Dr. G. Shreekumar Menon
Indians across the globe are justifiably outraged at the fulminations that have erupted in Bangladesh, instigated by obscurantist fundamentalists. Protests are common in every country, but under the guise of protest, fundamentalists cannot be allowed to go on a rampage, killing religious minorities, comprising of Hindus and Buddhists. Innocent men, women and children were mercilessly butchered, raped and killed in most brutal and abominable ways. The main targets were the Hindu population. Earmarked for destruction were the few remaining Hindu Temples. As the orgy of senseless violence was being committed, the Bangladeshi Army, Police and Judiciary, simply turned a Nelson’s eye, giving a morale boost for the rampaging fundamentalists. World media, United Nations, innumerable Human Rights organizations spread across USA and Europe, just did not care even to denounce or intervene to stop the genocide. This brings us to the fundamental question as to why atrocities against Hindus, are taken lightly, or ignored or just laughed away by world leaders, media and international organizations?
If even one Israeli Jew is killed, anywhere in the world, Mossad, would hunt the assassin for sure, and ensure a gruesome end. If an American citizen is even touched roughly, the retaliation would be in the form of severe ‘Sanctions’. The Chinese, and Russians protect their citizens with equal zeal and lethality. No nation would dare to touch a North Korean national, for the repercussions can be abnormally violent. It is only the Hindus who are singled out for cruel and barbaric treatment everywhere. Leave aside Bangladesh, Hindu Temples are being burnt and desecrated in Canada, Australia, USA, UK, and Pakistan. Even universities in USA, UK, Canada and Australia, have become platforms to ridicule, abuse and threaten Hindus. Why is this so?
Despite Hindus being the most docile, obedient, and law abiding, everywhere, they are frequently getting targeted for racial abuse and violence. Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, chief of Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), a pro-Khalistan organisation banned in India in 2019, has threatened Hindus of Indian origin and asked them to leave Canada. Hindus have often faced xenophobic prejudice from their fellow Americans. Much of this prejudice has been spread through the efforts of hardline, fundamentalist evangelical organizations espousing Christian supremacist views. While the avowed goal of these organizations is to convert Hindus to Christianity, the heightened verbiage used often demeans Hindus and denies them respect. A recent report released by the California Civil Rights Department, based on the findings of the yearlong California vs Hate campaign revealed that Hindu phobia and incidents spurred by the anti-Hindu sentiments have risen sharply in the United States of America. Anti-Hindu incidents ranked second after Anti-Semitic incidents and surpasses incidents spurred by Islamophobia. The rise in anti-Hindu hate incidents align with the FBI’s annual Uniform Crime Report which recorded 22 hate crimes against Hindus in 2022.
Harvard University has been a center of anti-Hindu and anti-Vedic scholarship and proponents of the Aryan Invasion theory since the colonial era. While Indian business houses hiked their donations to universities that spread hatred against Hindus, and to Chairs and Centres at universities, that have been hosting the diabolic Dismantling Global Hindutva Conference, 1600 Jewish Alumni openly withdrew donations to the tune of $ one billion for Harvard University’s pronounced anti-Semitism. This is the crux of the problem; Hindus have no self-respect or unity.
The Government of India itself has no respect whatsoever for the fragmented and disunited Hindus, despite their population hovering around 1000 million plus! Whereas the second largest majority – Muslims are treated with respect and dignity, and Christians, who are rapidly expanding, due to targeted conversions, command enormous respect. Both these Abrahamic religions who are on a conversion warpath, targeting Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains, derive their strength and bargaining capacity, by trading in bulk votes. Let alone banning religious conversions, the Government is not even inclined to pass a Protection from Religious Conversions Act to protect Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains, from religious conversions. How can it be expected that Bangladesh, would be keen to protect Hindus and Buddhists from atrocities by fundamentalists harping on conversions and destruction of Temples?
India could not even mobilise national nor international condemnation against Bangladesh. As usual our government kept claiming that the situation is being monitored. Nobody asked India to militarily intervene, and the government might have its own reasoning against such a move, it was the muted response, that upset the entire Hindu population across the globe. Bangladesh might be sporting a different nation tag, but the reality is that the people share a common ancestry with Indians, as also neighbouring Pakistan and Afghanistan. They have become truncated from the Indian mainland, and underwent religious conversion due to the vagaries of History and weak rulers. But there are many who have bravely withstood the tyranny of historical forces, and continue to remain riveted in their ancestral faith, defying hostility and fanaticism. India has an ancestral commitment, to protect these Hindus, their faith and culture.
India, perhaps did not read the then Bangladesh Prime Minister’s anguished disclosure in May 2024, of a plot by a foreign nation to establish a “Christian state” using parts of Bangladesh and Myanmar. She also said she was offered a smooth re-election by a “white skinned man” if she allowed the country to build an airbase in Bangladesh. For some unknown reason, India did not act with alacrity. The sudden rapidity with which events unfolded, might have surprised the Indian government, military, border forces and the intelligence agencies. No doubt these are costly and unpardonable lapses, which cannot be rectified by sending congratulatory messages, to the newly installed puppet. What else can be done?
Bangladesh is a nation, hopelessly addicted to the drug called Yaba, a potent combination of Amphetamine and caffeine. The Rohingya refugees kicked out from Myanmar, despite professing the same Islamic faith, are not welcome in Bangladesh. They have been receiving hostile reception and are being forcibly dumped in the Bhashan Char island in the Bay of Bengal, by Bangladeshi forces. These refugees survive by trafficking Yaba, from the clandestine laboratories, functioning in hundreds on the Indo-Myanmar border. Tribes from Manipur, especially Kukis, give them adequate support for transporting drug consignments. There is money in this trade for everybody. All that the Indian government has to do is to maintain supine indifference to these traffickers. Once the dynamics of the Yaba drug trafficking changes, Bangladesh will face the same situation as China suffered during the Opium Wars.
Readers may be aghast at the above proposal, which may appear to be blatantly unethical and immoral. But, think, if nukes can be stockpiled by many nations, that have the capacity to blow up the earth into smithereens, why not drugs? What is so ethical about stockpiling nukes and unethical about stockpiling drugs? After all, drugs can never blow up the earth and destroy all forms of life forever. But, drugs can be focussed on fundamentalists, terrorists, zealots and fanatics, who are slaughtering and destroying helpless people, for pinpoint ruination. If the red button denotes nuke power, the white button denotes drug power (all drugs are mostly white in colour, be it cocaine or heroin), the enemy needs to know that both buttons are available for us.
The author Dr G Shreekumar Menon, IRS (Rtd) Ph. D (Narcotics), is
- Former Director General National Academy of Customs Indirect Taxes and Narcotics, and Multi-Disciplinary School of Economic Intelligence India
- Fellow, James Martin Centre for Non-Proliferation Studies, USA.
- Fellow, Centre for International Trade & Security, University of Georgia, USA
- Public Administration, Maxwell School of Public Administration, Syracuse University, U.S.A.
- AOTS Scholar, Japan
Dr G Shreekumar Menon can be contacted at shreemenon48@gmail.com
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