Hindus Endangered in Bangladesh. Click the video and hear the heart rending cry of a victim.
https://youtu.be/TIj5LrGufNA?si=QpgzXhRw9C38Qgte
Hindus in Bangladesh
A Reign of Terror on
Hindus in Bangladesh
Nidhu Bhusan Das
The Hindus in Bangladesh are under attack. The security forces of the country are allegedly hand in glove with the Islamists against the largest religious minority since the departure of Prime Minister Shekh Hasina from Ganabhawan,Dhaka under apparently unsustainable pressure on 5 August 2024 and the takeover of the reign by Dr.Mohammad Yunus.
The siruation,according to observers,is like the one that emerged in the wake of the fall of Bastille in Paris to the mob fury on 14 July 1789.The lawlessness and reign of terror that is unleashed against the Hindus reminds one of the France post the storming and fall of the Bastille. The attck on the Hindus on 5 Novemer night in Chittagong is the latest instance of atrocities against the Hindus.It was a combined attack of security forces comprising the Army, paramilitary BGB,police and the Islamists.
The newspaper The Chittagong Hill Tracts today (7 November 2024) reported the atrocity and atrocious role of the security forces in details. Mr.Sanjoy Kumar Barua reports :Since the evening of November 5, 2024, the Bangladesh Army, along with Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) and local police forces, have launched a violent and targeted crackdown on Hindu-majority areas in Chattogram.
Reports from victims and eyewitnesses in the region indicate that heavily armed soldiers, backed by paramilitary forces and police, have been conducting door-to-door raids in Hindu neighborhoods including Hazarigolli and its surrounding localities.
The security forces are accused of forcibly entering homes, rounding up all male residents, and taking them into custody under unclear circumstances.
In a disturbing escalation of violence, several reports claim that security personnel have also destroyed CCTV cameras to prevent documentation of the atrocities.
The crackdown followed a large-scale protest by Hindus against a Facebook post by a Muslim trader, Osman Mollah. The post, which targeted the Hindu Vaishnavite order, International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), contained derogatory remarks, calling for the organization to be declared a terrorist group. Mollah also insulted ISKCON priests and Hindus in general, demanding a ban on the organization.
In response, a group of Hindus gathered outside Mollah’s shop at a shopping center in Hazarigolli, demanding an apology. The situation escalated when the police, responding to distress calls from Mollah’s neighbors, conducted a harsh lathicharge on the protestors. This action angered some Hindus, who retaliated by throwing brickbats at the police.
At least five victims from Chittagong Medical College and Hospital (CMCH), all from the Hindu minority community, have come forward with disturbing accounts of a violent midnight raid allegedly carried out by members of the Bangladesh Army and Islamic extremists.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the victims described the harrowing ordeal in which their homes were forcibly broken into, subjected to brutal torture, and robbed of valuables.
According to the victims, the attackers arrived at their residences in the dead of night, forcibly smashing down doors and windows to gain entry.
The assailants, armed and threatening, then proceeded to assault them physically, with women, children, and elderly individuals among those reportedly targeted.
One victim recounted the terrifying moments: “They came in the middle of the night, broke our doors, and dragged us out. We were beaten, threatened, and had our belongings looted. There was nothing we could do.As a minority we are feeling helpless in Bangladesh.”
Over 200 Hindu men have been arrested in the aftermath of the protest. A Bangladesh Sanatan Jagaran Manch activist expressed grave concern, saying, “We fear some Hindus have been killed. Reports are emerging of radical Muslims, alongside the army and police, abducting Hindu people. We are in constant fear for our lives.”
Hindus in the port city, led by prominent religious leaders, recently held a massive rally to protest the persecution of religious minorities in Bangladesh and to demand stronger protections for their rights.
The rally, where Hindus presented an eight-point charter of demands, ignited protests across Bangladesh. The interim government and Islamic fanatics group, have strongly opposed the demands.
Key demands include a minority protection law, a dedicated Ministry of Minority Affairs with adequate funding, tribunals to prosecute perpetrators of recent attacks on minorities, and compensation and rehabilitation for victims of violence.
Other demands include the construction of places of worship for minorities in all educational institutions, prayer rooms for Hindu, Buddhist, and Christian students in college hostels, the modernization of the Pali and Sanskrit Education Board, upgrading the Hindu, Buddhist, and Christian Welfare Trusts to foundations, and a five-day official holiday for Durga Puja each year.
