Bangladesh May Be Moving Towards Appeasing Its Islamic Fundamentalists By Banning ISKCON

Bangladesh is laying the ground for imposing a ban on Hindu Vaishnavite order International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON).

ISKCON is being targeted because some of its monks and brahmacharis are associated with the Bangladesh Sanatan Jagaran Mancha. 

The mancha, which has sadhus and sants of other Hindu religious orders, mutts, and institutions as well, organised a massive rally on 25 October in Chittagong city to protest the persecution of Hindus and other religious minorities in Bangladesh. 

This rally was followed by another massive one in Dhaka last weekend, where tens of thousands of angry Hindus demanded protection of their rights and interests. The mancha had an important role to play in organising the Dhaka rally.

The two rallies caused a severe embarrassment to the Muhammad Yunus administration, which has been blasely denying the horrific attacks on Hindus in the country. Yunus and others in the interim government headed by him have been saying that the reports of attacks on Hindus are grossly exaggerated.

But the rallies at Chittagong and Dhaka gave the lie to such assertions and highlighted the actual plight of religious minorities in Bangladesh.

What has also angered the Yunus government is an eight-point charter of demands framed by the mancha. These demands include the enactment of a minority protection law, creation of a minority affairs ministry, and reservation of seats in the country’s parliament for religious minorities. 

The other demands are the formation of tribunals to try those accused of the recent attacks on minorities, appropriate compensation and rehabilitation for the victims, construction of places of worship for minorities in all educational institutions and prayer rooms for Hindu, Buddhist, and Christian students in college and university hostels, modernisation of the Pali and Sanskrit Education Board, upgrading Hindu, Buddhist, and Christian Welfare Trusts to foundations, and a five-day official holiday for Durga Puja every year.

Never before have the long-suffering Hindus of Bangladesh organised themselves, held such massive rallies, and dared to voice such demands. This has angered the country’s hardline Muslims, many of them advisers (ministers) in the current interim government, to no end. 

“They (the radical Muslims) could never imagine that Hindus would hold such massive rallies and make such demands. They were outraged at what they perceived was a show of defiance by Hindus. After all, Hindus are expected to be docile and accept their miserable fate in Bangladesh. Islamists, and a large section of Bangladeshi Muslims, haven’t been able to accept the fact that Hindus can stand up,” a Dhaka-based Hindu lawyer who had been associated with the Awami League told Swarajya over the phone.

To add to the Islamists’ anger, the rally by Hindus in Chittagong was held on a Friday, which is considered to be a holy day by Muslims. Holding the rally on a Friday was viewed by Islamists, who now exert a lot of influence over the interim government, as an affront to them. 

ISKCON Made A Target

ISKCON is an internationally reputable religious organisation and has been playing a prominent role in the Bangladesh Sanatan Jagaran Mancha. Its monks and brahmacharis — the most prominent being Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari — provided leadership to the mancha and the persecuted Hindus.

The Yunus government feels that targeting ISKCON will send a loud message to Hindus in Bangladesh that there is a price to pay for asserting themselves. Putting ISKCON, which is headquartered at Mayapur in Bengal, will also send a message of defiance to India.

Targeting ISKCON and banning it will also endear the Yunus administration to the country’s Islamists and demonstrate to all within and outside the country that the government is decisive and tough on dissent. 

“ISKCON is an international organisation, and any action against it would demonstrate to the world that the Yunus administration is muscular and does not hesitate to take action against any body, however powerful it is, that defies it,” explained the lawyer. 

That is why, a day after the Chattogram rally, the Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) registered a case of sedition against Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari and 18 others. The case was registered on the basis of a complaint of sedition against the 19 by one Firoz Khan, a local leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). 

At the rally at Chittagong’s historic Laldighi Maidan, a few unidentified people had hoisted a saffron flag atop the Bangladesh national flag. Though that could at best be a bailable offence under the Bangladesh national flag rules, which prohibit hosting of any flag above the national flag, the 19 of them were charged with sedition. 

Incidentally, the BNP central leadership expelled Firoz Khan from the party and clarified that the party had not authorised him to file a complaint. 

What enraged the Yunus government and the country’s Islamists even more was that the next Friday (1 November), Hindus of Chittagong held another massive rally to protest the filing of sedition charges against 19 leaders of the mancha.

