Even before Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina returned to Dhaka from her visit to the United States and the United Kingdom, some members of the ruling Awami League party have turned election campaigning and canvassing into a vituperative communal diatribe directed against their senior Hindu colleagues.
Addressing a public rally in Munshiganj on September 28 (on Sheikh Hasina’s birthday), the city mayor, Haji Mohammad Faisal ‘Biplab’ targeted the sitting Member of Parliament, Mrinal Kanti Das, calling him a “malayun”. The term malayun is considered a communal slur by all secular political leaders, including those from the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), not to speak of the others. An Arabic term, malayun in Bengali means abhishapta or cursed and someone who has been deprived of the blessings of Allah.
Shrieking and shouting into the mike, gripped firmly in his hand and the veins on his face and forehead standing out, Haji Mohammad Faisal ‘Biplab’, who is the son Sheikh Mujibar Rahman’s personal security officer and former Munshiganj MP Mohiuddin Ahmed said, “Tui malayun-er bachcha…tui criminal…chor, baatpaar, luichcha beta…(You son of a malayun…you are a criminal…a thief…a dacoit…a lecherous/licentious fellow)”.
This has exposed the communal sentiments nurtured by certain Awami League leaders even as certain other old-timers were “dismayed” by attacks on Hindu party leaders “during a critical phase ahead of the elections”.
Faisal ‘Biplab’s communal diatribe against Mrinal Kanti Das, who is an Awami League Central Committee member, comes at a time when the party leadership, including Sheikh Hasina and general secretary Obaidul Quader had earlier warned against any communal targeting of members of the minority Hindu community.
While the party leadership has been unable to reign in the communal elements within, Mrinal Kanti Das, speaking to Northeast News, said, “certain elements within the Awami League and especially Faisal ‘Biplab’ have mounted communal attacks against me in the past. The latest instance is extremely unfortunate and it goes against the Awami League’s long-established principles of secularism, democracy, socialism and nationalism. I hope that the party does not squander its adarsha (ideology) and that it awakens to a new dawn. And I also hope that the organisation takes strict action against internal communal elements”.
Taking exception to the attack on Mrinal Kanti Das, the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council on October 2, expressed “strong protest and outrage” and demanded stern action against Faisal ‘Biplab’ by the Awami League. Similar outrage and dismay was expressed by the Bangladesh Puja Udjyapan Parishad.
Earlier, on April 2, 2021, Mrinal Kanti Das’ nephew Aapan Das, himself a Chhatra League member for long, was communally targeted by the Hefazat-e-Islam, itself a creation of the Awami League. Senior Awami League sources said that Bangladesh’s current information minister Hasan Mahmud is a nephew of Maulana Shafi, the founder of the Hefazat-e-Islam. At the same time, the ruling Awami League has encouraged the establishment of about 570 model mosques, besides hundreds of madrassas (seminaries), across the length and breadth of the country.
More recently, there were a series of reports of defilement of Hindu places of worship, vandalising of Durga idols, heinous crimes and attacks against members of the minority community in different parts of the country, including Faridpur, Gopalganj and Jhenaidah among others.
