By Robert Clements
Let’s Learn from Bangladesh..!
Most Indians are shocked by the violence against Hindus and the destruction of temples in Bangladesh.
Many of us who were alive during the liberation of East Pakistan, wonder how a nation freed by the Indian army from the clutches of West Pakistan, could react in such a way, to the very ones who helped give them their freedom.
How quickly, we say, the Bangladeshis have forgotten.
How sad, we whisper, when gratitude is replaced by betrayal.
But maybe, there’s a deep lesson for us Indians to learn from the atrocious way the Bangladeshis are behaving.
Even as our minds look with disbelief, remembering the sacrifice of our brave soldiers fighting a war on two flanks, we need to also look at our own country with the same disbelief as our own people disrespect and try to destroy the name of the man who freed our country from the British: Literally a one man army, who fought an unconventional war, and freed us from the shackles of the white colonizers.
They ruled with a heavy hand, just as Bangladesh was crushed by the might of the Pakistan army, till Indian troops walked in, captured ninety-five thousand Pakistani soldiers and set their neighbour free.
But now India sees not gratitude but betrayal, just as those who revere the Father of the Nation, is being betrayed by many inside our country.
How easy to forget, isn’t it?
Both governments; that of Bangladesh and also India, glibly use the word, ‘sedition’! Chinmoy Krishna Das, a prominent ISKCON leader and spokesperson for the Bangladesh Sammilit Sanatan Jagran Jote, was arrested at Dhaka’s main airport on sedition charges after an incident in Chittagong on October 25, where a religious flag was hoisted above Bangladesh’s national flag. The case alleges this act was a ‘desecration’ and aimed at destabilising the nation.
‘How?’ we ask ourselves can this be an act of sedition. Aren’t these just trumped-up charges to get someone from a minority community, here a Hindu, into deep trouble.?
Well, weren’t we doing the same with the ‘sedition’ word, till the Supreme Court stepped in? And aren’t we ridiculously terming any anti-government sentiment as anti-national even till date?
However, since such trivial acts are considered seditious in nature, shouldn’t we as a nation, start looking deeply into definite acts of betrayal or treachery as real acts of sedition?
That we need to condemn those who speak ill of our freedom fighters: They lost years of their lives, in jails, even as we spend years of our lives condemning them. And they are condemned by those who never ever raised their voice for freedom.
Shouldn’t those who adulate the assassin of the Mahatma be arrested on charges of sedition? Because by venerating a murderer of our greatest freedom fighter, he or she is saying that India should not have been freed. That India should have remained a vassal of a foreign power. That we should have remained subjects of the crown!
Enough grounds, right, for a lifetime in jail? At least for them to taste what it is to be in captivity and to find out what it was like to have been under the British.
So, there’s much we can learn about sedition, ingratitude and betrayal as we watch our neighbour showing us a mirror to our own selves.
Something else we can learn is how minorities feel when the country they call their own bully them. What a sense of hurt we feel when temples are attacked not just in Bangladesh but anywhere else in the world.
The temples in Bangladesh and even Canada or Pakistan, do not have foreign worshippers, were not built for those from other countries but are used by citizens of the same country, who worship God in another way.
“They have a right to!” we scream. “Protect their place of worship!” we shout.
But hush listen to those same words spoken by people in our own country. Do you know how they feel, when their places of worship are attacked? A church is desecrated, a mosque brought down, by whom? By brothers and sisters of people belonging to the same nationality!
Again, betrayal, right?
Our country, which could be a beacon to the rest of the world, to show them what peace and brotherhood actually is, is being destroyed by selfish politicians, and oh yes, the same is happening in Bangladesh.
But, before reacting to such incidents abroad, we should instead be in a position to shout across the border and say, “ Muhammad Yunus! Look at us and emulate us!”
But can we say this? No! Which is why they are also getting away with murder, because they are doing what they see across the border. To be able to stop such acts, we need to lead by example. Yes, there may be stray incidents here and there, but we cannot have national leaders themselves polarising the country with every word that comes out of their mouths.
What we see happening in Bangladesh, could be the beginning of such despicable acts soon in other parts of the world. Slowly but surely, sporadic acts of violence are happening all over against us, because they see us doing the same.
Let us put a stop to this, and show the world, how India is a country that has learnt to live in unity through diversity.
For this, we need to learn from what is happening in Bangladesh, before it is too late..!
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