Ronik Sharma, Advocate J&K
On 10th of December every year, International Human Rights Day is celebrated as “International Human Rights Day”. This day is observed every year to commemorate the day in 1948 the UNGA (United Nations General Assembly), adopted the universal declaration of human rights. This year the International Human Rights Day will be celebrated under the theme “Our rights, our future, right now”.
In addition, this year’s UN human rights campaign will highlight not only how human rights are essential as a preventative, protective, and transformative force for good, especially during times of crises, and how they pave the way for other many solutions. Are the members of the Hindu community excluded from international human rights regulations if we limit our discussion to Hindus? Are Hindus in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and now in Bangladesh are not worst victims of persecution, atrocities and target killings? Are those who are working on human rights can’t see these atrocities? Has torture not been a part of their lives for decades in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and now in Bangladesh?
This is something that has to be thought about and discussed; it shouldn’t be restricted to literature alone. Does international human rights law apply only to particular community of people? Isn’t this worth taking into account? Apart from Pakistan and Afghanistan, nobody has given any thought to what is happening in a country like Bangladesh, where Hindus are being persecuted and murdered on the same line as what is happening in other countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan. The people of the majority community are directly targeting them and destroying their temples, worship places, businesses, homes, etc. not even little children, the elderly, the disabled, or women are being spared.
The nation’s government is tasked with protecting minorities; if it doesn’t, who else will be responsible for that responsibility? The same is true in Bangladesh, where members of a certain majority community are attacking homes, businesses, and places of worship directly; no one is being held accountable. Not even Human Rights Watch has spoken out against the ruthless murder of members of a particular hindu minority community of Bangladesh. The perpetrators of this violence against Hindus have not yet been subjected to strict measures. The Hindu community of Bangladesh has been continuously protesting against these brutalities and acts of vandalism against them for so many weeks, but the failed interim government of Bangladesh, headed by Nobel laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus, not only overlooked the plight of the Hindu minority community but also failed to protect them from perpetrators of the violence. No immediate measures have been taken so far for safeguarding the Hindu minority community of the country. Even Human Rights organisations didn’t step in to help these Hindu minority community people of Bangladesh.
How are the perpetrators attacking Hindus, their holy shrines, and other business establishments, including their households? If the government is tough and preventive measures have been implemented? Why is so much vengeance being taken against Hindus in Bangladesh? To date, properties of the Hindu minority community of Bangladesh worth in crores are gutted in fire. Is this not lawlessness only against the Hindu community of their own country. Such a predicament for Hindu minorities in Bangladesh under the rule of the person who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for bringing about social and economic development from below. Does such a kind of jihadist mindset person deserve this kind of biggest award? In whose rule the perpetrators are moving freely for attacking Hindu minorities in Bangladesh. Shouldn’t this Nobel Peace Prize be taken back? If he fails to protect the innocent minorities of his own country, or he is deliberately not protecting them due to the exerted pressure on him from any of the other countries, or he is trapped by the jihadist mindset people or their organisations.
One who is facilitating perpetrators against Hindu minority community of Bangladesh should also be considered as part of this perpetration. Apparently, Hindu community religious priests have been detained in Bangladesh one by one during the past few days. And for unspecified reasons, these priests are being wrongfully detained by force.
Earlier, following the fall of the Sheikh Hasina- led government, if we talk about teachers who belonged to a particular Hindu minority community, they were forced to resign from their government jobs without any reason, and those Hindu teachers were repeatedly pressured to leave their jobs without any reason. What rights do people have? Every human being just has rights. Any human being regardless of their nationality, religion, sex, place of residence, language, ethnicity or any other status, is inherently entitled to these rights. Human rights should be granted to all people without exception. These rights which are interconnected, interdependent, and indivisible fall under the universality concept. They are inalienable and ought not to be restricted with the exception of certain circumstances, such as when an individual is convicted of a crime. The lives of the Hindu minority community of Bangladesh are increasingly at risk in this unstable environment of Bangladesh for the minorities. International attention has been drawn to Bangladesh’s authorities’ ruthless involvement with those who are assaulting the country’s Hindu population.
What the UN declaration will do in the present situation of Bangladesh. According to Article 18 of the Universal Declaration –
*Everyone has a right to freedom of thoughts, conscience and religion, which includes the freedom to change one’s religion or beliefs, as well as the freedom to express one’s religion or beliefs in public or privately, alone or in society through teaching, practice, worship and observance.
And according to the Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh article 12 and 41 secularism and freedom of religion.
*The principle of secularism shall be realised by the elimination of –
(I) communalism in all its forms.
(II) the granting by the State of political status in favour of any religion.
(III) the abuse of religion for political purposes.
(IV) any discrimination against, or persecution of, persons practicing a particular religion.
*Freedom of religion
(I) Subject to law, public order and morality.
*every citizen has the right to profess, practise or propagate any religion.
*every religious community or denomination has the right to establish, maintain and manage its religious institutions.
(II) No person attending any educational institution shall be required to receive religious instruction, or to take part in or to attend any religious ceremony or worship, if that instruction, ceremony or worship relates to a religion other than his own.
These written documents are not just for reading only, like literature only, but to serve a purpose for writing it for the implementation in reality because the ground situation is totally different in Bangladesh and an eye-opener for the rest of the world.
Bangladesh’s establishment have not only failed to stop the perpetrators but also failed on all fronts to stop them for this vandalism against the Hindu minority community of their own country. Undoubtedly, Pakistani fundamentalist organisations, as well as other ancillary agencies like ISI, are behind this, and they are fully responsible for this unrest in Bangladesh. Bangladesh’s law and order situation has completely collapsed, the Hindu minority community’s lives have been put in danger, and the number of violent crimes committed by uncontrolled mobs is rising.
It is the duty of the Bangladeshi government as well as world bodies working on different platforms to protect the innocent Hindu minorities from the extremist forces. International organisations must ensure and take the issue of attacks on minorities, homes, temples, businesses, etc. in Bangladesh seriously and take necessary action regarding the present situation of Bangladesh and also send a peacekeeping force to Bangladesh in order to ensure that the Hindu minority community in Bangladesh does not face any issues in the near future.
Political reservation for the Hindu minority community in the Parliament of Bangladesh needs to be given in accordance with the population of Hindus in Bangladesh. Protection of temples and other places of worship, as well as properties of minorities, is necessary; compensation for damaged properties and restoration in order to ensure that the Hindu population in Bangladesh is not subjected to any sort of discrimination, restoration of damaged temples as well as other religious places, a developmental package for the Hindu minority community, and a special board for the development of Sanatan in Bangladesh must be established.
