The people of Bangladesh have truly redeemed themselves. Under pressure from Islamic fundamentalists, who were more organised than ever, they asserted their national (Bengali) identity, stood up for women’s rights, and gave a clear mandate to a mainstream political party that can be expected to take the country on the road to economic development and progress. It shows that addressing the basic issues of employment and growth is far more effective in attracting votes than inflammatory ones. Hopefully, the situation for Hindus will also improve, as a result.
There are lessons in this for those in India who are hoping to polarise society on the basis of faith. It is not just the fringe groups feeding off the Hindutva ideology, but even mainstream elected politicians who are working towards this objective. The Chief Minister of Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma, for instance, who describes Bangladeshis as ‘Miya Muslims’ to identify them on the basis of their religion, has lost the anti-immigration narrative, which has turned, instead, into a rank communal one.
Similarly, the insistence that Muslims in India should mandatorily sing the ‘complete’ version of Vande Mataram at official gatherings is an obvious violation of their belief system that does not recognise a polytheistic concept of God. It is like asking Hindus to eat beef. Hopefully, the Muslims will get the necessary relief from the Supreme Court.
This religious ‘thekedaari’ has been taken to the point where any person or group, with dubious credentials regarding knowledge of Hinduism, issues diktats on any and everything. Muslim shopkeepers are not expected to give ‘Hindu’ names to their shops, as happened in Kotdwar. The braveheart who stood up for the aged Muslim is now the target of online trolls. Groups land up from anywhere to enlighten locals on how they should live their lives. Regardless of the number of crimes inflicted on women in Hindu households, it is considered an offence for an inter-faith couple to be seen together. They should learn from the Bangladesh experience that this will not work if it is being done to win elections. Has the leadership of the BJP not done enough on the development front to deserve people’s votes?
It is true that there has been and still exists an eco-system that has sought to diminish the Hindu belief system by focusing on caste differences, targeting upper castes, attributing all ills to ‘Brahmanism’. Tamil Nadu is a good example of this. But, what is being presently adopted as a counter-strategy is by no means the correct or constitutional one.