In defiance of the prohibitory orders imposed by the local administration, Hindus raised slogans demanding the withdrawal of the charges and acceptance of their eight-point charter of demands. 

“Probably that rally (on November 1) made the Yunus government make up its mind that enough is enough and (that) Hindus need to be taught a lesson for their defiance. The best way to teach this lesson was to target ISKCON, which is very well respected by all Hindus and also has a global reach,” businessman Kartick Pal, who is associated with the mancha, told Swarajya from Chittagong. 

Islamist groups and organisations, most of them patronised by radicals close to or part of the Yunus administration, started demanding a ban on ISKCON in a well-coordinated manner. The social media was flooded with abusive posts on ISKCON and Hindus and calls for declaring ISKCON a ‘terrorist organisation’. 

Many prominent Muslims of the country lent their voices to these calls and provided (baseless) justification for imposing a ban on the Hindu religious order. 

Wednesday’s Events and the Fallout

One of the insulting social media posts on ISKCON was made by a Chittagong trader, Osman Mollah, on 6 November morning. His post was highly abusive and vitriolic, and scornful of Hindus as well. 

Angry Hindus mobbed Mollah’s shop at Chittagong’s Hajarigolli, a Hindu-majority area, that afternoon. The CMP arrived on the scene and carried out an unprovoked lathicharge on the Hindus who had mobbed Mollah and were demanding an apology from him. 

The lathicharge incensed Hindus, and a few young men attacked the policemen. However, Hindu elders intervened immediately and shooed them away before apologising to the policemen. 

The CMP authorities, however, created a fake narrative that many police personnel were injured in the attack, and the acid used in Hindu-owned jewellery shops was hurled at them. 

These unfounded allegations by the CMP laid the ground for a joint task force comprising Bangladesh army soldiers, troops of the paramilitary Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB), and CMP personnel raiding Hajarigolla in the evening.

They broke into Hindu homes and ransacked them, taking away valuables as well as all male members of the families. The security personnel also molested women, and, as per reports, many women were gangraped. 

The security personnel also targeted Hindu-owned jewellery shops and looted all gold, silver, and precious stones, as well as implements and other valuables from the stores. To hide their crimes, the security personnel broke CCTV cameras (read this). 

Some Hindu organisations of Chittagong told Swarajya that shots were fired and a few Hindu men were killed. Their bodies have been allegedly disposed of. But Swarajya could not verify those allegations. 

ISKCON Blamed For Violence

The CMP has blamed ISKCON for the 6 November violence. The CMP Deputy Commissioner for Crime & Operations, Roish Uddin, has said that ISKCON was involved in Wednesday’s incidents. 

The CMP officer said that 582 Hindus have been charged with creating unrest and attacking the police. He said that the police’s preliminary investigation had revealed that “ISKCON supporters” were involved.

The CMP officer also said that the Hindus who created unrest had raised ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogans. Such slogans, he suggested, were seditious and illegal in Bangladesh!

What the CMP officer could not comprehend was that there cannot be ‘supporters’ of ISKCON. The order has devotees but not supporters. And ISKCON cannot be held responsible for the conduct of its devotees. 

However, these allegations against ISKCON and holding the religious order responsible for unrest are simply laying the ground for its proscription. 

“The CMP’s allegations against ISKCON will provide oxygen to the Islamists’ campaign to ban ISKCON. We are likely to witness demonstrations by radical Muslim mobs in many parts of Bangladesh demanding such a ban. The radical Muslims may even create unrest. That will provide justification to the Muhammad Yunus government to impose a ban on ISKCON. The government will say it had to impose the ban in the interests of public order,” said Sudhanshu Paul, a Hindu community leader in Dhaka. 

A ban on ISKCON may demoralise the Hindus of Bangladesh and force them into submission. “Hindus will feel that if the government can ban an organisation like ISKCON, it can do anything. So, it is better to keep quiet and accept one’s faith,” said Paul. 

But leaders of the Bangladesh Hindu Bouddha Christian Oikya Parishad, an influential body of religious minorities in the country, told Swarajya that any such ban would be fiercely opposed and will only lead to greater mobilisation of Hindus.

Also Read:

Bangladesh: Security Forces Launch Brutal Crackdown On Hindus In Chittagong 

Why Bangladesh's Sadhu-Sant Samaj Taking Lead For The Country's Persecuted Minorities Is Significant