344. Isn't the non-stop excessive propaganda of the BJP leaders that they will establish a Hindu Rashtra in India the reason for the riots in Bangladesh and the persecution of the Hindus there? When you are the ruling party of the country, don't you need some wisdom?

344

Isn't the non-stop excessive propaganda of the BJP leaders that they will establish a Hindu Rashtra in India the reason for the riots in Bangladesh and the persecution of the Hindus there? When you are the ruling party of the country, don't you need some wisdom?

P. S. Remesh Chandran

Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum

Article Title Image By Adobe Stock. Graphics: Adobe SP.

Isn't the relentless propaganda of BJP leaders that they will establish a Hindu Rashtra, a Hindu Nation in India the reason for the Muslim-led riots in Bangladesh and the persecution of Hindus there? When you are the ruling party of the country, don't you need some wisdom and some sense, some restraints on your policies and statements? This has now forced a doubly strenuous duty on the BSF, India's border security force. India has borders with not only Bangladesh but also Pakistan, and they have to guard them both, and that duty too is now under hazard and threat. The reflection of this has started to be seen as more terrorist attacks in Kashmir because security forces as well as intelligence-gathering forces cannot be or are not being deployed there in advance as and when needed. It can be assumed that this Bangladeshi rebellion, which has the unquestionable participation of countries including Pakistan and sometimes even Iran, must also be to create this very situation of India becoming suddenly unable to protect all its borders through the BSF. Perhaps that was what they wanted. Apart from that, there was nothing more urgent and serious there that had not been there for a long time, than the then ruling prime minister Sheikh Hasina's oppressive regime and human rights violations. And both were not as numerous and as cruel as in Pakistan or Iran. And the responsibility for this violent, chaotic and anarchic situation lies with the very narrow policies, decisions and declarations of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-BJP in India, which lacks an international diplomatic insights and philosophy and Muslim tolerance.

In early 2024, when the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Mrs. Sheikh Hasina visited India, she officially met the BJP Prime Minister Narendra Modi and unofficially met the opposition’s Congress President-equaling Sonia Gandhi, spent time with them, and held discussions. After that, though the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress did not seem to have noted, the Muslim people of Bangladesh, especially their army and the militants, as well as the religiously-uncompromising regimes of Pakistan and Iran, did notice the difference that had come to Hasina's policies and programs after her return to Bangladesh from India. It is also noteworthy that this riot broke out there right after her return from India. Britain and the United States proved that even if India and its major political parties snub India's role in this, the world does not, by unexpectedly denying asylum to this woman Prime Minister who resigned and fled her country and making her undoubtedly a liability of India itself.

In this riot, Sheikh Hasina, herself a Muslim and the ruler, is not the only one who fled the country- thousands of Hindus who are Bangladeshis have also taken flight and are waiting at the border to enter India. Among them are not only Hindus but also many Christians, and many Sikhs and Jains may also be among them too. Although the BSF is providing them with food and water, it is not giving them the permission to cross the border and the shelter which is what they are after. They continue to remain at the border as victims of India's changed foreign policy, the BJP's dubious domestic policy, and the recent refugee-citizenship amendment program they launched. The only reason why the Bangladeshi insurgents did not follow them there and kill them all was because the Indian army was there vigilant and watching beyond a barbed wire fence. What these asylum-seeking refugees could not take in is that what lies beyond that barbed wire fence was once their own country, a country with a history of sheltering people from Plato to Christ, which do not take them in.

Not so long ago, just seven decades ago, all of them were part of undivided India. They are not visitors to Bangladesh, but citizens of that country who have been there for so long. Where else should they run but to India? When religious extremists and terrorists are carrying out murders there, throughout their country, how can they return to their homes as per India's demand? If a similar situation were to happen to the leaders of the BJP in India individually, as it did happen to its many leaders after the separation of India and Pakistan, what would they do, how would they react to India? Let us not forget that many of the top leaders of the BJP who were alive then and whose activities led to the formation of the BJP came from Pakistan, seeking refuge in India after independence and the partition of the country.

