, Nationality, and Secularism. The country’s secularism and socialism began to deteriorate in the late 1970s after the assassination of its founding leaders, and Bangladesh has yet to fully recover.
Ashish Singh: Why after the fall of Sheikh Hasina, ’the culprits’ started to attack the minorities?
Anisur Rahman: It is believed that minorities are mostly loyal to Sheikh Hasina and her party Awami League. However, minorities were not free from atrocities even during the Sheikh Hasina regime in the last decade.
Like other countries, Bangladesh experiences an ’ugly trick’ for attracting a majority of people’s support by choosing harmful strategies towards minorities.
After the death of Awami League general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam, Sheikh Hasina significantly opted for compromise with Islamist groups like Hefajat-e-Islam on many aspects. The party’s present general secretary Obaidul Quader largely contributed to the destruction of the party’s secular politics.
Many mosques and Islamic mahfil (meetings/gatherings) are openly used for advocating anti-secular propaganda. Although existing laws and constitutions do not allow such a practice, who cares.
Ashish Singh: What are the reasons for this failure to protect minorities this time?
Anisur Rahman: After the tragic end of Sheikh Hasina’s regime, the country fell into chaos. Over four hundred police stations were under attack, arms were looted, and police were killed and injured. Ousted ruling Awami Leaue-led 14-party coalition workers, leaders, and supporters were running for survival.
In these circumstances, the military chief announced his responsibility to take over the charges. However, it was found that the army did not take significant measures to protect minorities as well as state properties.
On 5 August, the army boss held a meeting with leaders from different parties along with the banned Jamaat-e-Islami chief. This information functioned as a motivational signal for Islamist jongi terrorists to attack minorities..
Ashish Singh: Why has Yunus not taken any step to punish the Islamist fanatics involved in the attacks on minorities?
Anisur Rahman: Dr Yunus is not committed to punishing the culprits against minorities. What happens around the Yunus-led ’unconstitutional administration’ is part of a plan. A group of intellectual elements including leftists and Islamists, loyal to Dr Yunus is on the move for drafting a new constitution. Its consequences could turn out to be suicidal for the nation and eventually to the minorities as a whole.
It sounds like Yunus is ambitious to stay in power for as many years as he could with a compromise with Islamists and other invisible power dealers.
Elements in power practice this time are so afraid of their way out. Dr Yunus maintains a careful deal with Islamist political circles like Jamaat-e-Islami along with other leaders aiming at toppling Sheikh Hasina.
Yunus was convicted in one case. He was under trial on a series of corruption charges. Before taking oath as the head of this ’unconstitutional’ government, all the charges against him were withdrawn.
Several members in the Dr Yunus’ ’unconstitutional’ cabinet were directly attached to Islamist politics. Islamist jongi terrorist for instance Nasir Uddin Chowdhury, infamously known as ‘Shibir Nasir’, was released from Chittagong Central Jail on 11 August, after spending 26 years behind bars. Traditionally Yunus’ relatives based in Chittagong district are loyal to Jamaat-e-Islami politics.
Ashish Singh: Where is the end of the oppression of minorities in Bangladesh?
Anisur Rahman: It is urgent to restore and uphold the spirit of the War of Liberation in the 1971 and 1972 constitution. Yunus-led ’unconstitutional’ administration must hold a democratic election at the earliest by ensuring consensus among political parties for instance the AL-led 14-party coalition and Nationalist Party BNP-led alliance, judicial probe into the attack on minorities, trial of the criminals involved in atrocities and accountability of the military and civil administration for their failure to protect the minorities after the end of the Sheikh Hasina’s regime.
(Ashish Singh is a social and political scientist)
