Indrajit Kumar

Why at this time, the issue of the letter of 6 US congressmen  is very inappropriate and illogical, when US President Joe Biden himself, in a letter to PM Sheikh Hasina, has praised Bangladesh’s role in global peacekeeping recently and Bangladeshi peacekeepers have been playing an important role in UN peacekeeping operations for more than three decades and British Parliamentarians learn about Bangladesh: ‘A beacon of religious freedom’

As the 12th National Assembly elections are approaching, conspiracies are increasing to keep the government under pressure. The web of conspiracy has spread not only within the country but also abroad. As part of that, six congressmen recently wrote a letter to US President Joe Biden. It has been accused of various human rights violations including persecution of minorities in Bangladesh.

‘As the information given in the letter is not true, its language is not diplomatic manners, rather indecent. It contains misleading information. The language of the letter is also very weak. They alleged that this letter was given in exchange of money by hiring a lobbyist abroad. They said that such incidents are not new, but they have been trying to destabilize the government for a long time. The six congressmen who wrote the letter had never spoken about Bangladesh before. This letter has been written by appointing lobbyists. Even only one out of six congressmen have uploaded their letter on their website. In other words, they did not take the letter seriously. Before this they never talked about the good and bad of Bangladesh. But it is our surprise that they have talked about taking action against Bangladesh in the first letter. The letter was sent to the White House on May 25. As of writing the report on Monday (June 5), none other than Congressman Bob Goode had published it on his website.

Poor letter language is not diplomatic etiquette

Referring to the language of the letter as indecent, we see that when Quader Molla was sentenced to death for war crimes in December 2013, before the execution of the verdict, the then US Secretary of State John Kerry called Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, so that the verdict was not executed. Kerry said to Sheikh Hasina, ‘You stay the death sentence. If you don’t do that, then the election that will be held on January 5, 2014, will have an adverse effect.

The US is not doing it new. Bangladesh Prime Minister was called by their Foreign Minister to suspend execution of war criminals. Lobbyists can be hired in the United States. Any country or business organization can employ this lobbyist and it does not reflect the truth. Congressmen are members of the House of Representatives, the lower house of the US Parliament. Senate is the upper house. They can be told anything with money. They will always speak for justice, but not.

The speech given by the senators and their language is not diplomatic etiquette. The letter contains words and phrases that cannot be used in other countries—inappropriate. Diplomatic language, what we do in state-to-state petitions, but this is not the case. If there is no democracy, press and freedom of speech, it can be said from within Bangladesh as well. But they told foreigners. The big proof that Bangladesh has the right to speak is that their speech has been aired on Bangladeshi television and aired in the United States as well.

‘The claim that they have made that they have no right to speak is not correct. Because there are democratic rights… This is what they said about oppression, a few days ago the former manager of Grameen Bank and Nobel laureate professor Dr. Muhammad Yunus is being tortured, harassed – such a statement was made by forty people. It has been published as an advertisement in an influential newspaper of the United States at the expense of a large amount of money. it appeared that Dr. Yunus himself has evaded taxes, which he has admitted, the case is termed as harassment. A well-known person, a Nobel-winning economist, has tax evasion, for which he has been prosecuted, a case which some American people, including senators, members of the House of Representatives, including forty prominent people, called it ‘harassment’.

When law enforcement agencies take action against bigots, extremism, militancy, it is referred to as political persecution. They call it harassment, claim that there is no democracy in Bangladesh. But those who wanted to thwart the 2014 election, murder, rape; Arson, petrol bombs, hartal-blockade for three consecutive months in 2015, when the law-and-order forces stood up and took action against those violent activities, they termed it as political oppression.

They can talk about if something real happens, if the state does something wrong, takes away people’s rights. But it seems to me, most of what these six congressmen said are made up or taught by others. They spoke as if they were working for a lobbyist firm. They should not speak like this as elected representative of the American people. They should be wary of interfering in the internal affairs of other countries.

