Empire's Last Casualty

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Hindu Tormentor Welcomed in Hindu India: General Ershad of Bangladesh

General Husain Mohammad Ershad, Bangladeshi Dictator, former President who replaced secularism by making Islam the State Religion in Bangladesh, and who let two anti-Hindu pogroms is welcomed in Hindu-majority India's West Bengal (Paschim Bangla) State in December 2009. It is also said that Ershad expressed his regret that he couldn't bring Islamic Sharia Law to Bangladesh making the indigenous Hindu minority officially 4th class citizen.

See posts, Bangladesh Anti-Hindu Pogrom 1990, and Bangladesh Anti-Hindu Pogrom 1992.

General was welcomed in 2009 and again on India's independence day, August 15, 2012 in Delhi by India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and later by India's (Bengali) President Pranab Mukherji.

Read in Bengali: 2012 http://www.anandabazar.com/15bdesh1.html Anadabazar

The Telegraph; Calcutta, India; August 15 2012

Delhi reaches out to Dhaka parties

OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

New Delhi, Aug. 14: Nearly all visitors from Bangladesh, barring those sympathetic to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, have of late warned India against putting all its eggs in one basket.

Their message, it appears, has hit home. Delhi today started its engagements with political parties other than the Hasina-led Awami League, with former President Lieutenant General (retired) H.M. Ershad meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Sources said Delhi was increasingly becoming aware that Dhaka may have a new ruling alliance after general elections next year-end and that Ershad, who heads the Jatiya Party which has an alliance with the Awami League, could play an important role then.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said Ershad’s visit was “part of our ongoing engagement with a democratic and multi-party polity in Bangladesh”. Ershad’s visit to India is on an invitation the Prime Minister sent him.

Officials said Singh and Ershad discussed issues of bilateral importance, including the yet-to-be-signed Teesta water sharing treaty and the boundary agreement India’s Parliament is yet to ratify.

“The Prime Minister conveyed the high priority that the government and people of India attach to developing the friendliest of relations with Bangladesh, which is an important neighbour,” said a foreign ministry official.

Ershad’s last visit to India was in 2010 to attend the golden jubilee celebrations of the National Defence College of which he is an alumnus.

2009
Times of India
Ershad on nostalgia trip

Pinak Priya Bhattacharya, TNN 8 December 2009, 05:40am IST

DINHATA: Ailing and bed-ridden, Asit Chakraborty (79) couldn't recognise the face that stared at him at first. Then the man uttered three words "I am Peyara” and Chakraborty instantly knew who the man was. It had been 63 years since Chakraborty had last seen Peyara, the man the world knows as Hussain Muhammad Ershad, the former dictator of Bangladesh. The 79-year-old Ershad returned to his hometown in Cooch Behar's Dinhata to a rousing welcome from the locals. It isn't every day that a former president goes on a morning walk down the dusty streets of Dinhata. Ershad did so on Monday. Accompanied by his son Eric Ershad, he entered India through the border town of Changrabandha. Ershad spent around 30 minutes with Chakraborty, enquiring about his family and other friends who had stayed back in Dinhata. Born in Rangpur (now in Bangladesh), Ershad had studied in Dinhata, his hometown. He left for Rangpur in 1946 after completing his matriculation. Ershad's father left for Bangladesh in 1950. His five brothers remained in Dinhata and have stayed on at their ancestral house. The former president was all praise for India's role in the independence of Bangladesh. "Bangladesh can never repay Indiaâ€™s debt. Without the active cooperation of India, Bangladesh would never have gained independence. India has done a lot for Bangladesh's development and is still playing an important role. After all, India can never deny its responsibility towards its neighbour," Ershad said. Later in the evening, Ershad met two more friends â€” Bijor Roy and Sudhir Saha. Roy recalled that in his schooldays Ershad was a good footballer and played striker. The former president has been savouring local delicacies that includes Boroli, a fish found only in the north Bengal rivers and lasa, a locally grown vegetable which, Ershad claims was his favourite dish. Apart from the local bigwigs who have flocked to his residence next to Dinhata's Forward Bloc office, representatives from the Greater Cooch Behar People's Association "which has been demanding a separate state” met Ershad, seeking his support. The former president remained non-committal. The former Bangladesh president has something else on his mind for his hometown. Ershad wants a rail link between Kolkata and Dinhata, passing through Bangladesh. "I will raise this issue with the Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina and also Indian railway minister Mamata Banerjee," Ershad said. So happy is Ershad with his stay in Dinhata that he has already made up his mind to extend the nostalgia trip to December 10. Earlier, he was scheduled to leave on Tuesday.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata-/Ershad-on-nostalgia-trip/articleshow/5312731.cms#

A letter to Times of India:

Dear Editor:

