Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal held a press conference on Thursday, November 7 and asked the Bangladesh government to take action against those attacking Hindus. This kind of thing has been said many times in the last two months. During the election campaign for the US President, Donald Trump also raised the issue of torture of Hindus in Bangladesh and termed it barbarism. Think, when before this had any former President of America felt the need to express such concern? Indian Hindus are being tortured in Bangladesh. Their religious activities are being stopped. Temples and houses are being attacked. Not only this, now Hindus are being prosecuted in Bangladesh even for hoisting the saffron flag!
This is a completely recent phenomenon. Recently in Chittagong, Hindus of India took out a procession and demonstrated under the banner of Sanatan Dharma. The saffron flag was hoisted in that demonstration. This flag is a symbol of Sanatan culture. But when one person complained that Hindus hoisted the saffron flag over the flag of Bangladesh, a case was registered against dozens of people. Many people were arrested. It is a different matter that people of other religions also hoist the flag of their religion above the national flag of Bangladesh. People themselves keep the flag of their religion aloft in the processions of Islamic organizations. Many people also shared such pictures on social media. But the attitude of the new administration of Bangladesh and the police and even the army is of hatred towards Hindus. Only then a case was registered in this case and arrests were made.
There is an old saying that ‘Be strong and don’t even let him cry’. The same situation is visible in Bangladesh. The fundamentalist elements there are attacking Hindus under the supervision of the army and police. The temple is being demolished. And when Hindu organizations protest against this, the police are registering cases and arresting them. All this is happening when there is a government in the country that claims to consider Hindu interests supreme. When there was an allegedly anti-Hindu and appeasement government, Hindus were not being beaten or chased away in the neighboring country of Bangladesh. There is no doubt that the tension between Hindus and Muslims is historical. This is a religious and cultural dispute. But it was kept suppressed through diplomacy and politics. In Bangladesh, whether Sheikh Hasina Wazed was the Prime Minister or Khaleda was living, Hindu people lived comfortably and celebrated their festivals. But now as the division on religious lines is increasing in India and leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party are giving inane speeches to get votes, in the neighboring countries, the life of Hindus is becoming difficult.
If BJP has to increase religious division for its political gains or as central government ministers like Giriraj Singh are openly speaking against Muslims, talking about exterminating and killing them, then should the BJP government be successful in Muslim majority countries? Shouldn’t measures be taken to save Hindus? But since the Hindus of Bangladesh or Pakistan are not the vote bank of BJP, there is no concern for them. The Citizenship Act has been amended, but the number of Hindus who have got citizenship till now can be counted on fingers. Obviously the government’s approach is only to get the votes of Hindus by abusing and assaulting the Muslims in India and leaving the Hindus in other countries to fend for themselves.