An attempt by people of communal parties in India to create communal polarization in the name of Bangladesh!
The sequence of events that have been happening in our neighbouring country Bangladesh for the past two weeks, has made the Hindutva organisations of India very happy. And they are using the Bangladesh incident as a cover to polarise India on the basis of religious polarisation. This is against the Constitution of our country and is also against the traditions of our country.

If, by such an act, India is dragged on the path of Bangladesh knowingly or unknowingly, then the situation of 78 years ago can again become the same in the entire Indian subcontinent.

Religious polarization!

At this time, a bandh was declared in Nasik under the banner of ‘Sakala Hindu’ in Maharashtra! And now the sole purpose of the bandh in Malegaon is religious polarization! And in the same sequence, in a place called Rohana in Shrirampur tehsil of Ahmednagar district, in the Nath sect monastery, a Maharaj called Ramgiri has given a very irresponsible statement about Muhammad Saheb!

Friends, being a soldier of Rashtra Seva Dal, I am as concerned about Bangladesh, as much as the people of ‘Sakala Hindu’ organization! But the fundamental difference in the concern is that even today my concern is about the safety of life and property of one crore thirty one lakh forty four thousand two hundred four Hindus living in Bangladesh! And the Sakal Hindu Sangathan is purely a political maneuver to polarize Hindu-Muslim religious sentiments in Maharashtra for the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections.

The current Maharashtra government does not have an issue with which it can go to the public to ask for votes. Instead of taking action on Ramgiri Maharaj’s controversial statement, the Chief Minister himself went to meet him at his monastery. And in the statement he said that “Maharashtra is the land of saints, and we will not take any action against saints. And if anyone even touches a hair of theirs, we will deal with him with force.” Despite Ramgiri making an objectionable comment about the founder of some other religion, what does it mean for the Chief Minister himself to go and meet him and say such a thing?

Bhima-Koregaon incident

Even with regard to the Bhima-Koregaon incident that took place six years ago, those arrested were some who have never even heard the name Bhima Koregaon in their lives! (Except for the real culprits of that incident, who are still free.) There is no other hope from the government that arrests such people! I myself have investigated the Bhima Koregaon incident on behalf of the Rashtriya Seva Dal! And that report was started by the Bhishma Pitamah of Indian journalists, Nikhil Chakraborty, and the mainstream itself has published our report! And when the current Chief Justice Dhananjay Chandrachud was a judge in the bench formed by the Supreme Court for the Bhima-Koregaon case! He quoted our report verbatim in his dissent judgment!

And even now, even before the announcement of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed to give reservation to the family members of freedom fighters in Bangladesh, I have been very carefully watching whatever developments are going on in Bangladesh! I have a close eye on them! I am trying to write this post out of concern for the activities that are being carried out in Maharashtra under the banner of Sakal Hindu! Because whatever reaction is expressed in India regarding the Hindus of Bangladesh, the Hindus living in Bangladesh will have to suffer the consequences! Even if the current ruling party in the upcoming assembly elections of Maharashtra wins the elections by spreading true or false information about the Hindus of Bangladesh and comes back to power!

I had got the opportunity to go to Bangladesh for a week from 17th November to 24th November in November 2011 to participate in the conference of Asian Social Forum. At that time, after the conference of Asian Social Forum was over, I deliberately stayed in Bangladesh for two more days. One day of that was spent with the Bihari Muslims stuck in Bangladesh (1971) and the people of Hindu religion living in Bangladesh even after the partition (1946-47) and the separation of Bangladesh from Pakistan in 1971, which is still 13,144,204!

This is 7.96% of the total population of Bangladesh! (Source: Bangla Desh Population and Housing Census 2022) Out of which Dhaka city alone has 27.68 lakhs, Rangpur is at second place with 22.90 lakhs, Chittagong is at third place with 21.96 lakhs, Khulna is at fourth place with 20.07 lakhs, Sylhet is at fifth place with 14.91 lakhs, Rajshahi is at sixth place with 11.59 lakhs, Barishal is at seventh place with 7.50 lakhs, Mymensingh is at eighth place with 4.81 lakhs. Thus, despite some Hindus coming to India in the incidents of 1947 and 1971, even today 13,144204 i.e. 8% Hindus are still living in Bangladesh!

And I am always worried about what will be happening to the Hindus of Bangladesh now?