Recently, calls to ban ISKCON have gained traction in Bangladesh, with several individuals and groups backing the demand.
ISKCON leaders in Dhaka urged Amar Desh editor Mahmudur Rahman to apologize for his public call to ban the organization. In addition, the group “Inqilab Manch” has also called for the prohibition of ISKCON, further escalating tensions.
The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), the prominent Sanatan religious organization, has been accused of involvement in incidents of unrest, acid attacks, and assaults on law enforcement officers in Chittagong’s Hazari Lane, according to local police today.
A police case has been filed against 582 individuals, with 49 arrests made so far. Authorities are also investigating potential political motivations behind the unrest.
Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) Deputy Commissioner for Crime and Operations, Roish Uddin, revealed these details during a press briefing at the Dampara Police Lines media center on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m.
However army spokesperson Lt. Col. Ferdous Ahmed briefed the media on Wednesday that joint forces have arrested 80 individuals in connection with the attack on law enforcement officers and the acid throwing incident at Hazari Lane.
Hasina, 76, fled and took shelter to India, and an interim government, led by Muhammad Yunus, was swiftly established to take her place.
Chicken Neck and the talk of a Union Territory in the North
Chicken Neck
and the talk of a Union Territory in the North
Nidhu Bhusan Das
Partition of Bengal and creation of a
Union territory in the region from Malda to Cooch-Behar is an emotive issue
being talked about emotionally. Bengalis are known for being emotional and can
easily be swayed emotionally when it comes to electoral politics. Statecraft is
not emotion propelled but dominated by logic. If such a Union Territory is found
to be necessary for the security and integrity of Indian Union, no amount of
emotion and political rhetoric would be sufficient to prevent its creation. Now,
is there any logic in point of security and integrity of India in carving a
Union Territory in the north from West Bengal? A Union Territory (UT)
is a federal territory, administered by the union government. In UTs, the
central government appoints the Lieutenant Governor, who is the administrator
and the representative of the President of India.
Say you have a beautiful chicken that
lays an egg every day. You are aware that several times your neighbour has
tried to catch hold of the chicken by its neck for his lone chanticleer (rooster)
with which she stealthily mates. To protect your bird you may consider
different options including keeping its neck out of the reach of your covetous
neighbour.
India has a narrow stretch of land
strategically located in the northern part of West Bengal. This strip of land, about 60 km long and 20 km wide, known as India’s Chicken Neck
or Siliguri Corridor, connects her eight northeastern states with the rest of
the country. So this corridor, the Achilles’ heel in our defence of
almost 2000 kilometres of borders with China and Myanmar, is strategically
important and highly sensitive.
An armed peasant revolt broke out in 1967 in Naxalbari within
the corridor. Sutirtho Patranobis reported in
Hindustan Times from Beijing that on December 13, 1967 a meeting took place in
Beijing between Communist Party of China’s Chairman Mao Zedong and a group of
Naxal leaders, led by Kanu Sanyal. In the 80-minute meeting Chairman Mao
encouraged the Naxal leaders to strive for a “People’s Revolution” in India. This
little-known piece of history was shared with Hindustan Times by Shanghai-based
historian Li Danhui who accessed archives to find out what happened during the
meeting. Why the uprising took place in the Siliguri Corridor is intriguing. It
is also a matter of immense curiosity why the founder of modern China, the
all-powerful Mao Zedong met the Naxal leaders and made several suggestions to
them regarding what should be their revolutionary tactics.
This
corridor is wedged between Bangladesh to the south and the west and China to
the north. Nepal in the east and Bhutan in the west flank the corridor. The Chinese
military (PLA) has to advance just 130 kms to cut off Bhutan, West Bengal and
the north-eastern states of India. It is
only a gateway to the northeastern states of India but also to South-East Asia.
That this strategic location of the Chicken
Neck has always been in the mind and thought of Beijing is clear from the Chinese
maneuvre in Doklam in 2017. Despite an Agreement in 2003 between India and China, Beijing’s
attempts to seize de facto control over the Indo-Bhutan-Chinese region
continued. It culminated in the Doklam standoff between India and China during
June-August 2017.
Doklam is located on the tri-junction of
Sino-Indian-Bhutan border on the Himalayan Range. It is a disputed territory
between China and Bhutan but of great strategic importance for India. It lies
between Chumbi Valley, Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north, our
Sikkim State to the west and Bhutan’s Haa valley and Samtse District to the
east and south respectively. The approximate
distance between Doklam and Siliguri Corridor is only 80 kms.
