A famous and farsighted political analyst of the country, Kuldip Nayar is concerned about the situation prevailing in Bangladesh these days and is disappointed with its future. He has expressed it in his fresh commentary “Bangladesh has lost its way” (The Asian Age, 6 June). The inspiration for his commentary is a book by Kamal Hussain, which consists of an analysis of the history of Bangladesh and the present situation over there. Kamal Hussain is one of the close friends of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and had been Minister for External Affairs in his government, which was the first government of the republic. Mr. Nayar has studied that book but perhaps he could not find therein what he wanted to. The book of Kamal Hussain is not at hand. However, with the feelings of Mr. Nayar, it can be imagined that the writer has made a realistic analysis of the situation. The writer has pinpointed the irregularities and excesses of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and now his daughter Hasina, and has also perhaps expressed views on the basic principles of foreign policy and imbalance between secularism and religion. While Mr. Nayar wanted him to talk only on keeping the spirit of freedom live and on curbing the rising religiosity of Bangladeshis.
What does he want?
This process of disappointment of Mr. Nayar about Bangladesh started a few days ago when in response to the state protests at Shahbagh large protests by an organization called Hefazat-e-Islam were being staged and despite the full coercion unleashed by the government and its agents could not be stopped. At last, the “democratic” government over there, like the worst despotic government, crushed those protests with full force and banned the pro-Hefazat media. But, as a result of it, public sentiments against the government got strengthened. Mr. Nayar is getting disappointed with all this. He deems this situation as victory of “religious fanaticism” over democracy and spirit of freedom. During this period the book of Kamal Hussain hit the stands; it made him more disappointed. – In fact, Mr. Nayar has earnest love and deep concern for Bangladesh. There has been very great ideological cooperation of his in the efforts to establish this new republic. He wants Bangladesh to stick to its spirit of freedom, viz. Bangla nationalism, regionalism and lingual bias, and not to fall prey to “religious fanaticism”. This is what we gather from his commentaries.
Result of unawareness about Islam
This thinking of Mr. Kuldip Nayar and other analysts like him is in fact the result of their unawareness about the reality of Islam and turning a blind eye to the destructive consequences of nationalism. Islam is the standard-bearer of human equality and unity of human beings. It weaves them in one garland on the basis of the faith of monotheism by accepting all human beings as the children of one father and one mother, after which all considerations of region, native land, race, nationalism and language remain only for identification while nationalism or nation-worship serves as the cause for getting one community fight with other communities, the expression of which can be seen today in the whole world. It would be in the fitness of things if Mr. Kuldip Nayar and his co-thinkers, who are worried about the lovers of Islam getting strengthened over there, effect a change in their thinking and support the establishment of a system on the bases of Islamic principles. If such a change takes place there, they would see Bangladesh getting strong, consolidated and prosperous, and rise of love and brotherhood among the citizens, and at the same time the relations of our country with Bangladesh are getting more pleasant on strong foundations. Let Mr. Nayar see at least one such experiment in his lifetime.
22/06/2013 khabar-O-Nazar by Parwaaz Rahmani, sehrozaDAWAT, translated by: Abu Yusuf
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