Apart from the economic and diplomatic scope, Bangladesh is involved with the United States in various activities. United Nations, World Bank and IMF are headquartered in the United States. Bangladesh is always playing an active and positive role in the activities of those organizations.

Such a country, which gained its independence at the cost of three million people’s blood, and America gave money and arms to Pakistan against that independence, they should still say this before making a statement about Bangladesh. Fifty-two years ago, the US aided Pakistan in carrying out the genocide in Bangladesh with weapons, which was wrong. They should have mentioned at the beginning of the letter, when Mukti Bahini was on the way to victory, they made a mistake by sending nuclear-armed Seventh Fleet into the Bay of Bengal. But they did not condemn the action of the US government at that time. But if they make a statement, they should say at the beginning that in 1971, the United States stood for the genocide of Pakistan in Bangladesh, we condemn it, it gave weapons to the Pakistanis, we condemn it, we hope that Bangladesh goes on the path of democracy.

Bangladesh is a major trade partner of the United States and said, “We export clothes to their country. But always our workers do not get fair wages. Still, we export garments to that country. But in this case, I am often deprived of fair wages. Do these congressmen criticize, condemn?  Stating that the language of the letter was very rude. This language was undiplomatic.

On May 25, a petition signed by 6 US senators was given to President Joe Biden on the website. The senators are Scott Perry, Bob Goode, Barry Moore, Tim Burchett, Warren Davidson and Keith Self. All of them are Republican Congressmen. The statement of the letter addressed to them is quite long. We are not aware of any lobbyist firms employed in the preparation of this statement. However, the German-based state broadcaster DW (Wood) and Sweden-based Netra News, the two organizations mentioned, have long been known at home and abroad as being run by the anti-government BNP-Jamaat sectarian militant group in Bangladesh. With the names of these two organizations on the letter to the senators, it remains unclear whether the cat in the bag is black or white, innocent or aggressive. Several of their videos are trying to spread the anti-government movement on YouTube at home and abroad. They are also spreading misleading information about the country’s military, independence, sovereignty, etc. in the international and social media. Therefore, the 6 senators cited them to raise various complaints against the government and the call by President Joe Biden to ban the members of the Bangladesh army from participating in the peace mission, actually reflected the desire of Netra News. Not to be outdone, these individuals and groups are heavily involved in spending huge sums of money behind influential lobbyists in the United States.

What is said in the letter

US President Joe Biden has been requested to take urgent action against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government’s violation of human rights. Also, it has been asked to take steps to create the highest environment for the twelfth national parliament election of Bangladesh to be free and fair.

In addition, since 2009, various human rights violations and democracy deprivation have been reported. However, no evidence has been presented. It is alleged that during the current government, the number of Hindus in Bangladesh has decreased by half. Demolition of homes of religious minorities, rape, forced conversions and persecution of Christians have been reported. There have also been allegations of widespread arrests against anti-government protesters. Information about minorities is confusing

Misleading persecutive narrative in the letter?

It is true that false persecution narrative’ has being woven around Hindu minority in Bangladesh. General Secretary of Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Oikya Parishad Rana Dasgupta termed this letter of six US Congressmen to Joe Biden as  misleading and false projection.

When asked about the allegation made in the letter that the number of minorities in Bangladesh has halved during the government of Sheikh Hasina, he said, if we look at the report of the Bureau of Statistics, it can be seen that since the creation of Pakistan in 1947, 29.7 percent of the total population in East Bengal were minorities. By the 1970s it had dropped to between 19 and 20 percent. That is, in the first twenty-three years of Pakistan, about 9.7 percent was lost.

“The minorities of 1970 unanimously voted for the six parties. When the Pakistani government launched Operation Searchlight, they had five directives. One of them is extermination and annihilation of minorities,” added Rana Dasgupta.

This prosecutor of the International Crimes against Humanity Court said that during the liberation war, I saw that according to those instructions, indiscriminate massacres, rapes, looting and conversions took place in the minority villages of East Bengal. Even among the one crore people who became refugees, 92 lakhs were from the Hindu community. After the war of liberation, they returned to their homeland in one cloth.