With China
continuing road and airstrip construction activities on its side of the border,
the threat to the Chicken Neck is a constant one, as the infrastructure could
allow China to mobilise rapidly in the region, say defence analysts. What India needs to worry about is
saving its Chicken Neck from China. China claims 90,000 square kilometres of
territory in the north-east. This menacing stance of the dreaming neighbour has
been a constant threat to the Siliguri Corridor.
Strategically, the Siliguri Corridor is
precisely the point where China could hit in case of an escalating conflict. In
case of such an eventuality, China could change the entire status quo
along the LAC and put India under tremendous pressure.
Now as part of defence preparedness vis-à-vis
Beijing’s expansionist stance, New Delhi cannot but focus on the protection of
the corridor. Defence analysts are of the view that widening and strengthening this corridor is imperative. The first
option for India is to enter into a treaty with Bangladesh permitting not only
transit of military equipment during times of conflict but also civilian
traffic and trade activities. This would add a layer of strategic depth in the
region and alleviate (in some measure) concerns of the possible severance of
the north-east from the mainland.
The treaty can cover multi-modal
transport including road and rail and a smooth movement of freight and
personnel. With the revival of Bimstec India’s relations with Bangladesh have
seen a fillip, with seven pacts on important mutual issues signed between Dhaka
and New Delhi. India and Bangladesh have already mooted a proposal to
facilitate transit with India’s landlocked north-east and PMs of both countries
have issued joint statements in this regard in 2010 and 2016.
Currently, there is a joint working
group which is examining the possibility of connecting Mahendraganj in
Meghalaya to Hili in Bengal through Goraghat, Palashbari and Gaibandha in
Bangladesh. This distance of about 100 km could easily be developed into an
elevated road and rail corridor through Bangladesh.
Other infrastructure development
measures are likely to be in place. Military infrastructure will be developed exponentially
and along with it economic and social infrastructures may be overhauled.
Overall, the region will see such a flurry of development that the stigma of
backwardness will wither away. All such things in such a strategic location can,perhaps,
best be made possible under a central administration.
Truth is the Casualty in Politics
Truth is the Casualty in Politics
Nidhu Bhusan Das
Fudging
the truth is a standard practice in politics.Hitlers Propaganda Minister Joseph
Goebbels said, “Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth.”Goebbelian
prescription is almost unwaveringly followed in politics. The neologism ‘post-truth’
refers to the phenomenon those facts a less influential in shaping public
opinion than appear to emotion and personal belief. Politicians indulge in cool
calculations before embarking on action and play upon the emotion of the targeted
audience to win support. In the process
truth gets clouded and deception creeps in.
Lying is a
moral epidemic. When politics in infested with lies, we fall victim to
distortion of facts, disinformation and post-truth. Diane Komp, Yale Medical
School physician and best-selling author in his book “Anatomy of a Lie” probes
the human soul to uncover the causes of our lies.
Sheikh Hasina, the Prime Minister
of Bangladesh and Ms Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister of West Bengal are exalted
persons. Indian media on the first day of her official visit of India
attributed to Sheikh Hasina the statement that Hindus in Bangladesh would be
hundred percent safe during the ensuing Durga Puja. If this attribution is correct,
the implication is that Hindus in Bangladesh are not usually safe.
In an interview with ANI, the
Bangladeshi PM said, "As long as we are in power, we always give
importance to the minorities and I always tell them that you are our citizens.
You should own our country. Some incidents do take place at times but we take
immediate action. Sometimes unwanted situations are created but you know very
well it is not only Bangladesh, even in India sometimes minorities suffer."
I tend to believe and would feel exalted could the contention of Sheikh Hasina
been taken for granted and had she not fudge the truth which is often accepted
in greater mutual interests. Diplomatic parlance is replete with euphemism.
Let us see what the state of the Hindus
in Bangladesh is. Poet and columnist of Bangladesh Sohrab
Hassan said: “In the country where
violence is done with impunity, the religious minority can never think they are
safe.” I stress the word ‘impunity’ here lies the crux of the problem.
The religious minority Hindus and their places of
worship are often attacked and the community have often fallen victim to
communal violence in the country of 169 million. Silent migration from the
country is relentless and the Hindu population has dwindled to less than 9 percent.
