Interfaith Strength

Bangladesh and Hindus:  Death by a Thousand Paper Cut

Dr. Richard L. Benkin, Address to Jagriti Panel “Status of Hindus in Indian Sub-Continent” Cerritos, CA, November 16, 2014

Namaste.  Thank you Jagriti and thanks to all of you here today, ready to take action on these critical issues.

Recently, a member of the United States Congress asked me to join her at a private meeting with some Yazidis—that Middle Eastern group threatened with extermination by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS.  Yezidism is one of the only non-Abrahamic faiths left in that part of the world, and it is right in ISIS’s path of conquest.  They described the humanitarian crisis they face, its strategic implications, and the human rights atrocities ISIS is inflicting upon them.  After the meeting, I told the Congresswoman that everything happening to the Yazidi—the murders, religious desecration, land seizures, and the criminal treatment of Yazidi women—is happening to Hindus in Bangladesh, except it is happening to the Yazidi all at once.  For Bangladeshi Hindus, it has been a less dramatic but no less genocidal process taking place over decades.  That makes it easier for the Bangladeshis to deny, and easier for the rest of the world to ignore.

Bangladesh’s population should have about 50 million Hindus more than it does, and the remaining 12-15 million Bangladeshi Hindus are in danger.  They were almost a third in 1951 according to the East Pakistan census, still almost a fifth when East Pakistan became Bangladesh in 1971, just under a tenth in 2001, and perhaps as few as one in 15 today.

Yet, no one seemed to think that was a problem.  Innocent people were being brutalized and none of those who claim the mantle of human rights cared:  not Amnesty International, which has never even mentioned their plight; not Human Rights Watch, which never treated it as more than an occasional footnote squeezed between its praise for the Awami League; not the UN, US, UK, EU or any other country that loves wagging its fingers at Israel and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi; not the left wing media, the right wing media, or any other mainstream media.  No one grasped the concept that Bangladesh is not a “moderate” country.  Pakistan, of course, but Bangladesh as a moderate country remains a cherished myth among international elites.  Someone had to do something.

So I became “that guy” who goes on and on about Bangladesh any chance he gets.  Can you think of a topic fewer people would want to hear about?  I know I have been places where others saw me and thought, ‘Uh-oh, if he spots me he’s going to corner me for a half hour about Bangladesh.’  And no one wants that.  But none of that matters because things are starting to change, and that is what really matters.

Let’s first not forget that some things are not changing.  The Awami League government is no less complicit in this quiet case of ethnic cleansing than its rival BNP.  Throughout its terms in office, I have been in and out of Bangladesh, tapping my network of informants in between visits, and confirmed major and specifically anti-Hindu atrocities that the Bangladeshi government did not prosecute and in some cases participated in at the rate of one to one and a half per week.  Moreover, they included efforts to cleanse the Hindu gene pool, an unmistakable mark of genocidal intent.  Young women of childbearing years frequently are abducted, never to be seen by their families; turned into forced converts and made to service multiple men or become part of a cut rate harem.  Hindu children are targeted disproportionally, too; about half of those rape, murder, and abduction victims were kids.  This is not unusual for jihadis.  Statistics on Arab suicide bombers in Israel show the same; and the only thing that stopped them was a concerted and unflinching Israeli effort.

When I suggested to one of the people responsible for it that they must stop the terrorists before they reach the border, he winked and said, “We stop most of them in their beds.”

That is what the Bangladeshi Hindus need but what they are not getting.  So the atrocities have not stopped.  I am not here to talk about what we all know—the government supported, non-stop murders, gang rapes, land seizures, religious desecration.  The evidence is in my book, which is available here.  But I will talk about one.

In 2012, local thugs and Bangladeshi officials in Bagerhat kidnapped 22-year-old Eti Biswas after the family refused demands to leave their home.  No legal reason given, none needed.  Their crime was being Hindu.  The family met me in Dhaka in February 2013 to see if I could help recover their child; that same day I had a heated and semi-public meeting with the Bangladeshi Home Minister.  He pretended to know nothing about the anti-Hindu jihad in his country, but I challenged him again and again, nailed him for changing his story, until—still semi-public—he promised to investigate anything I sent him.  So I sent him the material about Eti Biswas, which he ignored; and because he and the rest of his Awami League gang did, Eti Biswas remains missing after two years.  I wish her case was unique, but it is not.