Rana Dasgupta said, “The claim that the minority population has halved during Sheikh Hasina’s government is not correct. For the last 52 years I have seen the number of minorities decreasing. If Sixth Congress wrote to Joe Biden and claimed that half the population was lost during Sheikh Hasina’s government, then it is not true. He said, “If this is said, then it is not true. It’s confusing.’

Some information in the letter regarding minority issue is a complete lie. The reality is that after the Awami League government came to power, with the help of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, they are living with the recent communalism. They want to create pressure on the government

We can assume that this letter has been influenced by the people of the opposition party in Bangladesh through the lobbyist firm of Congressmen. Explained to them, gave them letters. It has been said that America should not take the Bangladeshi military forces on peacekeeping missions through the United Nations. It can be understood that these are being done to create unrest among people, to create pressure on the government party.

is it possible to implement the letter?

but at the moment this letter is nothing dangerous. Because it’s just a letter. There was no response from the office of the US President. This is a typical letter so far. Interestingly, if Donald Trump wins the election in near future and becomes president, he is not in favor of interfering in these matters of different countries.

Trump has not taken any action on these issues in the past term. But that’s the Democrats’ priority. It is also surprising that they are all Republicans. Because during the Trump era, there is no democracy in any country in the world, whether the elections are good or bad, they did not show any interest in the matter.

There is exaggeration here. Even there is a major lack of data. You can check line by line yourself, there are inconsistencies. In our country too, parliamentarians say many things to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Maybe writes, we know. But don’t take it into account; That is the responsibility of the head of state. such letters have come in the past and will come more in the future. As the election approaches, such activities will increase.  

Why it is inappropriate

US President Joe Biden himself, in a letter to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, has praised Bangladesh’s role in global peacekeeping. (We applaud Bangladesh’s demonstrated commitment to protecting the most vulnerable as the largest contributor to peacekeeping operations)। British Parliamentarians learn about Bangladesh: ‘‘A beacon of religious freedom’’. US also acknowledges Bangladesh’s liberal religious freedom in the ‘2022 Report on International Religious Freedom’ of various countries in 2022 on May 15, 2023. Indian refreshers also said that Bangladesh is a shining example of communal harmony.

Bangladeshi peacekeepers have been playing an important role in UN peacekeeping operations for more than three decades. At this time, the implementation of the letter is very inappropriate. Currently, 6,802 members of the armed and police forces are engaged in peacekeeping operations in nine missions around the world. One of the success stories of Bangladesh in the golden jubilee of independence is its retention of the top position as the country that sends peacekeepers to the United Nations peacekeeping missions. Various international media call Bangladeshi peacekeepers the core or equivalent of the UN peacekeeping force.

Set an example through sheltering Rohingyas

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government’s humanitarian actions in various fields, including the Rohingya issue, have won widespread praise around the world. While many countries in the world with the banner of human rights stop only crying for the Rohingya victims of human rights violations, Bangladesh has sheltered those 11 lakh Rohingya.

Geo politics and lobbyist money behind this

Bob Goode’s solidarity statement with five other congressmen highlighted another issue; That is geopolitics. The statement said that the way Sheikh Hasina’s government is getting closer to China and Russia is harmful to the national security interests of the United States. As a result, it is understood that, apart from the human rights situation, their concern is the closeness of this government with China and Russia. That’s right, geopolitics has changed since the start of the Ukraine-Russia war. The Western countries’ efforts to bring Ukraine into NATO have become fully exposed after Moscow’s aggression. Politically and economically, Russia-China and US allies in the West are trying to build two different rings. In that context, Bangladesh is always trying to adhere to the foreign policy of ‘friendship with all, enmity with none’. As the upcoming elections of Bangladesh are approaching, lobbyists are increasing their efforts to impose some sort of sanctions on Bangladesh by the US administration. Of course, no lobbyist in the United States works for free.