Kolkata: The BJP on Saturday requested West Bengal Governor MK Narayanan to prevail upon the Centre for putting diplomatic and other pressures on Bangladesh to take steps for the safety of the minorities there.
In a memorandum to the Governor, a BJP delegation said it was concerned at the violence in minority-dominated areas in Bangladesh such as Satkhira, Noakhali, Pabna, Narsingdi, Lakshmipur, Banskhali, Rupnagar following the Shahbag protests in Dhaka and the reaction of obscurantist and fundamentalist forces in that country.
"Of special concern are the arson attacks on the houses, properties and temples of minority communities by religious fundamentalists and zealots in Bangladesh. It appears that any disturbance in Bangladesh is fair excuse for the fundamentalist forces for tormenting its minorities," it said.
The memorandum said "we are extremely frustrated with the attitude of so-called intellectuals of India in general and West Bengal, in particular, on the attack on minorities at Bangladesh."
It alleged that some of these intellectuals cried foul at American attacks on Vietnam, Nicaragua, Cuba, Iraq and Afghanistan. "But about persecution of their first cousins in erstwhile East Pakistan and Bangladesh, they have been strangely silent.
"Opposed to this, in the case of attacks on Tamils in Sri Lanka, all the political parties and the Tamil Nadu government had caused the Central Government to put pressure on the Government of Sri Lanka for the safety of Tamils in that country. But all political parties of India have remained silent on the issue of violence on minorities at Bangladesh, `presumably with a view to guarding their vote bank in India`.
It said that `state-sponsored violence` was unleashed on minorities shortly after Independence in 1947. As a result, more than a crore of Hindus, Buddhists, Christians and Ahmediyyas of East Pakistan had to undergo untold privation, "in the shape of murder, rape and destruction of property."
The BJP also requested the governor to get the West Bengal government to prevent illegal entry of infiltrators while at the same time allowing entry of refugees and arranging at least camp accommodation for them.
PTI
