India has reason to be deeply concerned with the developments in Bangladesh. Quite aside from the strategic security questions which in due course will need sharper focus , in the fast changing situation after the fall of Sheikh Hasina what should be of utmost concern immediately is the plight of the sizable minority community in the country. In the prevailing chaotic situation, Hindus and Sikhs in Bangladesh are being especially targeted by the marauding mobs. According to reports, their homes and businesses are being looted and burnt down, their women abducted and molested. With the police on mass strike to protest the killings of their own dozens of on-duty colleagues since the start of the student protests, anarchical conditions help the anti-India and pro-Pakistani elements to target Hindus freely. Tens of thousands of Hindus have been forced to flee their homes, with quite a few trekking to the border to escape the orgy of mob violence and torture. Though the military authorities are being prodded 24x7 by the Indian High Commission in Dhaka their hands seem to be full in handling the gigantic crisis. The vacuum created by the fast-changing events has led to a sense of instability at the top of the military and civilian administrations as well. Before the grave situation for the minorities further deteriorates, the Modi government needs to take the initiative to convene an all-party meeting for the passage of a unanimous appeal for an immediate end to the atrocities against Hindus and Sikhs in the neighbouring country and call for an early restoration of normalcy. India, with its longest border stretching over 4,000 kilometers, has a special responsibility to keep a wary eye on the fast-changing events in that country. Every internal unrest has repercussions for this country. Since the Partition when the Hindus in Bangladesh were nearly one-third of the population, their numbers have drastically come down, successive waves of minority repression and rioting prompting them to leave the country of their birth and seek shelter in India. Admittedly, the 15-year rule by the Hasina government was good for communal harmony and peace. But now the return of the pro-ISI Jamaat and elements loyal to the pro-Pakistan BNP poses a fresh threat to the minorities. Revenge attacks on them cannot be ruled out in the near future. Our own people, especially in West Bengal cannot be impervious to the sufferings of minorities in the neighbouring country with whom they feel a close cultural and linguistic affinity and have a shared history. Given that West Bengal itself is now home to tens of thousands of former legal and illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, the atmosphere for the return of Hindu Bengalis from the neighbouring country cannot be uniformly wholesome. Nonetheless, troubled and tormented families leaving Bangladesh should be promptly given shelter and other relief, and if they want to settle in India their citizenship applications should be favourably processed under the Citizenship Amendment Act. After all, Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, etc. have no other country to call home other than India. They deserve to be treated with utmost empathy and ready support. It is hoped the interim government in Dhaka can restore order as early as possible and work eventually for a fresh election to restore popular rule in the beleaguered country.
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The dreaded military rule by the generals should be kept at bay by all sane elements, including the stake-holders in Bangladesh’s hitherto flourishing readymade garments export industry. Meanwhile, it is set to remain the vain hope of the crude elements in our polity who alluding to the events in our neighbourhood virtually threaten the replication of the situation in India. Issuing threats to the recently-elected government while pointedly referring to the events in Bangladesh doesn’t make any sense.
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