Daily Star Dhaka October 6, 2014
Durga Puja and our religious
sentiment
Jyotirmoy
Barua
Hindu
religious festivals are famous worldwide for their colourfulness, and even with
our diminishing numbers we celebrate those festivals like nothing happened to
us. The so-called communal harmony in our country has long gone and left us
with the rhetoric of harmony to chew it with the residue.
The
fundamental element in our daily life has resulted in decreasing the Hindu community from 22% to 6% in
the last 43 years, resulting in loss of importance in the politics of
the country. There used to be a common conception that the Hindus were the
'vote bank' for the Awami League(AL). They did get friendliness from AL and
rejection from BNP (BNP) and Jamaat e Islami Bangladesh. But over time, AL
realised that if they relied on a particular religious minority for their
politics it could backfire. So
they, along with all other political parties, have started attacking the Hindus
and looting their houses and business places. This has forced them to
either leave the country or face death. AL benefited in both cases; if there
was death then they could blame BNP and Jamaat for the atrocities; and if the
victims left, AL could grab their properties! BNP and Jamaat leaders had also
followed the same path, and they collectively managed to reduce the number of
Hindus to 6% in just 43 years' time.
Attacks on
temples and festivals have become a common phenomenon. Durga Puja is the prime
target for vandalism and creating panic among the locals. The practice has become so
widespread now that the Hindus plan to keep back-ups in case their idols fall
under attack by the majority. One might task, what about law and order
in the country? I don't know which country you are thinking of but I do know
now that no law in this country will be able to prevent this happening in the
coming years.
Nothing
works when it comes to providing protection to the religious and ethnic
minority groups in this country. The laws are best read in the books and not in
practice. Law enforcers are sometimes part of the atrocity, and local
governments seem to become deaf and dumb when it comes to safeguarding the
minorities. Between
October 1 and December 30, 2002, there had been 355 political killings, 3,270
rape incidents and a large number of arson attacks and looting of the
belongings of Hindu families. No question was asked in during the full
tenure of the elected political government!
After 8
years, due to an order by the Hon'ble High Court Division in connection with a
Writ Petition, a Judicial Inquiry Commission was formed on December 27, 2009. They received 5,571 specific
complaints of violence against more than 20,000 accused. The Commission,
however, investigated 3,625 complaints. Upon completing the investigation they
submitted their report before the Hon'ble High Court on April 29, 2011. The report has never been made
public, like all other previous judicial inquiry commission reports. The
Official Secrecy Act still plays a vital role!
In a press
conference on April 29, 2011, Mr. Moudud Ahmed, a prominent leader of BNP,
ruled out the allegation of communal attack on the Hindus and involvement of
the BNP activists in the aforesaid rape, looting and vandalism in 2002, and
also claimed that those were not communal attacks but fights between AL and BNP
activists. Mr. Ahmed's statement essentially involved clear denial and
political polarisation, and this has become the trend in the case of all communal attacks against
Hindu, Buddhists, Adibashis and the Ahmadis.
Communal
violence has an inherent politics, but political violence does not necessarily
have to be communal. The two problematic terminologies contributed to some sort
of legitimacy of the violent attacks on the religious and ethnic minorities, as
if they wouldn't have happened if the politics or hurting of religious belief
were not involved in it. The desire of the rulers to hide the ugly truth that
there are communal tensions has been the main barrier against finding a way
out. The religious sentiment of the minorities had not been evaluated as being
the same as the sentiment of the majority people.
This is not
the case when it comes to hurting the sentiment of Muslims. The recent comments
by the Telecommunication and Information Technology Minister Abdul Latif
Siddique against Hajj and the Tablighi Jamaat have given rise to demands for
taking stern action against him, including hanging him until death. As a prompt
action against such atrocity against Islam, Mr. Siddique has been removed from
the ministry and the AL. Several cases have been filed against him in many
districts of the country. It is very encouraging to see such prompt action
being taken.
It would
have been better if insults against all other religious belief were also taken
as seriously by the government and the majority people. When some Muslims loot or vandalise temples then
the sentiments of the Hindus or Buddhists are also hurt. But the state
mechanism seems to become blind in addressing those incidents. Since February
28 to September 28, 2013, in 51 districts, at least 146 Hindu temples were
attacked, about 500 Hindu families became homeless, 5 people were killed and 65
were injured. No one raised their voice against this hurting of the sentiments
of the Hindus!
In the last two weeks in 15 districts, at least 22 Durga
Puja Pandals were vandalised by the local Muslims. bdnews24.com reported on September 27 that 82 out of 408 Puja Pandals
at Rajshahi have been declared as risky (important) by the police! This
is the scenario in most of the districts. Even after 43 years of our
independence, religious festivals of minorities face threat of being attacked
by the Muslims. We have to live with this ground reality and unless there is
strong action by the majority to protect the minorities and strict adherence to
the existing laws, or even enactment of a new one to cover communal violence,
it will remain a never-ending problem.
The writer
is Advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh.
Published: 12:00 am Sunday, October 05, 2014