On 9 February, 2013, more than one year and a half ago, I along with my friend was in Dhaka, when the Shabagh Square protest had just begun. We were there to understand the real situation then prevailing in Bangladesh as well as the motivation behind the Shabagh movement.
On 9 February, after Fajr Salat, we took breakfast and then left Darul- Rashad Madrasa, Mirpur, where we were staying, to visit some places. The in-charge of Darul- Rashad guest house advised us not to go to Shabagh because of our dress and looking like a member of (Islami Chatra) Shibir, the students wing of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami (BJI). He also requested us not to get involved in any political discussion. However, we visited some places, including Shabagh.
AN UNKNOWN FEAR
Every newspaper vendor refused us to sell the opposition parties’ daily with an unknown fear. At last a footpath vendor gave us The Dainik Sangram of BJI from a secret place of his shop. After a long journey we reached the Shabagh Square. From Mirpur to Shabagh, during this two-hour journey, I always tried to talk with common people to know their opinions on the political situation. But I found most of them in a state of internal fear about talking on political issues, though we were Indians. Here it is necessary to mention that most of the Bangladeshi people respect and love Indians, especially Indian Muslims. Despite this, the faces at bus stops, in markets, shops and on roads displayed an unknown fear.
IN SHABAGH SQUARE
Ten to twelve groups of youngsters were seen here and there. Such a group was performing a street-drama produced by Uduchi, the cultural wing of a leading communist party there. The protest was going on under full support of the government and led by atheist and communist leaders like Imran H. Sarkar, an atheist and leader of Chatra League, the students wing of Awami League, Rashed Khan Menon, Khalequzzaman Choudury, and Rajib Haider.
The communist parties and ‘Bangali’ nationalist intellectuals have been trying since the ‘Language’ Movement in 1952 to de-Islamise the literature, culture, education, politics, universities, and other sectors of Bangladesh. After 1971 the Awami League Party played a role as a communist party. By forming its government, the Awami League planned to destroy each and every Islamic sign and tradition. For instances, Awami League rejected the word ‘Muslim’ from its name, dubbing it as a ‘communal’ word. So, the ‘Awami Muslim League’ became ‘Awami League’ only. The ‘Salimullah Muslim Hall’ was changed into ‘Salimullah Hall’. The ‘Nazrul Islam College’ became ‘Nazrul College’. They wiped out ‘Bismillah Sharif’ from Bangladesh constitution. They did not bear even the Dua of every Muslim: ‘Rabbi Zidni Ilma’; they threw it from Dhaka University monogram. There are a dozen of such examples in the history of Bangladesh.
During the long walk at Shabagh Square we stopped suddenly in front of a group of school girls. Each of them was being served a packet of ‘Biryani’ with a bottle of mineral water. On the red colour packet was written ‘Dainik Ganakantha’, a daily belonging to a communist party with very thin circulation. This prompts a big question: how such a little Leftist daily provided food and water for each of the protestors, when according to Indian media they were more than one lakh. But for the government’s or any other’s help it was impossible to spend such a large amount of money.
IDEOLOGICAL BACKGROUND
The protest erupted just a few hours after the order of life sentence against Abdul Quadir Mollah issued by the so-called International War Crimes Tribunal on 5 January, 2013. The protestors demanded this order be changed to death penalty along with ban on Islam-based politics, especially on the BJI. This is an old cry of the communists and ‘Bangali’ nationalists since 1971. The first Awami League Government led by Sk. Mujibur Rahman also banned the BJI (then known as Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh) and other Islamic parties and imprisoned all opposition leaders. Sk. Mujib was influenced by communist think-tank and ‘Bangali’ nationalists. But fortunately they could not fulfil their blue-print due to Sk. Mujib’s murder by military along with his entire family on 15 August, 1975. It should be mentioned here that most of the Bangali nationalist thinkers are atheist and anti-Islam. When I talk of ‘Bangali’ nationalists, I do not mean ‘Bangladeshi’ nationalists.
According to the practical life of ‘Bangali’ nationalists, it is impossible to be a good ‘Bangali’ without rejecting Islamic values and cultures or, to put in other words, without being an atheist. And there is very little difference between ‘Bangali’ nationalists and ‘Bangali’ communists.
According to Lenin, it is a universal policy of the communist movement that if there is no possibility of success of a communist revolution in a country soon, then take part in the popular nationalist movement and then try to establish its ideology. The present scenario in Bangladesh is the result of the implementation of this communist policy.
The main plus-point of the communists and the ‘Bangali’ nationalists is that the Awami League government is convinced by their ideology and it is being micro-managed by them in all affairs, especially in taming the Islamists.
On the contrary, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) used the organisational strength of BJI, but did not believe in its (Islamic) policy. So we could safely conclude that Sk Hasina and her government is only a puppet in the hands of anti-Islam forces.