It is good to know that dictator General Ershad is enjoying a trip to “Hindu India.” Indians in general and Hindus in particular suffer from amnesia. Let us not forget that Ershad let loose two anti-Hindu pogroms in 1990 and 1992 when thousands of Hindu mandirs, ashrams, smasans, libraries and tens of thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed; mothers and daughters abused. During 1992 pogrom I visited at least half-a-dozen destroyed smasans from Chittagong to Sylhet. During 1990 pogrom I visited dozens of mandirs including the Dhakeswari Mandir torched and destroyed with the deity gone forever. No one was punished. Yet he imprisoned Major Deb for years for demanding reconstruction of the 9th Century Ramna Kali Mandir destroyed by Army of Islamic Republic of Pakistan and its Bengali Islamist allies for absolutely no reason. In 1987 I met his Land Minister Sunil Gupta to ascertain why 1.5 million acres of land, thousands of homes, ponds and businesses were confiscated from Hindus through Enemy Property Act by declaring Hindus enemies of the state. It is time that he apologizes to all Hindus and all Bangladeshis for his sin.

Dr. S. G. Dastidar

December 8, 2009

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Calcutta : 300 : Kolkata - Memoirs of a Diverse City

Calcutta : 300 : Kolkata

Memoirs of a Diverse City - Overseas Tribute to Calcutta on Her Tercentenary

Edited by

Sachi G. Dastidar

Published by

South Asia Forum, U.S.A.

October 16, 1992

ISBN 0-9634363-0-9

End

Bangladesh Muslim Cartoonist Gets Hard Labor

Bangladesh: Muslim cartoonist gets hard labor for hurting religious feelings of Muslim community

http://creepingsharia.wordpress.com/2009/11/15/bangladesh-muslim-cartoonist-gets-hard-labor-for-hurting-religious-feelings-of-muslim-community/

Name (Naam) by Arifur Rahman

[Frame #1]

Man: Hey boy, What's your name?

Boy: My name is Babu

[Frame #2]

Man: Before your name you have to say Mohammad

[Frame #3]

Man: What's your father's name?

Boy: Mohammad Daddy

[Frame #4]

Man: What's that in your arm?

Boy: Mohammad Cat

AFP/Dhaka

A court in southwestern Bangladesh yesterday found a cartoonist guilty of “hurting the religious feelings of the Muslim community” and sentenced him to two months of hard labour,.
Arifur Rahman, 25, was tried in absence over the drawing, which sparked street clashes and riots in the capital Dhaka when it appeared in a satirical magazine two years ago. Rahman, who was arrested but later bailed, said that he was unaware of the trial. The cartoon appeared in Bengali newspaper Prothom Alo’s weekly and now defunct magazine Alpin. “He has been given a two-month, hard labour jail sentence and a 500-taka ($7.40) fine,” said magistrate Kaisarul Islam, who presided over the case in the city of Jessore. “I am not on the run and have not been told about the case,” Rahman said in Dhaka. “I will speak to my lawyers.” ~ end

An interview with Arifur Rahman at Cartoon News here.

The government confiscated all copies of the now-defunct satire magazine in which the cartoon was printed. Amid a protest by Islamic groups, Prothom Alo’s editor and publisher apologised for printing the cartoon, and fired the cartoonist.

On Feb 4, the High Court ruled Arif’s detention illegal and ordered his immediate release. He was freed on Mar 20 this year. The cartoonist’s arrest and detention also earned criticism from local and international rights groups. In January, human-rights watchdog Amnesty International demanded Arif’s release, terming him “a prisoner of conscience”.

In one of his cartoons published in Alpin (17th September, 2007 issue), an old man was asking the name of a child with a cat in his lap. The boy answered and was scolded for not putting Mohammad before his name, as he was Muslim. Then the man asked about the animal and the scared boy put the holy prophet’s name before the cat as suggested by the elder. Things turned bad the moment it hit the stands. The furious mullahs were on rampage and Arif was suddenly the enemy of the state! His story really starts from here:

So what was the idea behind the cartoon? Why did you draw it?

Well, i never thought this was going to be such a big issue. The joke I used is a common one in our locality, infact in that zone. I heard it when as a kid and even when I grew up. My idea was to highlight the faulty religious teachings by some of our elders where they advise to put the name of our holy Prophet before every name, when they should also clarify where it shouldn’t be used. What surprised me, I learnt after my release that the same joke was used in a publication of Islami Chatra Shibir name Kishorekantha (November, 1998 Issue).

Are you safe? Do you feel the JMB are done with you?That’s the thing still haunt me even in my dreams. I usually keep a low profile; never in anywhere have I introduced myself as Arif. But still I don’t feel safe; they can be anywhere and even kill me if they want. I don’t even work in the shop where I used to.

End