Aparna Sen’s disingenuous remarks By Habib Siddiqui
Last
week, a friend of mine shared a tweet
from Aparna Sen, a Bengali-speaking Indian actress and movie director. She
tweeted: “What has
happened to Bangladesh? Is it turning into Pakistan? One keeps reading and
hearing about Bangladeshi Hindus being tortured and killed! Stop! Please stop!
The whole planet is becoming such a violent place!”
Aparna Sen is a Bengali speaking Hindu. As such, it is understandable that she was upset with the recent communal tension in Bangladesh when Islam's Holy Book - the Qur'an - was desecrated in some Hindu temples, being left over at the feet of Hindu idols by some miscreants during the Durga Puja, a Hindu festival. As I noted elsewhere, these sacrilegious acts surely could not have been done by either any God-fearing Muslim or any sane Hindu. In all likelihood, such abhorrible acts were committed by individuals who may have been used to create tension within the otherwise peaceful religious communities inside Bangladesh.
So, my question to solving the case around the true culprits is: who benefits from fomenting tensions inside Bangladesh. Minus the true faithful adherents of Islam and Hinduism, I suspect that foreign agents, like the RAW of India, may be behind the problem. After all, RAW and the Modi's Indian Government have not been too happy with the turn of events in the geo-political tug-of-war in which Bangladesh is perceived to be more inclined to China than the next-door India. The pro-China tilt of Bangladesh is an outcome which is unacceptable to India for its subtle hegemonic goal in South Asia.
The relationship between the two neighbors has deteriorated for a number of years, esp. in recent years when the government of Bangladesh did not find its counterpart in India to be sincere enough in easing border tensions and trade relations. Scores of Bangladeshis have been killed by Indian BSF inside the Bangladesh territory on suspicion that they had crossed to India; the share of major international rivers has never been fair to the lower riparian Bangladesh, whose vast territories get flooded during monsoon season and remain inarable and unnavigable during the dry seasons. The waterways inside Bangladesh, including major seaports have been opened up for easy transfer of goods to the north-eastern states of India that are almost landlocked. Even the roads and highways inside Bangladesh are opened up almost toll-free for using Bangladesh as a corridor to transport goods and services to those north-eastern states. And yet, to the great frustration of her people, the Hasina-government has gotten nothing in reciprocity out of such generous concessions and overtures from Modi's India.
Worse yet, Bengali-speaking Muslims are pushed out of India to Bangladesh under the pretext that they are intruders. Conveniently forgotten by Indian government is the mere fact that during the British rule of India, its inhabitants comprising Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus lived together and moved and settled freely where they liked or where their jobs took them to generate income or livelihood for their family members. So, when the Muslims of the border territories like Assam, in spite of having official proofs and decades of existence, predating Pakistan-India partition, are depicted wrongfully as illegals inside Modi's India, it is a like backstabbing by a mendacious neighbor who has never abandoned its evil self.
Succinctly put, India's controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC), Indian Population Register (NPR) and other laws aimed at denying citizenship to millions of Muslims living in India for decades and even centuries are simply criminal and unlawful. Such irresponsible acts have soured the relationship beyond repair, or so it seems, between the two governments very badly.
No wonder, outside a very small number of sycophants, India is viewed very unfavorably inside Bangladesh by its inhabitants, esp. the Muslims, who find them surrounded by hostile and evil neighbors on all its sides. As noted from the short list above, they have every reason to feel bad about Indian hegemony.
And then there are the repeated calls from the Hindutvadi madcaps like Sbramaniyan Swami (BJP-MP) to make India whole again, if necessary, by annexing Bangladesh. The dream for an Akhand Bharat (Undivided India) has never faded from the psyche of many Indian politicians, esp. from the ruling BJP that is aligned with the Hindutvadi agenda of the RSS. And what could be a better excuse than annexing Bangladesh under the pretext of 'protecting' its 'suffering', 'threatened' Hindu minority!
