Bangla Minorities Need a Helping Hand
The attack on Hindu minorities in the neighbouring Bangladesh over the last few weeks has left our conscience wounded. Even as India expressed its desire to strengthen its relations with neighbouring countries, these attacks on Hindus took place during Durgashtami celebrations when people were emotionally provoked, leading to communal violence. Political forces are behind this. It appears that certain forces in Bangladesh are using the Sangh Parivar’s model of hatching conspiracies and triggering communal riots. The reason for the riots in Bangladesh was a rumour that a copy of Quran was placed at the feet of Durga. A video about this was circulated in social media and miscreants used it as an excuse to unleash violence. Assuming that such an incident indeed occurred, those who know Quran and its philosophy would never indulge in violence. Wise and prudent people would analyse the incident and react to the situation after understanding the factual details of the incident. Perhaps, if the government had acted in time, violence would not have escalated. The government became alert only after six innocent people belonging to Bangladesh’s minority community were killed. Then it issued a strict warning to the miscreants, clarified that it would not let the accused go without punishing them in the matter, and assured payment of compensation to the victims.
It has come to light during the investigation that a copy of Quran was placed at the feet of the Durga statue only to create riots. It is suspected that the person who placed the Holy book belonged to the majority community. The Bangladesh government issued a statement that an extensive trap has been laid to nab him. This shows that those who triggered the riots do not even have a modicum of respect towards the Quran. If they respected and revered the Book, they would not have used it to trigger hatred between people. If people had responded with patience and wisdom, the conspiracy hatched by miscreants could have been foiled. But people on their own volition seem to have fallen into the trap laid by miscreants and religious traitors as a result of which hundreds of people suffered destruction and losses and ten people lost their lives besides several temples getting attacked. On the whole, it is sad that miscreants succeeded in their plans by using the holy Book.
But it is a matter of comfort that a huge group belonging to the majority community stood in support of minorities when minorities were being attacked. To curb the spread of the riots, several pro-people organizations came together to create awareness among the public about the actual situation. By spreading humanitarian messages, they stood with the minorities. At the same time, it is heartening that Bangladeshi Hindus did not resort to retaliatory violence; instead, they chose to go on a nation-wide fast. Details about the forces behind the violence are slowly emerging. People are slowly withdrawing from violence. Even so, miscreants have met their objective with last week’s violence and have succeeded in breaking people’s hearts. Economic losses can be compensated but it is not easy to succeed in the noble task of joining broken hearts. We need to wait and watch how the government will take up this challenge.
If the Indian government had strongly reacted to the violence in Bangladesh, perhaps the government there might have woken up. Even when several human rights organizations across the world condemned the attack, India failed to speak up for the Bangla minorities in strong words. The reason for the government’s silence is probably because of its inaction in handling the attacks against minorities in India. Bangladesh Prime Minister has condemned the violence in no uncertain terms and has given an assurance that the accused would be punished. But neither our Home Minister nor the Prime Minister has issued even one statement against the violence that occurred in Delhi. Without filing a single case against those who provoked violence, attempts are being made to book the victims as the accused. The ruling dispensation is acting as though all this is common. Therefore, the government that had to speak up for Bangla minorities has lost its voice. Our government should give assurances on safeguarding the interests of minorities in India and thereby become models for Pakistan and Bangladesh on how minorities should be treated. Sponsoring violence against minorities here and at the same time lecturing the neighbouring countries about minority rights do not help. India should first safeguard its unity and send an indirect message and warning to other countries. It is high time our government understands that it is impossible to fight and win over external enemies when we ourselves are caught in fierce battles over caste and religion.
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Patna-bound IndiGo flight makes emergency landing at Lucknow due to bad weather
Lucknow (PTI): Adverse weather forced an IndiGo Kolkata-Patna flight to make an emergency landing at Lucknow airport on Friday, airport sources said.
According to airport officials, weather conditions in Patna deteriorated suddenly on Friday afternoon, affecting flight operations.
IndiGo flight 6E 6917 from Kolkata, which was scheduled to land in Patna at 3.50 pm, could not land due to bad weather and kept circling in the air after failing to get clearance from air traffic control, they said.
The flight was later diverted to Lucknow and landed safely at the Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport at around 5.15 pm. There were 180 passengers and six crew members on board, officials said.
The aircraft was later allowed to depart for Patna after weather conditions improved.
