To most of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s statements, my reaction as an ordinary citizen of Bangladesh ranges from bewilderment to laughter. Her recent grudge and invectives against the Nobel laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus caused shock waves among the educated people of the country. After the Prof. Yunus saga, she made some other statements whose irrelevance has really puzzled me.
She urged Islamic scholars to check misuse of Islam on the 21st of December 2010 at a prize distribution ceremony of Islamic Foundation in Dhaka. If we look at the practices of her government, we feel confused about what actually she meant by misuse of Islam. If I am entitled to exercise my freedom of expression, I must say that Sheikh Hasina is ahead of all Bangladeshis in exploiting the Islamic sentiment of the people. Thus, she misused the religion.
Before all previous elections, she performed hajj in Makkah and kept tightening her headgear to such an extent that her hair remained invisible. However, after assuming power, her headgear becomes loose. She and her government stifle people’s Islamic sentiments and clandestinely promote all anti-Islamic elements throughout the country.
Sheikh Hasina has not condemned the indecent ballet dance party in front of the revered Imams during a training session at the Islamic Foundation. She gave tacit approval to the open-air Shahrukh-gong obscenities at the Army Stadium on 10th of December 2010. Needless to say, on 22nd of December 2010, 39 prostitutes and clients were captured from Dhaka’s Imperial Guest House that is owned by Sheikh Hasina’s Home Minister, Shahara Khatun.
Moreover, Sheikh Hasina has launched an all-out war against Islam by way of removing it from school syllabus. So deep inside she and her government are full of hatred towards Islam. But apparently she tries to present herself a purdanishin woman. Isn’t it a gross misuse of Islam?
Sheikh Hasina advised a group of physicians to serve the poor in a meeting in Dhaka. However, her apathy and silence about the continuous sufferings of poor Bangladeshis in the border region at the hands of the Indian BSF tell us a different story about her concern for the poor of Bangladesh. Poor people are being killed on a daily basis by the powerful and belligerent personnel of the BSF. But we have not heard even a single statement of protest from our Prime Minister. I doubt that Sheikh Hasina has any concern for the poor Bangladeshis.
On the same day in another meeting, Sheikh Hasina urged us to remain alert against the ‘defeated forces’. I wonder who she means by the term ‘defeated forces’. Madame Prime Minister! In the face of continuous political and economic exploitation of India, all Bangladeshis are defeated. You and few others who have sold their souls to India may feel victorious. But we the vast majority of the country will feel triumphant and jubilant only when our brothers and sisters in the border region are safe from BSF’s atrocities. We will be happy when our country is free from the grip of the intelligence agency of a very hostile neighbor.
Long live Bangladesh!
By a Concerned Citizen