As the violence in that closely neighboring country increases (and it will not stop increasing!) the number of them coming as refugees will increase, and if the Indian paramilitary forces will not be able to stop them, to contain them at the border, then the Indian Army itself will have to use force on them. And that will be an eternal humiliation for India- although BJP may not feel that way. In any case, there is no possibility of them who were once part of India going to other neighboring countries like Bhutan, Nepal, which was once a part of the Indian Empire in the long past then being known as Nepalam, to Burma, the old Brahma’s Land of the Indian Hindus then known as Brahma Desha, or to Afghanistan, which was the old Apa Ghana Sdhaanam of their renowned Emperor Bharata who gave India the name Bharatham!

In reality, isn’t this a trap set for the newly entrant in Indian political arena, the ruling Bharathiya Janatha Party (BJP) who, alighted on the wings of the Reliance Industries stirred up the Hindus and captured power without any prior experience in administration, taking over the Indian government saying ‘we will show you how we will recreate the old Indian Empire of Bharatha as a new Hindu Nation’- a trap set by the very same non-Hindu countries of today who were once subjugated and part of that ancient Bharatha Empire? In fact, isn’t this all a feat against BJP of the countries that existed as member states in that old Bharata Empire who united and lowered the boom on the BJP that has no previous experience in the field of administration, diplomacy and the ruling of India, newly entered into Indian politics alighted on the wings of Reliance, stirred up and shook the Hindus, captured the rule of India by invigorating communal hatred and people’s division, and challenged the world that by dissolving borders they would recreate the old Bharata Empire as a Hindu Nation, they now challenging India through Bangladesh? It seems that, of all the countries that were once part of this old empire, the old nation complex known as Bharata Saamraajya, only Sri Lanka, known then as Rathna Dweepam, and Thailand, the old Siam which was known then as Syaama Raajyam, are not part of this new challenge. Or are they too?

So far, the Border Security Force of India has been able to treat them, this influx of refugees from Bangladesh, with dignity. But when their number increases, can they continue with this behavior? At one point, in exactly the same conditions as during the time of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, when, to stop the unsustainable influx of refugees into India due to internal strife in Pakistan the Indian army went into Pakistan where the internal violence was causing this influx of refugees, defeated the Pakistani army through military action, cut that country into two, and instead of annexing one to India, out of decency, liberated one and created a new country called Bangladesh as a new independent democratic country, won’t it have to be repeated? Or, even if it not cut, wouldn't it become necessary for India to suppress both the Bangladeshi army and the insurgents alike through military action, liberate Bangladesh once again, restore democratic rule, and bring about a peaceful resolution to the conflict? In short, wouldn't this lead to a situation where the Hindu Nationalist India of the Bharatiya Janata Party face in Bangladesh the same military-political situation that Israel is facing today in Palestine and Gaza due to Islamic terrorist organizations- if India's foreign policy, refugee laws and policies are a smokescreen?

The Prime Minister of a small country visits the Prime Minister of a neighboring, bordering, big country, and holds consultations and returns. Suddenly, immediately on her return, a powerful rebellion breaks out in that small country, and the Prime Minister loses her position. She flees the country, and by overnight seeks asylum and is installed as a refuge in that big country. Doesn't it feel something incredulous and dubious? Either the other opponents of the big country are convinced of the weaknesses, shortcomings, and inconsistencies in the diplomatic power, foreign relations, and internal political power of the ruling party in that big country, or the ruling party in that big country, without a single majority in Parliament, is warming up for a war situation, to prevent constituent parties from breaking up from the ruling coalition and losing power, to stay united for the time being.

Written on 10 August 2024 and first published on: 12 August 2024

Original article in Malayalam written and first published on: 10 August 2024

SM1624. ഇ൯ഡൃയിലു് ഹിന്ദുരാഷ്ട്രംസ്ഥാപിക്കുമെന്നുള്ള ബീജേപ്പീനേതാക്കളുടെ നി൪ത്താതെയുള്ള അമിതപ്പ്രചാരണമല്ലേ ബംഗ്ലാദേശ്ശുകലാപത്തിനും അവിടെയുള്ളഹിന്ദുക്കളു് വേട്ടയാടപ്പെടുന്നതിനുംകാരണം? രാജ്യംഭരിക്കുന്ന പാ൪ട്ടിയാവുമ്പോളു് ഒരുവിവേകമൊക്കെവേണു്ടേ?
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