Reconcile To The Truth

The claim that 바카라�the best thing바카라� about the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami is that it did not kill Hindus 바카라�simply because of their faith바카라� but only targeted them as political adversaries 바카라�owing allegiance to the Awami League바카라� is astounding (S.N.M. Abdi, The Monster Breathes Air, Mar 18). As if a secular political murder is better than a communal one. Political murder is as despicable because it runs counter to the grain of democratic politics. This is the first questionable assumption in Abdi바카라�s analysis of the Jamaat-e-Islami. Second, having elevated the Jamaat to a dubious respectability because it doesn바카라�t kill Hindus for their religion, he argues that India must deal with them diplomatically because its members are not 바카라�sworn enemies of India or Hindus바카라�. In effect, he assumes that India바카라�s foreign pol­icy is dictated by Hindu interests.

India is bigger than the sum total of its Hindu population. It is not a Hindu nation and is not in the bus­iness of promotion and protection of Hinduism. There is no Hindu 바카라�umma바카라� (brotherhood). There are, however, international conventions and covenants on human rights, religious freedom etc which India along with every other civilised nation supports. To suggest that India바카라�s foreign policy should be based on how Hindus are treated in a particular country바카라�be it Fiji, Indonesia, Mauritius, Bangladesh or Pakistan바카라�is ludicrous.

Third, Abdi projects the Jamaat as a flexible organisation, ever ready to change and adapt, ostensibly demonstrated by deleting the 바카라�rule of Allah바카라� in its political charter. This, as he admits, was done on the 바카라�prodding바카라� of the Bangladesh Election Commission. However, the constitution of the Jamaat still declares its goal to be "establishing rule of Allah on every nook and corner (sic) of the person, family, society and the state" (). Abdi seems to have taken the change in the charter of registration as proof of a genuine change of ideology, forgetting the old adage, 바카라�All warfare is based on deception바카라�. Doesn바카라�t the RSS claim that it is a 바카라�cultural organisation바카라� while appointing the top political functionaries of the BJP?

Fourth, for Abdi, the progressive credentials of the Jamaat are further established by its promise of 33 per cent reservation for women in the legislature. This, he says, should please the 바카라�Hindutva poster girls like Sushma Swaraj, Sha­ina Chudasama, Nirmala Sitharaman, Smriti Irani and Mee­nakshi Lekhi바카라� of the BJP. The demand for women바카라�s reservation in India is not limited to any one political party. His gratuitous abuse of the BJP adds nothing to understanding the communal character of the party and doesn바카라�t bolster his secular credentials. Cheap abuse, especially against women in public life, is unacceptable and Abdi should not expect his friends바카라�I am one of them바카라�to stand by and applaud.

Fifth, Abdi assumes that it would be productive for India to engage the Jamaat in a dialogue. He does not say what would be the aim of engaging with an organisation which participated in the genocide in 1971. Though not all the three million people killed then were murdered by the Jamaat, it has not renounced either violence or its actions of 1971. Although politics is the art of the possible, there are red lines which are not crossed even in that most public of arenas. 

These outlandish suggestions follow from Abdi바카라�s acceptance of the Jamaat바카라�s reinvented narrative of itself. In doing so, he ignores the counter-narrative which most Bangladeshis바카라�and others concer­ned with the spread of Islamist fundamentalism바카라�believe.

The Jamaat as an organisation, led by radical clerics, wants to cre­ate an Islamic state there. It regrets the formation of Bangladesh and collaborated with the Pakistan army in hunting down and killing fellow citizens. Its leaders stand accused of rape, murder and arson. Even today, the Jamaat dreams of a 바카라�neo-Pakistan바카라� and along with its allies, the Islamic Okiya Jote and the Bangladesh National Party (BNP), wants to 바카라�revive the spirit of 1947바카라� when the Partition of India took place based on the two-nation theory, 바카라�restore Islamic values바카라� and bring Bangladesh 바카라�out of Indian domination바카라�. 

During 1971, the activists of the Jamaat바카라�s student wing,  Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba and Islami Chhatra Sangha (now, Islami Chhatra Shibir), actively helped the Pakistan army set up militias to hunt down freedom fighters. Matiur Rahman Nizami, later to become a minister in Khaleda Zia바카라�s government, led a ferocious militia called Al Badr바카라�its death squads specialised in killing prominent intellectuals and activists. This is the organisation which Abdi seeks to adorn with respectability and provide the oxygen of legitimacy.