Editorial Desk :Indian Foreign Secretary Mr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar during his brief visit to Dhaka on Thursday offered his government’s total support to work together “bilaterally” with Bangladesh to eliminate terrorism and violent extremism now making the country highly volatile. The US Ambassador to Dhaka Marcia Bernicat earlier on Monday had said after meeting with Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque that ” Our three governments – Bangladesh, India and the USA – all fighting extremism. We are all on the same page here. All three of us are on the same page in that regard.” The three-country strong counter-terrorism platform as proposed in which Bangladesh, India and the USA will fight terrorism together is being widely discussed at various levels. But when Indian Foreign Secretary Jaishankar said on Thursday in Dhaka that he knew nothing about it and only came to know of it from media report here, appears to be highly intriguing to observers of the development.Jaishankar met civil society leaders at a breakfast meeting in the capital on Thursday but they were totally different people than whom the US Assistant Secretary for South Asia Nisha Desai Biswal met during her earlier stay in Dhaka to know about Bangladesh situation. The newspaper editors are not considered important because some of them are partisan, others fear to discuss the situation freely. It may be suggestive that despite both the countries are opposed to terrorism; they fall apart from each other with respect to their national interests. Jaishankar came on Dhaka visit immediately after the high profile visit of Nisha Desai Biswal who was sent by Secretary of State John Kerry to offer the US government’s total support to Bangladesh in its fight against terrorism. Desai’s announcement to help Bangladesh to eliminate terrorism and violent extremism before it takes roots came with the fresh wound in mind of the killing of US embassy officer Xulhaz Mannan and his friend few days back. In short the US is not only describing the situation as not terrorism, but believe it must not take roots. That is optimistic for us. The offer of the three-way fight against terrorism in Bangladesh came from the US and obviously they are not telling publicly the whole truth. But India’s announcement to bilaterally fight terrorism with Bangladesh mainly is based on protecting interest of minority in Bangladesh. We shall not be surprised if he also did not tell the whole truth. He expressed concern about safety of minority in Bangladesh meaning that the Hindus are persecuted and killed. Our observation is that in a democracy there is no group which should be considered minority. All are equal, enjoying equal opportunity.Under the present government a considerable number of important public positions are held by Hindus. What we would like to suggest to India is that it has to be very sensitive in its relationship with Bangladesh. The Hindu-Muslim suspicion goes back to British days and has to be ended by Hindus and Muslims living together happily. It has to be accepted as true that safety cannot be available to a particular group of people if lives of all others are not safe. In Bangladesh, more Muslims have been targets of killing than others. Only yesterday we read news of an Awami League young leader stabbed to death. In Union Parishad elections some 80 persons were killed — more than the so-called “terrorists” have killed during the same period. More than the USA, we expect India to understand our internal politics better for its close association with Bangladesh, that the crisis is wholly political. India knows as much we know the politics of exclusion and intolerance is creating political anger among the people and opportunities for violence. Depriving the people free elections hurts every sensible person.Our politics is primarily based to use of force against force and not free election. There are few who are fighting the liberation war against anti-liberation forces of their choice. Tolerance and compromise are virtues of democracy. In Bangladesh shortly after independence conspiracy began to kill democracy. People of Bangladesh have proved that they are democratic minded and not communal. But the general public have been sidelined. No one can blame the people for whatever ugly is found here. Political considerations and vision are lacking in managing the affairs of the country. The truth is not welcome, so it is near absent in our public affairs. The self-seekers are benefited by misleading the government detached from the people. That situation is politically most explosive should be understood. Even the opposition is not political for political solution. Our politics is intertwined with plunder. So we have no doubt that we need help from our democracy practising friendly countries. We have no terrorism in the sense it is understood, but we have extremism as a political problem. It will be wrong to fight supposed terrorism with brutal terrorism. All violence and killings cannot be called terrorism. It will be a grave mistake if political solution is not sought.
