BANGALDESH, A MOCKERY OF A SECULAR STATE

BANGALDESH, A MOCKERY OF A SECULAR STATE

Bangladesh is such a secular, liberal and secure country that it does not allow a woman like Taslima Nasreen to stay in her homeland simply because she dares to expose the religious fundamentalists out there. Blasphemy laws seem to be fully in vogue there as Islamists rule the roost and the Bangladesh Government feigns secularism before the world at large. Atheist bloggers who dare oppose the Islamic fundamentalists get slaughtered by the Islamists and all that the Government does by way of rendering justice is to hold the bloggers responsible for speaking the truth and, so, fuelling religious unrest. After all, the State religion of Bangladesh is Islam and that means it cannot be with impunity criticised. The clerics will then bay for the blood of the critics and the Government will passively watch the events as if it has nothing to do by way of protection of its citizens who are progressive and really concerned about the sinking fate of the nation and, so, criticise the fanatical elements by way of quickening public opinion against them.

Taslima Nasreen is an enlightened world citizen and there are Western countries galore who are vying with each other to adopt her as their own but in her home country she is considered a heretic and a blasphemer who ought to be denied entry even when her parents are on their death-bed. Bangladesh will rue this injustice done to her brightest child and West Bengal, close kith and kin to this elder sister of hers, ought to take lessons from her (Bangladesh's) fate as to what awaits her (West Bengal) as well if this continuous appeasement of the Muslim clerics goes on for far too long.

Progressive people, beware ! You cannot even contemplate what awaits West Bengal but surely you can take a leaf out of the unfolding saga of Bangladesh, erstwhile East Bengal and East Pakistan, to understand what awaits her (West Bengal) in the not too distant a date from this hour of horrendous happening in the land which was in ancient times the seat of Sanatan culture.

Written by Sugata Bose