Dr. Richard L. Benkin
I am sure if you suggested to Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia that their
two parties (the Awami League or AL and Bangladesh Nationalist Party or
BNP) were two sides of the same coin; they would recoil and indignantly
point to differences between the two. Yet, regardless of the two
Begums’ intentions, whether for good or bad, their supposed differences
make no difference to their victims. One could make a strong case
that the Bangladeshi nation has been their victim and that of what the
United States Institute of Peace labeled their “zero-sum
politics.” For purposes of this article, however, their victims
will be only that nation’s Hindu citizens.
The steady
decline of Bangladesh’s Hindu population from almost a fifth to around
one in 15 kept the same pace whether the BNP or AL was ruling. The
steady stream of anti-Hindu atrocities and the government’s refusal to
do anything about them did not vary between the two parties. And
according to the classic studies of Dhaka University Professor Abul
Barkat those who stole Hindu land seized under the racist Vested
Property Act did not vary by party per se but by which party was in
power. When the BNP ruled, its minions got more of it; whem the AL
was in charge, it stole more. With a growing awareness of this in
foreign capitals, including Washington, the strongest argument I hear
for the current rulers goes like this: ‘Well yes, we know Sheikh
Hasina and the Awami League are bad, but isn’t the alternative
worse?’ Hardly a strong endorsement from the international
community if this is the best they can muster.
Their tepid and almost apologetic
argument stems from the fact that they remember how Khaleda Zia and the
BNP brought the Islamist Jamaat e-Islami into their coalition,
the anti-Hindu violence instigated by their allies, and the divisive
statements made by BNP activists including the former Prime Minister,
such as her 1996 public statement that if things did not change, sounds
of the Hindu uludhhwani would replace the Muslim call to prayer.
Yet while those blatantly anti-Hindu actions are despicable, the Awami
League has been no better and refuses to consider the protection of
Bangladesh’s Hindu citizens their responsibility—so long as protecting
their victimization is more politically helpful.
When the Awami League swept into office
in 2008, Hindu groups asked me to advise them, and I urged that they
seize the momentum and make sure that their votes for the Awami League
went to securing their people’s protection. After all, the AL was
not hampered by coalition partners and so could take these actions—if it
wanted to do so. It did not. During each of the Awami
League’s first three years in office, major anti-Hindu incidents
occurred at the rate of almost one per week. Then, in 2012, it
increased to 1.25 per week, including a nine day period in May with an
abduction, a murder in broad daylight, and two gang rapes, one of a
child on her way to a Hindu festival: four horrific crimes in nine
days and no action against known perpetrators. The rate and
intensity of anti-Hindu atrocities that the AL allows to occur continues
unabated during its second term in office.
Yet, the BNP has not even tried to
seize the initiative on this political and more importantly moral
matter. The problem is that I am still waiting for some action on
their part. If all we look at is what they do, they are no
better than they have been in the past. I have offered a number of
suggestions to Khaleda Zia and other BNP activist subsequent to their
contacting me, yet never received any response or even a desire to
dialogue. I know exactly what Khaleda Zia or Sheikh Hasina can do
to gain international legitimacy as a true leader of her people and get
the resources the people of
Bangladesh need. Whoever shows us (not tells us but shows us) that
they will make a difference will get our support with the international
community and in specific capitals that can offer help to the people of
Bangladesh. Until then, I see no better future for Bangladeshi
Hindus under the BNP or Awami League. The empty words I hear again
and again from Bangladeshi leaders mean nothing. The next step is
up to them.
