West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said that the Centre should ensure that religious minorities in Bangladesh are protected, The Hindu reported.
The Trinamool Congress chief, in a public address, said that the protection of religious minorities was the responsibility of the Centre.
However, the Opposition was showing more responsibility, she added. “The task that should be done by the prime minister [Narendra Modi] is being done by the Opposition,” Banerjee said.
Several incidents of violence against religious minorities were reported in Bangladesh after the collapse of the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government on August 5. Tensions escalated in the past few weeks after three Hindu monks were arrested on charges of sedition and several Hindu temples came under attack.
Bangladesh’s interim government said that 88 cases were filed in connection with violence between August 5 and October 22, while 70 persons were arrested.
On Monday, Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri conveyed New Delhi’s concerns about the safety of religious minorities in Bangladesh to Mohammad Jashim Uddin, his counterpart in Dhaka.
Misri visited Dhaka on Monday, marking the first high-level diplomatic meeting between India and Bangladesh since August 5.
Referring to this meeting, Banerjee on Wednesday also noted that the Centre sent its representative to Bangladesh and added that the protection of religious minorities came in its purview and not under the jurisdiction of the state.
“I heard that the number of visas has been increased so that more people can come here [India] from there,” she said, The Hindu reported. “They should make arrangements [to] bring our people from there. The ones who want to come back should be brought back.”
She also said that the state government had not received instructions about the closure of the border. “If there was any such order we would have been notified,” Banerjee said.
The chief minister added that it was the responsibility of the majority to protect the minorities in society.
Banerjee also said that the public should refrain from sharing fake videos about the ongoing tensions between the two countries on social media to prevent an escalation of the situation.
Over the past few weeks, several videos have been circulating on social media showing purported attacks on minorities and the vandalising of temples.
In response to her remarks, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Suvendu Adhikari said that Banerjee should prove that these videos were fake. “This is an insult to Hindus and their culture,” he said. “In 2026, you will not get any Hindu votes because you are anti-Hindu. Now, Hindus are getting united.”
Silence shown by United Nations deeply saddening: ISKON
On Tuesday, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, or ISKCON, urged the the United Nations to take note of the violence against religious minorities in Bangladesh and added that its “silence” on the matter was “deeply saddening”.
“Wake up, @UNHumanRights! Wake up—at least today, on Human Rights Day [on December 10],” said Radharamn Das, vice-president of ISKCON in Kolkata. “Your silence and blind eye toward the ongoing Bangladesh human rights violations are deeply saddening and heartbreaking.”
He also posted a video of a man purportedly threatening religious minorities in the neighbouring country. “Just listen to this open call of genocide against Bangladeshi minorities & wake up,” Radharamn Das added.
His remarks came two weeks after the arrest of Hindu leader Chinmoy Krishna Das on sedition charges for allegedly insulting Bangladesh’s national flag during a rally in Chittagong on October 25.
Das is the spokesperson of the Sammilito Sanatani Jagaron Jote, an organisation that advocates for the rights of Hindus and other minorities in Bangladesh. He was formerly associated with ISKON.
After his arrest, New Delhi had urged Dhaka to “ensure the safety and security of Hindus and all minorities, including their right of freedom of peaceful assembly and expression”.
In response, Shafiqul Alam, the press secretary of the Yunus-led government, had said that Hindus were “well protected” in Bangladesh, India Today reported. He alleged that Indian media outlets were running an “industrial scale misinformation campaign” about the state of minorities in his country.
“They [Hindus] are more protected than they were during Sheikh Hasina’s regime,” the official had told India Today.
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