Bengal BJP holds protests over Bangladesh violence; spotlights plight of Hindus
The BJP said attacks against Durga Puja pandals, temples and devotees attacked by mobs at several places in Bangladesh starting Wednesday last week, were “part of a bigger plan” to scare them away.
KOLKATA: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday held protests across 23 West Bengal districts including state capital Kolkata against communal violence during Durga puja in Bangladesh and alleged that Hindus were being systematically targeted in the neighbouring country.
Suvendu Adhikari, the leader of the opposition in the Bengal assembly, offered puja with BJP legislators at a temple in Kolkata and led a delegation to the Bangladesh deputy high commissioner’s office in the city.
“He (Adhikari) expressed concern regarding the ongoing attacks on the Hindu minority in Bangladesh,” the BJP said in a statement on Monday evening.
Durga Puja pandals and temples were vandalised by mobs at several places in Bangladesh on Wednesday last following posts on social media about the alleged desecration of the Quran at a pandal in Cumilla district.
Hindu-owned temples and shops in Feni, about 150km from the country’s capital Dhaka, were vandalised and robbed on Saturday during clashes that broke out after a counter-attack on demonstrators protesting against attacks on Durga Puja venues in several places in Bangladesh. On Sunday, a Hindu temple was vandalised.
The BJP said the attacks on minority Hindus in Bangladesh was “part of a bigger plan” to scare them away and it was with this in mind that the BJP-led central government had mooted changes to India’s Citizenship Act to protect them, a point also made on Sunday by BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya.
CAA, which was notified on December 12, 2019, seeks to grant Indian citizenship to persecuted minorities belonging to the Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi and Christian communities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who entered India on or before December 31, 2014. The law provoked protests across the country -- in many parts, against the exclusion of Muslims from it; and in Assam, from fears that it could legitimise outsiders in the northeastern state.
The BJP made CAA an issue during the March-April assembly polls which the TMC won with 213 seats.
Bhattacharya said the violence against Hindus in Bangladesh was “part of systematic ethnic cleansing that started decades ago”, and went on to launch a sharp attack against the Trinamool Congress which, he said, continued the erstwhile Left Front government’s move to offer ration cards and voting rights to infiltrators from Bangladesh. This, he added, resulted in a radical change in demography in certain parts of the state and pressure on the local economy.”
Toufique Hasan, the Bangladesh deputy high commissioner, did not make any statement on the development.
Without naming the BJP, Trinamool Congress (TMC) Rajya Sabha member Sukhendu Sekhar Roy said, “Our leader Mamata Banerjee has already condemned the attacks. No political party should use a tragedy to carry forward its agenda.”
The Left parties, including the Communist Party of India (Marxist), also voiced their protest during the day. In a memorandum submitted to the Bangladesh deputy high commissioner, the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, or CPI(ML) Liberation, said, “The first attack on a Durga puja was carried out at Cumilla on the pretext of alleged disrespect shown to the Quran. This attack by fundamentalist forces was given recognition so that subsequent attacks could be carried out at Chandpur, Hajiganj, Hatia, Chittagong and other places.”
“The subsequent attacks were preplanned and politically motivated,” said the memorandum signed by Abhijit Majumdar, state secretary of the CPI(ML) Liberation.
