Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma (Pic credit: PTI)
NEW DELHI: Assam chief minister and senior BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday said Hindus staying in Bangladesh should not be encouraged to come to India as they are patriotic Bangladeshis who do not want to leave their land despite “tremendous atrocities” they face there. He also praised the Hindus in Bangladesh for acting “very maturely” by not coming to India. Sarma’s remarks evoked a strong retort from the Congress which accused the BJP and RSS of exploiting the plight of Hindus for their political gains.
“I explained why the Hindus are not coming. I think the numbers are very less. Whoever wanted to come must have come earlier, thirty or forty years back. These are the people who do not want to come out of Bangladesh. They must have some affinity to the soil of the land. They must be patriotic Bangladeshis. Even after tremendous atrocity they do not want to come out of Bangladesh because their forefathers were in that land. I think we should also not encourage them to come into India. Prime Minister is working overtime to give security and to create a condition of security in Bangladesh itself,” Sarma said.
“Bangladesh Hindu people are acting very maturely and they are not coming. At least we have not detected any Bangladeshi Hindu in Assam in the last five months,” he added.
“We have put the security forces on high alert at the International Border following the unrest in Bangladesh to check infiltration. The police have detected a good number of illegal immigrants on a daily basis along the International Border. However, no Hindu infiltrator from Bangladesh was arrested in the last five months,” the Assam chief minister said calling the situation “very worrying.”
Reacting sharply to the Assam chief minister’s remarks, Congress leader
Rashid Alvi
accused the BJP and RSS of exploiting the Hindus.
“The statement of Assam CM proves that the BJP and RSS only exploit the Hindu community and they have nothing to do with their problems. The BJP and its government at the Centre are anti-Hindu. They are not bothered about what is happening with the Hindus in Bangladesh. Their only objective is to talk about Hindus during elections and provke their sentiments for political gains,” Alvi said.
“There are a lot of Hindus in Bangladesh. Indian government raises this issue only within India for political gains,” he added.
The Assam chief minister also blamed the textile factory owners, especially in Tamil Nadu, for encouraging the infiltration of workers from Bangladesh.
“After the unrest in Bangladesh, the textile industry collapsed there. So workers working in the textile industry in Bangladesh are coming to India. They are trying to enter the country to go to the textile industries in Tamil Nadu, and “owners of these industries are incentivising them to come to get cheap labour. I have also discussed this issue with Union home minister Amit Shah in my last meeting. So this is a very worrying issue for us because we have never detected so many infiltrators before,” Himanta Biswa Sarma said.
The Hindus in Bangladesh have been faced increased atrocities amidst the ongoing political turmoil after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina‘s ouster in August last year. Attacks targeting minorities, primarily Hindus, have increased in Bangladesh since then.
The Centre for Democracy, Pluralism and Human Rights (CDPHR) last month presented a report on the state of minorities in Bangladesh. The report titled ‘Bangladesh Minorities Under Siege: A Wake-Up Call for the International Community’ details the incidents of violence and unrest affecting the Hindu communities in the country in the wake of the political changes.
According to the report, there were 190 reported cases of looting, 32 homes were set on fire, 16 temples were desecrated and two incidents of sexual violence were recorded between August 5 and 9 after Hasina’s resignation.
By August 20, the number of reported incidents had increased significantly, with 2,010 total cases of violence against the Hindus, including the desecration of 69 temples and attacks on 157 families, the report states.
The report claims that the situation for religious minorities continued to deteriorate despite the formation of an interim government under Muhammad Yunus on August 8.
