Thiruvananthapuram: Amid violence and unrest in Bangladesh, Congress MP and Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on External Affairs, Shashi Tharoor, on Wednesday urged the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government to take matters into its own hands.
Speaking on the lynching of Hindu man Dipu Das over alleged blasphemy, Tharoor said, “It’s a very serious problem because from our point of view we want Bangladesh to be stable and calm, and we do want the minorities there to feel safe. This lynching was truly an outrage because it was completely unwarranted. There was no question of any act of blasphemy by this person, and he was even in the custody of the police. He should not have been handed over to the mob and lynched in this horrible way.”
“But the other disturbances across the streets in many parts of Bangladesh, including protests outside our consulates, which we call Assistant High Commissions there, all of this has created, unfortunately, an atmosphere which is not conducive to the kind of calm and stability we would all like to see leading up to the elections that are scheduled for February,” he added.
He further said, “In India also, some groups have organised protests in return. In our democracy, they have a right to do so. I don’t think anyone has felt that these protests are getting out of hand. There has been no violence, no lynching, and certainly any attempted violence will and should be clamped down upon by our police. What we want to see is for the Bangladeshis to do the same thing. They must curb the violence. It’s not enough for the government of Bangladesh to just express regrets or condemnation.”
Urging the Yunus-led interim government to send the army to restore normalcy and law and order in Bangladesh, he said, “They have to take action because controlling the violence on the streets is their obligation as a government. They need to curb this violence. They need to ensure that the streets are calm again, that people can feel safe again. How can you have an election in less than two months’ time in an atmosphere of lawlessness and intimidation, where the voters may not even feel safe? We’re urging the government to take matters into its hands. If the police can’t do it, send the army, but stop this nonsense.”