This year the Durga Puja was jeopardized following widespread violence by the
Islamists. Such incidents are not new. Impunity is encouraging for
habitual offenders and new offenders.
A seminal book by
Professor Abul Barkat of Dhaka University, Inquiry into Causes and
Consequences of Deprivation of Hindu Minorities in Bangladesh through the
Vested Property Act, published in 2000 shows that the largest beneficiary
of Hindu property transfer in the past 35 years of Bangladeshi independence
were people belonging to Awami League (the wolves-in- sheep’s
clothing).They grabbed 44.2 per cent of the land. Other grabbers are affiliated
with BNP (31.7%), Jatiya Party (5.8 %), Jamat-e-Islami (4.8%) and others
(13.5%). The greatest appropriation of Hindu property took place immediately
after independence during the first Awami League government (1972–75) and
during the first period of rule of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party
(1976-1980). The confiscation of the land broke the economic backbone of the
Hindus. So, migration of the Hindus is the natural consequence.
Chief
Minister Ms. Mamata Banerjee government contended in an affidavit at Calcutta
High Court that no Dearness Allowance (DA) for the state Government employees is
outstanding. Is it true? The High Court will decide. The opposition said it is
a blatant lie. If the affidavit is based on truth, the issue of outstanding DA
must be false. Should we be allowed to suffer from infodemic?
Lame Duck Opposition in Bengal
Politics of Secret Alliance in Bengal
Lame Duck Opposition in Bengal
Nidhu Bhusan Das
We are
already familiar with the portmanteau Bengali word ‘Bijemool’, a satiric
combination of the names of two political parties BJP and Trinamool Congress.
Before the end of the Left Front rule in West Bengal, a reference to the fruit
‘tarmuj’ was in vogue in the political discourse in the state. Tarmuj referred
to those Congress people who were perceived to be in league with the ruling
Left Front. Tarmuj is deep green outside and red inside. Those congress people,
though bearer of the banner of Congress, were thought to be secretly in
alliance with the Left (red).People of Bengal saw many bloody street fights
between the supporters of the two political outfits but it was widely believed
in the bipartisan political spectrum of the time that the perpetuation of the
Left rule for thirty-four years in the state was possible because of a behind-the-screen-alliance
between Congress and the Left. This perception paved the way for fiery Mamata
Banerjee to become a reliable opposition leader who could win the support of a
major chunk of Congress people and form the Trinamool Congress. While Congress
bled, Trinamool Congress gained in strength and vibrancy. Now Congress, a
weakling, is in open alliance with the Left, another weakling, in the state.
The
people of the state are unlikely to be inspired at the tacit alliance of the
BJP, and Trinamool Congress will definitely continue to harvest the maximum
electoral benefit in case the Congress-Left alliance, though difficult, cannot
become the reliable alternative.
The state BJP has, so far, been a lame duck
opposition with little cohesion in the leadership and its rank and file. No
comprehensive movement against the corruption being unearthed by probe agencies
could be launched throughout the state, and a few Nabanna Abhijans cannot win
the heart of the people. Perhaps BJP think if they can flood Kolkata with
supporters from a few districts, they will win the elections and be able to
unseat Trinamool Congress. This is like building castle in the air. They must
have organization at the grassroots level to fight tooth and nail against the
onslaughts of the ruling party, to protect their workers and supporters in
rural Bengal and be in sustained movement against corruption popularizing the
idea of good governance which the people of West Bengal have not seen since
decades.
The state leadership miserably failed to protect
the party supporters when the post-poll violence erupted after the 2021
Assembly election results had been out. The leaders including state party
President Mr. Dilip Ghosh having Z category security remained out of touch
while the hapless supporters were hounded out of their hearths and homes, many
were injured and killed.
BJP won
18 Loksabha seats in 2019 in the state because people spontaneously voted for
the party wherever they could against the ruling party. If the party think the
state unit and the then state unit president deserve credit for the spectacular
performance, they may still live in a make-believe world, far away from
reality.BJP in the state appears to be pompous and garrulous without any understanding of the needs, desires, aspirations and dream of the
common people across the demography. If
they continue to live in the make-believe-world, doom and back to the
irrelevance of pre-2019 days is their fate.
Unlike
in other states, BJP in West Bengal cannot accommodate new people from other
formations and backgrounds. The old-new conflict proved costly for them in 2021
and the same prevails as they are reluctant to learn from experience. People
from other political backgrounds are scared of migrating into BJP because of
the insularity of the party in the state.