Lest we forget, things of this kind, i.e., annexation, has happened more than once in India’s expansionist history. Just a study of the events leading up to the annexation of Hyderabad - a princely state ruled by a Muslim Nizam, Goa - a Christian enclave on the Indian Ocean in south-west India, and Sikkim - a Buddhist-majority border territory – is sufficient to show that India has used such devious ploys of protecting Hindu minorities to annexing other territories. What is common in all these cases is that days and months before such annexation, mysterious attacks on Hindus from some ‘unknown’ sources would provide the necessary justification for India to march-in with its massive forces.
So, the current events inside Bangladesh should be a sufficient wake-up call if a conspiracy is in making.
Is it by coincidence that all those districts inside Bangladesh where Hindu temples were lately attacked by angry Muslims allegedly had the top administrative positions held by Hindu officers? Is it possible they allowed, planted or fostered such crimes at the behest of the RAW? I don't know the answer, but can guess that it is plausible.
After the temple attacks, the Hasina government has reportedly relocated those officers for their either gruesome negligence or collusion with criminal elements inside or outside the country. But such job reassignments do not address the main concern: were they part of a criminal conspiracy? Truth needs to come out in an inquiry.
Anyway, the events during the Durga Puja have attracted celebrities who foolishly have tweeted highly offensive remarks about Bangladesh and its people who has a history of living together peacefully and harmoniously.
Aparna Sen's remarks should instead be: is Bangladesh becoming another India? That would have been proper and fair. After all, while under Narendra Modi, Muslims are facing genocide from Assam to Kashmir, interestingly Bangladeshi Hindus have seen unparalleled ascendancy in jobs under Sheikh Hasina. While Indian Muslims hold less than 3% govt jobs, the share of Hindu jobs inside Bangladesh is three to five times that proportionate share of the population in most public sectors. The Bangladeshi Hindus hold key positions in many ministries.
The attack on mandir is suspected to have foreign connection, even of the RAW. So before complaining about Bangladesh Mrs. Sen might have done us all a favor by looking inside India and addressing the sickening intolerance that has made Indian secularism a ludicrous ideology. When activism is directed to address the root cause of intolerance and weed such out, it is a noble thing that we can all feel good and get involved. Just a one-sided claim that is short of facts and figures would embolden mobocracy and pave the path for more intolerance, and nothing better.
Enough said!
Aparna Sen is a Bengali speaking Hindu. As such, it is understandable that she was upset with the recent communal tension in Bangladesh when Islam's Holy Book - the Qur'an - was desecrated in some Hindu temples, being left over at the feet of Hindu idols by some miscreants during the Durga Puja, a Hindu festival. As I noted elsewhere, these sacrilegious acts surely could not have been done by either any God-fearing Muslim or any sane Hindu. In all likelihood, such abhorrible acts were committed by individuals who may have been used to create tension within the otherwise peaceful religious communities inside Bangladesh.
So, my question to solving the case around the true culprits is: who benefits from fomenting tensions inside Bangladesh. Minus the true faithful adherents of Islam and Hinduism, I suspect that foreign agents, like the RAW of India, may be behind the problem. After all, RAW and the Modi's Indian Government have not been too happy with the turn of events in the geo-political tug-of-war in which Bangladesh is perceived to be more inclined to China than the next-door India. The pro-China tilt of Bangladesh is an outcome which is unacceptable to India for its subtle hegemonic goal in South Asia.
The relationship between the two neighbors has deteriorated for a number of years, esp. in recent years when the government of Bangladesh did not find its counterpart in India to be sincere enough in easing border tensions and trade relations. Scores of Bangladeshis have been killed by Indian BSF inside the Bangladesh territory on suspicion that they had crossed to India; the share of major international rivers has never been fair to the lower riparian Bangladesh, whose vast territories get flooded during monsoon season and remain inarable and unnavigable during the dry seasons. The waterways inside Bangladesh, including major seaports have been opened up for easy transfer of goods to the north-eastern states of India that are almost landlocked. Even the roads and highways inside Bangladesh are opened up almost toll-free for using Bangladesh as a corridor to transport goods and services to those north-eastern states. And yet, to the great frustration of her people, the Hasina-government has gotten nothing in reciprocity out of such generous concessions and overtures from Modi's India.
