Dr. Ibrahim Islam

Violence, hatred, division – these are unpleasant words. Its meaning can be found in the dictionary. Synonyms of those words can be found in the dictionaries of other languages of the world. The meaning of those words is the same in the dictionary of all languages of the world. When students and teachers go to the interpretation of those words, they realize that there should not be an environment of violence, hatred and division in human society. But the question is, should we all be involved in action? The atmosphere of hatred and division can still be observed in the world because of the absence. Due to such an environment, not only poor countries but also developed countries are getting polluted. Society with few people, country with many people. That is to say, if people are not free from the smallness of hatred and division, how will the society and the country be suitable for people to live in? We know that politicians are very influential among people. But if the politicians for the sake of power incite hatred and division among the people, then where will the situation stand? Society and the country will be suitable for people to live? In the machinations of unscrupulous politicians, minorities are persecuted due to differences in language, caste or religion. A similar phenomenon can be observed in our neighboring country India. The architects of the country wanted to build India as a democratic and secular state. For this reason, the constitution of the country of many religions, castes and languages has spoken about the philosophy of unity in diversity. But now a different picture is being observed under BJP rule. The politics of hate and division are now being given priority. As a result, the plight of minorities is now in India.

In Assam, India, some complaints have been lodged against the Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sharma for making ‘hateful’ statements against Bengali-speaking Muslims. On Monday July 17, the first-line opposition parties of Assam made those allegations. However, Congress has not yet opened its mouth on this. Note that the Muslims of Assam are referred to as ‘Miya’ in contempt. Chief Minister Vishwasharma ‘Miya’ issued a statement last week blaming the monopoly of farmers and traders for the rise in prices of vegetables. Vishwa Sharma urged the youth to engage in agriculture and other commercial activities by dismissing the ‘Miya’ Muslims. Minority organization ‘Assam Minority Struggle Parishad’ filed the first complaint against the Chief Minister in Central Assam’s Nagaon Sadar Police Station. He was accused of creating discord and enmity between the ‘Miya’ and Assamese communities. Independent member of Assam Rajya Sabha Ajit Kumar Bhuiyan also filed a complaint against the Chief Minister at Dispur police station. In the complaint, he said, the Chief Minister has spread tension in the society by targeting a particular community. He also demanded the arrest of the Chief Minister citing specific laws of the Supreme Court to prevent such communal speech and tension. Meanwhile, the Assam State Committee of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPIM) has lodged a complaint against the Chief Minister with the Latasil police station in the capital Guwahati. The party’s state secretary Suprakash Talukder and central committee member Isfakur Rahman complained. The two Left leaders alleged that the Chief Minister had made communal and hate speech aimed at creating division and tension between the Hindu and Muslim communities. Besides, the Assam branch of Trinamool Congress has written to the Chief Justice about this. Trinamool Congress State President Ripun Borar said the Chief Minister’s statement about the ‘Miya’ community shows that the failure to stop the rise in the price of essential commodities in Assam and the attempt to blame the Muslim community and dismiss the Assamese youth for it proves that the BJP and its leaders are completely dependent on the politics of division. It should be noted that Mehbub Mufti, the leader of the Democratic Party, gave his first speech on Sunday opposing the comments of the Chief Minister of Assam about Muslims. Hyderabad lawmaker Asaduddin Wai also expressed anger at Biswa Sharma’s statement. Some leaders of India’s opposition parties even complained against Biswa Sharma’s communal and hate speech. Now it remains to be seen how much it can be remedied.

Sectarianism and hate speech are emerging as a major crisis for India. The Muslim community has largely been excluded from the cattle trade in India’s Uttar Pradesh and the family leather trade in the state’s Kanpur district. Many of them came to West Bengal and started business. But this is the first time that the Chief Minister of an East Indian state has announced an ‘economic boycott’. Observers believe that the business and life of the minority Muslim community may be affected after such an announcement by Bish Sharma. Realizing how damaging the politics of communal hatred and division can be to the minority citizens of a country. Such a picture of a supposedly large democratic and secular state like India tells us how far people are still from humane society! Being a ‘real man’ has become the greatest task for the human race in the current civilization. But the big people of big countries are now busy building big weapons. Where do they have time to think about being human?