I tried to tell the Hindutva Hindu activists of Bhagalpur during the peace and goodwill work in Bhagalpur after the Bhagalpur riots (1989), that you belong to the majority population in Bhagalpur, Patna or almost the whole of Bihar! But even today a large number of Hindus are living in neighbouring Bangladesh! And if you really care about Hindus, then worry about the minority Hindus living anywhere in the world!

And what was the reaction in Bangladesh and Pakistan after 6 December 1992? Which Tasleema Nasreen has written in her book titled ‘Lajja’! So how long will this chain reaction continue?

And when I went to the Dhakeshwari temple in an area called Dhanmondi in Dhaka in November 2011, there is an office of the organization of Hindus of Bangladesh! That’s why I went there! And there was two hours for the office to open! So the temple priest Mr. Chattopadhyay told me that “You can see the temple till then and later come to my residence and sit till the office opens”!

Whenever you harass Muslims in India…

So first of all he took me to the temple of Dhakeshwari, where I was standing and looking at the idol. Then the Pujari said in Bangla that “Apni ki Maa ke Pranam Korben Na?” (Won’t you bow down to the mother?) Today I am saying in writing for the first time that I immediately prostrated myself, touching the floor of the Dhakeshwari temple with my forehead. I said in my mind that “O Mother, please protect all kinds of living beings in the whole world, this is my only prayer!” And this action was done so easily that even today I am amazed remembering it.

After that Pujari took me to his residence and when I asked him “How do you feel living here?” About his family history of serving as priests of this temple for four hundred years, he said, “we are fine, but whenever any special event happens in India, for example, after the demolition of Babri Masjid on 6 December 1992, there was a strong reaction in Bangladesh. Therefore, my humble request to you is that if you ever get a chance, tell the people of Hindutva organizations of India that whenever you people harass Muslims in India, we have to pay the price for it.”

And after I returned to Nagpur, soon after, some people of Nagpur RSS organized a speech program every Saturday under the banner of Hedgewar Vichar Manch. And suddenly one of their organizing committee members asked me that you have just returned from a trip to Bangladesh, so will you come to our stage and tell us about those experiences? I remembered the face of Moshai, the priest of Dhaka’s Dhakeshwari temple, which looked like Ramakrishna Paramhansa. That “If you get a chance to speak with Hindutva organizations in India, please try to tell our point of view.”

So, respecting the request of the priest of Dhakeshwari temple, I accepted the invitation to go on the Hedgewar stage. And when I went there, my entire speech revolved around what the priest of Dhakeshwari temple had told me about how many Hindus are still living in Bangladesh and their condition. So, there was silence in the entire hall. There was no question-answer, and no comment from anyone.

Whatever events are happening in Bangladesh since two weeks ago, instead of worrying about the lives and property of those Hindus in India, the way Hindutvaists of India are presenting the events in a distorted manner on social media, a bandh was announced in Nashik the day before yesterday, and in continuation of that, the irresponsible act being done by the people of the current ruling party in the name of Bangladesh in the neighbouring districts of Vaijapur, Yeola, Shrirampur, that is, Ahmednagar, Aurangabad and Nashik, in the name of Bangladesh, is being done.

And the Chief Minister of Maharashtra himself has started adding fuel to the fire by visiting those places.

Looking at that, my assessment is that whatever assembly elections have been announced in India in the coming days, in the campaigning for them, there will be an attempt to do the election campaign by doing religious polarization in the name of Hindus of Bangladesh.

Because the BJP governments running in the Centre and various states for the last ten years do not have any issues of daily life of the people, due to which the BJP, like the Prime Minister himself, has done his entire election campaign in the Lok Sabha elections by doing only religious polarization!

And even after taking oath on our Constitution, the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister are trying to sail their election boat by adopting the same tactics and it has already started in Maharashtra!

Dr. Suresh Khairnar, 18 August 2024, Nagpur.

Dr. Suresh Khairnar is an Indian social activist and writer, and he is associated with the Rashtra Seva Dal, a social organization that focuses on issues like human rights, social justice, and community development. Dr. Khairnar has been involved in various initiatives and movements, including advocacy for marginalized communities, promotion of secularism and democracy, and support for social and economic equality. He has also written articles and books on these topics, contributing to public discourse and awareness.

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY THE WRITER ARE ENTIRELY HIS OWN, AND ARE NOT THOSE OF THE EDITOR AND TEAM OF NEWSNET ONE

  Bangladesh, Hindutva, India, Indo-Bangla, Suresh Khairnar