Isn't there an obvious way to avert such insinuations and such institutional hostility?
One would imagine that loose talk, of the kind that is being picked up by those in this forum looking for such talk as pegs on which to hang further accusations, should stop. Instead, we have the Two Nation Theory, discredited even in Pakistan (the Pakistan of today) and religion-based profiling suggested.
How do you think even the neutral or the supportive elements within the Indian population will react? How are they to distinguish this behaviour from the overt pro-Jamaat colouring that this revolutionary situation has been given by the enemies of that situation?
Sir, my opinion is that, we are at a point when what Indian population think is largely irrelevant. That ship has sailed, and this relation has too much baggages already. We aren't gonna gain anything meaningful now by trying hard to appeal to the neutral element, or supposedly the supportive elements of the Indian population. (if there's any) The battle for heart and minds is already lost long before. The overall majority Indian perception has been strongly shaped by religious, cultural and historical factors over decades. (Which influence its foreign policy decision toward BD. And it isn't much different for Congress and BJP. Realistically, this is not going to change in short to medium term.)
Religiously and culturally here how it works, the less Muslims and more Bengali muktomona you are, the better. For secular folks it is obvious, they often like those who are less religious. As for Bhakt brigade, they hate just about anything and everything Islam and muslims.
So, in this regard there is this unholy agreement between Bhakts and secular indians. Even though both parties are coming from two different places. But that doesn't change the end result.
(Of course, this is not as binary as I am making it out to be. There are secular Indians hateful to Muslims that looks at this through a civilizational prism. I think you would find some of them here this forum.)
Unfortunately, BD Muslims are devout to their religion, very much aware and proud of their identity. So, indians from both sides of their political spectrum chose a party in BD that is carries the banner of the left and secularism. But see, here's the important part, that in itself isn't the crux of the matter.
The problem arrises when this same party also happened to be one that destroyed democracy in BD everytime it consolidated its grip on the power. Remember, the whole point of 1971 was to be able to exercise our political power as people. Hence, BAL turns out to be the biggest blunder of People's Republic of Bangladesh. Sheikh Mujib, her daughter and AL played us. It was never about our rights, it was always about their grab of power.
People talk about corruption and like to draw a false equivalency between BAL and BNP. Of course they are all corrupt, wtf do you expect in a dirt poor third world country? But you do not measure the nature of a people's republic by examining where it lies in corruption index. Rather, by observing if people are able to exercise their fundamental political right, the right to vote. Here BAL rigged the playing field and deprived us of our fundamental right over and over again. BNP despite all of this faults (I.e. corruption, abuse of power) never did any such thing. Multi-party politics was banned by Mujib but reinstated by Zia.
Now the dynamic of India and BNP relation is not our first concern. Our first concern is our right to vote. And we have so far only two options to keep it. BAL and BNP. If we want have a better chance of keeping our fundamental political right, we know which one to go with.
In the end it is irrelevant who is responsible for the fualt line between BNP and India. Both blame each other. The end result is, Indian political stablishment (left and right) continue to double down on its support for BAL, and that directly puts it at odd with the people of Bangladesh after last 16 years of dictatorship, and specially after 2024 revolution.
As of now and in the near future, our ability to exercise our fundamental political right (what makes this very republic a people's republic) and India are almost two mutually exclusive things. Despite the religious and cultural unease, it would have been much easier for India, BAL, BNP and the people of Bangladesh if BAL played by the rule and didn't deprived us of our right to vote. And people would've gone much easier on BAL/India alliance. But this is not the case.