If quick
remedial measures are not taken having the hopes and aspirations of the common
people in mind, exodus of voters from the party is the most likely consequence.
Land Grabbing is the Prime Motive for Persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh
Land Grabbing is the Prime Motive for Persecution of
Hindus in Bangladesh
Nidhu
Bhusan Das
Incidents of persecution of minorities (Hindus) in Bangladesh is on a steep rise. More than 79 Hindus have been killed in the last six months and more than 800 Hindus injured or threatened to be killed. This has made it “extremely” difficult for Hindus to live in that country and Hindu organisations in Bangladesh are asking for help from both India and the Sheikh Hasina government.
“In Bangladesh, what we are witnessing is a silent persecution of the
minorities (Hindu) and it is spread across the country, from killings, to death
threats to attempt to murder, to forced conversion and land grabbing and even
raping of Hindu women, while the government here turns a blind eye. The
government here has even instructed the media not to report incidents involving
the persecution of Hindus. There is targeted and organised crime against Hindus
in this country and sometimes it feels like we must have done something
extremely wrong in our past life to have been born a Hindu in Bangladesh,”
Pradip Chandra, a Bangladeshi Hindu working for Hindu rights in Bangladesh,
told The Sunday Guardian. The statement points to the failure of the government
to protect the right to life and property of the Hindus and the secular credential
of the country. To consider Bangladesh a secular state is ironical,isn't it?
The Hindu population of
Bangladesh fell by 0.59 percentage points to 7.95% in 2022 from 8.54% in 2011,
reports Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
The 2022 census shows
Muslim population increased by 0.60 percentage points to 91% from 90.4% in
2011, while Buddhist population fell marginally by 0.01 percentage points to
0.61% from 0.62% in 2011.
Over the past 50 years,
the total population of the country has more than doubled, but the Hindu
population in the country has decreased by around 7.5 million (75 lakh)
compared to what it should have been based on their percentage at the time of independence
of the country. The number of Buddhists, Christian and persons of other
religions has remained more or less constant.
The 2022 census report
mentioned two factors contributed to the fall of Hindu population: the
first and foremost is outward migration of Hindu population meaning that they
are leaving the country, and the second is lower fertility rate among Hindus.
The Hindu population in Bangladesh has dwindled
progressively since independence in 1971. It is a fact that population of Bangladesh is on the
increase and a reverse trend is evident in case of the Hindus. Not that
the birth rate has decreased and mortality rate scaled up among the Hindus.
Then what could be the reasonable cause for the unnatural / unbiological
decline of the second largest population of the country which fought for
independence from the Islamic Republic of Pakistan with the avowed pledge to
establish a secular state based on a linguistic-cultural nationalism rooted in
the Language Movement of 1952?
The plausible answer is Bangladesh could split off from
Pakistan but could not forsake the heritage of religious persecution. The
heritage may be traced to the Noakhali Genocide of 1946 which made the Hindu
persecution so pronounced. British historian Yasmin Khan in her prize winning
book The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan tells us at least 5,000 Hindus were
massacred, hundreds of Hindu women raped and thousands forcibly converted to
Islam; many more fled to India. Even Mahatma Gandhi’s peace mission to Noakhali
failed to quell the atrocities which continued unabated during his stay. Gandhi
left Noakhali, urging the Hindus there to “Quit Noakhali or Die” (NY Times.
8 April 1947).The same template of persecution is perpetuated by the Islamists
in Bangladesh.
What Gandhi said proved prophetic.
Even after the emergence of Bangladesh, the Hindu population dwindled from
13.5% in 1974 to 8.96% in 2011, a nearly 33% decline. This suggests the prevalence
of a deeply anti-Hindu environment in the country. Besides, on the eve of the
second anniversary of victory in the Bangladesh Liberation War for tenable
reasons the general clemency for the Islamist collaborators was
announced. This paved the way for their rehabilitation and propagation of
Islamist ideology vis-a-vis the nascent secularism in Bangladesh.
