Doing away with ‘secularism’ to hurt minority rights

Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Oikya Parishad yesterday said the proposal to remove secularism from the constitution was unacceptable.

"Excluding secularism is tantamount to opposing religious freedom and denying that discrimination against religious and ethnic minorities exists in the state and society," said Monindro Kumar Nath, acting general secretary of the association.

It means endorsing all forms of communalism and the misuse of religion for political gains and absolving the state of the responsibility to protect the freedom of all religious communities, he said at a press conference at Jatiya Press Club.

According to newspaper reports from August 20, 2024, to December 31, 2024, there were 174 incidents of communal violence, mostly in rural areas. In some of the incidents, multiple families were attacked and affected, he said, reading a written statement

In the 174 incidents, 23 were killed, nine woman were raped, gang-raped or abused, it said.

In 64 of the incidents, places of worship were either vandalised, looted or set on fire.

During the period, 15 people were arrested or assaulted after they were accused of disrespecting religion; in 38 incidents, homes and businesses were either vandalised, looted or set on fire; in 25 incidents, homes, land and businesses were taken over. 

The government, instead of taking incidents of communal violence seriously, has adopted a strategy of dismissing them as false, exaggerated, and fabricated reports.

"Regardless of how these ongoing violence are interpreted, the association believes that since August 4, religious and ethnic minority communities have been targeted in a series of violent attacks. Homes, places of worship, and businesses belonging to minorities have been attacked, vandalised, looted, and set on fire. Crimes such as rape and murder have also been committed," Manindra added.

Minority communities across Bangladesh are living with trauma, he said.

"The government is denying that the violence [happened] by labelling it as politically motivated and failing to arrest the actual perpetrators. As a result, miscreants are getting away with impunity, further endangering the minority communities."

The association then accused the interim government of using state institutions to carry out discriminatory practices against minorities, saying 804 sub-inspectors were dismissed in four phases. On October 21, 2024, of the 321 officers dismissed, 103 were from minority communities. Additionally, of the 55 female officers dismissed, 16 were from minority groups.

The Oikya Parishad termed these actions a violation of country laws and human rights.

On December 15, 25 out of 66 trainee assistant police superintendents were issued show-cause notices, and 21 were later dismissed, including 9 from minority communities. In the 43rd BCS, 227 individuals were dismissed, 82 of whom were from minority communities.

The Oikya Parishad in the statement also criticised the government for prioritising quotas over merit, which goes against the anti-discrimination student movement's slogan.

The association's Organisational Secretary Dipankar Ghosh, President Professor Neem Chandra Bhowmik, Ushatan Talukdar, Nirmal Rozario, and Presidium Member Bhikkhu Sunanda Priyo also spoke.