IS has taken responsibility for the execution -style killing of a Hindu priest in Bangladesh.After many bloggers were slain last year,this killing demonstrates the resolve of local Jamait-e-islami and other Muslim organisations to exterminate the last remaining Hindus in Bangladesh.
Currently,Hindus make up 8.2 percent of the country’s population making them the third largest Hindu population in the world after India and Nepal.Hindus made up more than 20 percent of the population of East Pakistan in 1970. The numbers had fallen down to about 14 pc in 1974.One can imagine that the Bangla genocide at the hands of the Pakistani army took its toll primarily upon the Hindus. The Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh and Lajja by Tasleema Nasreen have duly captured this anti-Hindu nature of the state of Bangladesh .The numbers had plummeted to 9.3 percent by 2001.
US rights groups keep making small noises about this anti-Hindu violence.Actually ,one cant see this anti-minority nature of a Muslim state in isolation.
Pakistan,Kashmir,Bangladesh,Malaysia,Afganistan and almost all middle eastern Moslem countries have seen massive organised state violence directed against their minorities,which have seen dramatic fall in their numbers over the last 100 years or so.Liberal-left hardly ever takes these issues up ,devoid as they are of sensationalism and do not gain them browny points anywhere.
Have successive indian governments raised the issue effectively with the Bangladesh govt ? Could we have leveraged our power to do something about it ? Unfortunately,we have always suffered with a kind of guiilt complex for being more powerful than our neighbours and have consistently refused to meddle into what we dub as their internal affairs .This shameless abdication of responsibility on our part has been seen as a sign of weakness,and Bangladeshi Hindus are considered as orphans.
Herein lies a prime exhinit of India’s tolerance .A petty issue like DADRI becomes a national issue and the government of the day goes on the backfoot.Left and Congress must atleast pay lip service in support of Bengali Hindus.I m sure it would not hurt their minority votebank in India.