True, the Constitution adopted by the
Constituent Assembly in 1972 made Bangladesh a secular democratic republic. The
fundamental rights enshrined in the third part of the constitution,inter alia, promises
equality before law, no discrimination on grounds of religion, right to
protection of law, protection of right
to life and personal liberty and freedom of religion. The noble constitutional
provisions could not come to the rescue of the Hindus because matching actions
were not taken. In contravention of the non-communal provisions of the new
constitution, they retained the anti-Hindu Enemy
Property Act of Pakistan and rechristened it as Vested Property Act in
1974.Bangladesh Government thereby vested itself
with the “enemy” properties previously seized since the 1965 Indo-Pak War and
continued to use the discriminatory law to confiscate the land owned by the
Hindus.
Approximately 1.2 million Hindu
families, or 44% of all Hindu households, have been affected by Enemy/Vested
Property Act. Hindus have been dispossessed of more than 2 million acres of
land. Even after the Restoration of Vested Property Act passed in 2001, land
encroachment involving Hindu land has continued but mostly during BNP
governments. Subsequent amendments of the original constitution made the
religious minorities including Hindus second class citizens and encouraged
atrocities against the Hindus.
A
seminal book by Professor Abul Barkat of Dhaka University, Inquiry into Causes
and Consequences of Deprivation of Hindu Minorities in Bangladesh through the
Vested Property Act, published in 2000 shows that the largest beneficiary
of Hindu property transfer in the past 35 years of Bangladeshi independence
were people belonging to Awami League They grabbed 44.2 per cent of the land.
Other grabbers are affiliated with BNP (31.7%), Jatiya Party (5.8 %)
Jamat-e-Islami (4.8%) and others (13.5%). The greatest appropriation of Hindu
property took place immediately after independence during the first Awami
League government (1972–75) and during the first period of rule of the
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (1976-1980). The confiscation of the land broke
the economic backbone of the Hindus. So, migration of the Hindus is the natural
consequence.
They Fight and We Create Poetry
They Fight and We Create
Poetry
Nidhu Bhusan Das
The screaming news
headline: Dance of Death and Destruction. Beautiful alliteration. Poetic
indeed! We can create poetry out of death and destruction because we are humans,
civilized animals with wonderful war technology to fight with, even to
annihilate our race unwittingly, when we are mad for having domination. Old
Kaspar, the grandpa cannot tell his grandchildren why they fought at Blenheim.
He only can say: “But what they fought
each other for, / I could not well make out; /But everybody said,"
quoth he, / "That 'twas a famous victory”. (The Battle of Blenheim by ROBERT SOUTHEY).
It is absurd that man
destroys man, civilization exterminates civilization. Now the absurd drama is
being enacted in Ukraine, the sovereign state that emerged on 16 July 1990 out
of the dismantled USSR. In point of territory Ukraine is the second largest (in
point of population seventh) state in Europe just behind Russia which has
invaded the country.
Russia has invaded Ukraine for
reasons best known to President Vladimir Putin. Mr
Putin is obsessed with the fall of the Soviet Union and its aftermath. He
cannot bear with the post-Cold War reality as it is perceived that Russia is
not taken to be a great power. This obsession could be a reason for his
adventure into neighbouring Ukraine.
Two Pro-Russian rebel regions of the
country, Donetsk and
Luhansk, have been recognized by Moscow as independent. Soon after, the United States announced financial
sanctions against the rebel territories. The European Union (EU) is set to
follow suit. These two regions declared
independence in 2014. After seven years Russia is the only country to recognise
their independence so far.
We have to wait and see how far the Russian invasion will bear
fruit and whether the fruit will be bitter for Moscow as it was in Afghanistan and
then for the USA. The misadventure of the USA in Vietnam in the last century is
also a grim reality to look back. Or, will the Russian action and further
muscle flexing lead to another global war which will leave no one winner but
humanity defeated?
Meanwhile Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is getting to be a legendary figure offering
inspirational leadership. He has
rejected American offers of an exit to safety.Ukranian embassy in Britain claimed
Zelensky told the US: "The fight is here. I need ammunition. Not a
ride." Zelensky said that his countrymen had manifested the courage to
defend their homeland and save Europe and its values from a Russian onslaught. He
warned the rest of the world that although he and his country were in the
firing line, he was waging a fight on behalf of worldwide democracy and
freedom.
Will the Russian incursion into
Ukraine have a global dimension? We may only wait and watch. Let us hope
against hope with poet Pablo Neruda that war mongers would put on clean clothes
and value brotherhood:
“Those who prepare green wars,/wars with
gas, wars with fire,/victories with no survivors,/would put on
clean clothes/and walk about with their brothers/in the shade, doing
nothing.”
(Keeping Quiet Pablo Neruda)
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