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All the king’s men

Hana Shams Ahmed
"What caste were you when you came to mother earth ?
And what caste did you 'wear' thereafter?
What would be your caste when you depart this world?
Thinkaboutit.
And give mean answer. "
- From the hymn 'Jaatgelo jaat geloboley'
Attributed to be the work of Fakir Lalon Shah
FIRST it was "fugitive" Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid who went "missing" from the law-enforcers net only to be seen by rest of the country at a high-profile meeting with none other than the chief adviser of the caretaker government. Then, the government worked with amazing speed at the complaint of the bigots and ordered the airport and civil aviation authorities to take down the sculptures of the hauls. 50 lakh takas had already been spent on it.
This is the same government, by the way, which has been paying lip service to the cause of the trial of the war criminals. Even after several appeals by the Sector Commanders Forum and other groups to initiate the process of the trial, this government has chosen to look the other way. This is also the same government which has been sitting on the draft policy against sexual harassment, just like all other previous governments, and expressing shyness about taking a decision about it. But given how much resistance and intimidation was faced by the government after implementing the [watered down] National Policy on
Advancement of Women, this dilly-dallying does not come as much of a surprise.
The latest incident seems to have been incited by none other than the Islami Oikya Jote chairperson Fazlul Huq Amini who "announced" that "all sculptures in the country should be razed to the ground." Amini is the same person who carried out a violent and hate-filled campaign against the Ahmadiyya Muslim community in 2004-05. He is also the person behind the furious protest against the women's policy, proclaiming a fatwa that by announcing the policy, the caretaker government has spoken against the Quran. Amini also said in a press statement that if ever an Islamic party came to power in Bangladesh it would ban Grameen Bank from operating in the country, calling Nobel laureate Yunus, an "enemy of Islam." So the government has basically given in to a demand of a group which is essentially anti-secularism, anti-women's empowerment, and anti-empovverment of the poor!
And the giving in to this demand seems to be spreading across the country like a virus. Already a statement signed by 101 leaders of various Islamic groups has demanded that the construction of a sculpture named Bijay Bihanga, or the bird of victory being set up in Barsial marking the liberation of the city from the Pakistani forces in 1971, should be immediately stopped. The work had been 'approved' by religious leaders earlier.
At one time Bangladesh was termed as a moderate Muslim country. The majority Muslims could live peacefully with people of other faiths -- the second largest followers of the faith, the Hindus along with Christians.
Buddhists and other minorities. Although inter-faith marriages were culturally been frowned upon, religion induced clashes were unheard of. And then the bombs went off at the Pahela Boishakh celebrations in 2001, which proved to be a turning point in changing the country's identity of" moderate Muslim."
But how did Amini and many like him get to this position of power? After Ershad's fall in 1991 the Bangladeshi public were only too happy to see BNP and AL either in power or as the opposition in the parliament. After nine years of dictatorship rule, what more could the people ask for?
The first blow came when BNP decided that forming a coalition with Jamaat, many of whose leaders are known collaborators of the Pakistan army, would give them the political edge they needed to stay in parliament.
The second blow came when Awami League, who boasted of being secular-left in nature, decided it. too. would form a coalition with Khclafat Majlish. That coalition never worked out, but the damage had been done. When the two major political parties have shown their insecurities in front of extremist groups, expecting a caretaker government to take a stand against the hard-liners would be too much to expect. Or would it?
The political identity of Bangladesh is changing fast. If the caretaker government does indeed want to root out corruption and restore its identity as a moderate Muslim country, giving in to the demands of the hard-liners must stop immediately. That can only start with the restoring of the baul sculptures to where they belong.
Hana Shams Ahmed is Staff Writer. The Star magazine