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Former Minister of State for External Affairs MJ Akbar on Friday strongly criticised the interim government in Bangladesh, accusing it of abetting "hatred of Hindus as an ideology" through appeasement of extremist forces amid a series of lynchings and attacks on minorities in the country.
Speaking to ANI on the issue of recent incidents of Hindu minorities lynched in Bangladesh, Akbar said Bangladesh is facing a "major crisis of appeasement", where what he described as those are indulging the country's most extreme forces in power. He highlighted a broader governance failure under the current interim administration led by Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus, alleging that such crimes are being abetted because the establishment is accommodating these elements in order to ensure its own political survival. He further criticised the interim government, saying it has shown "absolutely no sense of governance". "Bangladesh is going through a major crisis of appeasement. Appeasement of the most vicious forces in the country. People who believe in the hatred of Hindus as an ideology. They do not understand that hatred is not an ideology. But their crime is abetted by the fact that the establishment there is allowing it to survive. One of the great problems that the country is facing is that the present interim government has had absolutely no sense of governance," the former MoS said. He noted that the collapse of the interim government's functioning is reflected in the country's economic decline, adding that unemployment and economic decline have fuelled anger among young people across Bangladesh. "There is a complete collapse in Dhaka, and it is reflected in the collapsing economy. The young remain in a tremendously angry mood because they have seen all around that their jobs are going and the economy is collapsing. It is a situation in which an agriculturally fertile country like Bangladesh is asking India for rice. The irony is that the present chief adviser is brought into play by international forces because of alleged competence in economics," Akbar added. The former MoS's remarks come after the lynching cases of two Hindu youths in Bangladesh. On Wednesday, the Daily Star reported that a Hindu youth identified as Amrit Mondal was lynched at Hosendanga village of Kalimohor union in Rajbari's Pangsha sub-district over an extortion allegation. Police rushed to the spot upon receiving information last night and rescued Samrat in a critical condition. The murder of Mondal took place days after the mob lynching and burning of the Hindu youth, Dipu Chandra Das, in Bangladesh's Mymensingh district. A worker in a garment factory, Dipu Chandra Das, was beaten to death by a mob over alleged blasphemy charges and had his body hanged and set on fire on December 18. The Daily Star, citing Mymensingh's Additional Superintendent of Police, Abdullah Al Mamun, stated that a factory official had informed Bhaluka police that a group of workers attacked Dipu inside the factory, accusing him of making "derogatory remarks about the Holy Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH)" in a Facebook post. However, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB)-14 Company Commander in Mymensingh, Md Samsuzzaman, told The Daily Star that investigators found no evidence suggesting the deceased had posted or written anything on Facebook that could have hurt religious sentiments, adding that neither residents nor fellow garment factory workers could point to any such activity by the victim. (ANI)
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