Worse yet, Bengali-speaking Muslims are pushed out of India to Bangladesh under the pretext that they are intruders. Conveniently forgotten by Indian government is the mere fact that during the British rule of India, its inhabitants comprising Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus lived together and moved and settled freely where they liked or where their jobs took them to generate income or livelihood for their family members. So, when the Muslims of the border territories like Assam, in spite of having official proofs and decades of existence, predating Pakistan-India partition, are depicted wrongfully as illegals inside Modi's India, it is a like backstabbing by a mendacious neighbor who has never abandoned its evil self.
Succinctly put, India's controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC), Indian Population Register (NPR) and other laws aimed at denying citizenship to millions of Muslims living in India for decades and even centuries are simply criminal and unlawful. Such irresponsible acts have soured the relationship beyond repair, or so it seems, between the two governments very badly.
No wonder, outside a very small number of sycophants, India is viewed very unfavorably inside Bangladesh by its inhabitants, esp. the Muslims, who find them surrounded by hostile and evil neighbors on all its sides. As noted from the short list above, they have every reason to feel bad about Indian hegemony.
And then there are the repeated calls from the Hindutvadi madcaps like Sbramaniyan Swami (BJP-MP) to make India whole again, if necessary, by annexing Bangladesh. The dream for an Akhand Bharat (Undivided India) has never faded from the psyche of many Indian politicians, esp. from the ruling BJP that is aligned with the Hindutvadi agenda of the RSS. And what could be a better excuse than annexing Bangladesh under the pretext of 'protecting' its 'suffering', 'threatened' Hindu minority!
Lest we forget, things of this kind, i.e., annexation, has happened more than once in India’s expansionist history. Just a study of the events leading up to the annexation of Hyderabad - a princely state ruled by a Muslim Nizam, Goa - a Christian enclave on the Indian Ocean in south-west India, and Sikkim - a Buddhist-majority border territory – is sufficient to show that India has used such devious ploys of protecting Hindu minorities to annexing other territories. What is common in all these cases is that days and months before such annexation, mysterious attacks on Hindus from some ‘unknown’ sources would provide the necessary justification for India to march-in with its massive forces.
So, the current events inside Bangladesh should be a sufficient wake-up call if a conspiracy is in making.
Is it by coincidence that all those districts inside Bangladesh where Hindu temples were lately attacked by angry Muslims allegedly had the top administrative positions held by Hindu officers? Is it possible they allowed, planted or fostered such crimes at the behest of the RAW? I don't know the answer, but can guess that it is plausible.
After the temple attacks, the Hasina government has reportedly relocated those officers for their either gruesome negligence or collusion with criminal elements inside or outside the country. But such job reassignments do not address the main concern: were they part of a criminal conspiracy? Truth needs to come out in an inquiry.
Anyway, the events during the Durga Puja have attracted celebrities who foolishly have tweeted highly offensive remarks about Bangladesh and its people who has a history of living together peacefully and harmoniously.
Aparna Sen's remarks should instead be: is Bangladesh becoming another India? That would have been proper and fair. After all, while under Narendra Modi, Muslims are facing genocide from Assam to Kashmir, interestingly Bangladeshi Hindus have seen unparalleled ascendancy in jobs under Sheikh Hasina. While Indian Muslims hold less than 3% govt jobs, the share of Hindu jobs inside Bangladesh is three to five times that proportionate share of the population in most public sectors. The Bangladeshi Hindus hold key positions in many ministries.
The attack on mandir is suspected to have foreign connection, even of the RAW. So before complaining about Bangladesh Mrs. Sen might have done us all a favor by looking inside India and addressing the sickening intolerance that has made Indian secularism a ludicrous ideology. When activism is directed to address the root cause of intolerance and weed such out, it is a noble thing that we can all feel good and get involved. Just a one-sided claim that is short of facts and figures would embolden mobocracy and pave the path for more intolerance, and nothing better.
Enough said!
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