THE US director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s saying in an interview with India’s NDTV World on March 17 — now owned by the Adani Group alleged to be fuelling the hinduvta agenda of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological parent of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party — that the United States is deeply concerned about the situation in Bangladesh in ‘the event of the persecution of religious minorities’ is misleading. She has also noted that this continues to remain a central focus area of concern as she has spoken about ‘the rise of Islamic extremism and terrorist elements in Bangladesh.’ This appears part of India’s disinformation campaign riding on the corporate-backed hindutva project that has continued since the August 2024 political changeover in Bangladesh. The remark has rightly prompted the chief adviser to the interim government of Bangladesh, Muhammad Yunus, to tell the visiting US senator Gary Peters at a meeting in Dhaka the next day that the attacks on the minorities, notably the Hindus, after the 2024 political changeover were politically, and not religiously, motivated, noting that the Bangladesh authorities have taken prompt action against the perpetrators.
There is, in fact, hardly any scope to view the attacks as being religiously motivated because the Hindus have traditionally been close to the Awami League and after the overthrow of the Awami League government, which had ruled Bangladesh for more than a decade and a half in an authoritarian manner, attacks by political opponents on the Muslims, the Hindus and, perhaps, people of other faiths close to the fallen government were a consequent outburst of rage. Yunus has reaffirmed his government’s commitment to upholding rights of every citizen irrespective of their colour, creed, race, sex and gender. The day when the interviewer Vishnu Som, who called Tulsi Gabbard’s attention to the issue and called her a devout Hindu — she became the first Hindu American member of the US Congress — and Tulsi Gabbard were talking about this, violence erupted in the Mahal area of Nagpur amidst allegations that the holy book of the Muslims was burnt during an agitation by right-wing Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal, demanding the removal of Aurangzeb’s tomb in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar of Pune. This is unfortunate that when Indian authorities cannot ensure the safety of religious minorities there in India — there have been many such incidents in the past — it meddles in Bangladesh’s affairs on the pretext of ‘the persecution of religious minorities.’
The United States would, therefore, do well in not making biased comments and India, along with the media apparatus that it runs to advance the hindutva agenda, should keep off any smear campaigns against Bangladesh.