So when I say that things are changing, it is not because the Bangladeshis suddenly got religion and decided to do the right thing; and it is not because those international bodies finally saw the light.  Things are changing because we are forcing the change.  We have the power—if we use it.  If not, we can kiss Hindus good bye in Bangladesh.  And that’s the only reason why it makes sense for me to be here today.

The late Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once noted that “sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants”; that is, people get away with doing bad things because others do not notice.

• Bangladeshis can claim ignorance of atrocities because we do not see them in the media.
• Bangladeshis can claim ignorance of atrocities because no major government or human rights agency calls them on it.
• Bangladeshis can claim that Hindu-Muslim relations in their country are great because international elites must maintain the myth of Bangladesh as a moderate country, and a moderate country would never oversee the elimination of its minorities.

They have a lot at stake; enough to sacrifice millions of Hindus.  So, we fight them with facts and unrelenting effort.  Peoples’ lives depend on us.  So:

• We have carefully investigated and verified the ongoing atrocities and the Bangladeshi government’s complicity and bombarded people in DC with an endless stream of verified evidence that they cannot ignore.  It is starting to have an impact.
• Staff from two Congressmen have confronted the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) about anti-Hindu Bangladesh and continue to work with me on it.
• After a Hindu delegation met with Congressman Ed Royce, the powerful Chairman of the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee, committee staff began working with me on hearings that will bring that sunlight and propose specific actions.
• When Congressman Robert Dold of Illinois addressed the Bangladeshi Hindu issue from the House floor, he was the first.  Since then, at least two other House Members have followed suit.
• Dold was just re-elected and has pledged his leadership in putting the United States front and center in stopping this atrocity.  We expect to be in India early next year when, among other things, he will hear from Bangladeshi Hindu victims.
• After years of continuous prodding, USCIRF staff just returned from Bangladesh where they investigated the Bangladeshi Hindu issue, and I expect formal US recognition of this human rights travesty early in 2015.
• And more than one NGO is now interested in working with me on this.
•  Narendra Modi’s landslide victory also opens up enormous possibilities.  Prior Indian governments refused to acknowledge the problem and helped hide the truth from the people.  Prime Minister Modi, however, has been a constant supporter of mine and is personally affected by what is happening to Hindus in Bangladesh.  He said India would welcome Hindu refugees from persecution and made clear to Bangladesh that he is someone who will stand up for the oppressed.

Expect more initiatives.  We will put their plight on the world’s agenda, and each of you can be critical.  For instance, the Foreign Affairs progress above would not have happened without you.  That Hindu delegation, led by Dr. Chelvapilla, after my last speech Cerritos determined they would NOT sit by idly.  We worked together, and they met with Congressman Royce, shared their concerns about Bangladesh’s Hindus, sought his help, and got it.  In another example of our power, Chicago area Hindus just rallied behind Bob Dold, whom they identified as a friend of the community and a leader on this issue.  We identified his political needs and our ability to organize a sea change in his opponent’s calculations, told him what we could do, and did it.  While no one would say we won the election for Dold, neither would anyone deny that we were not an important part of his victory.

Hindu communities can do the same all over the country.  They are an increasingly important American demographic and have the same right to push their advantages as do other religious communities.  The key is strategic thinking.  Do what the Jewish community did in the 1970s and 80s to save persecuted Jews in the Soviet Union—and that was the mighty USSR, we are talking about Bangladesh.  We now have a growing bi-partisan base of US lawmakers concerned about Hindus there.   Between now and the next election how can we as a group let sitting Members of Congress and the Senate know how important this issue is to us, the voters?  Remember what Indiana Governor and former Congressman Mike Pence said.  Any Member of Congress who gets ten calls from constituents on any issue will sit up and take notice, call staff meetings, and do something about it.  Work with me on this.

If we continue to flood the Foreign Affairs Committee with our concerns, they will hold hearings, put the Bangladeshi Hindu issue in front of everyone, and take action.  Work with me on this.

Some UCIRF staff might try to water down the report on Bangladesh’s Hindus.  Don’t let them.  We can tip the scales by organizing people to call or fax their concerns.  Work with me on this.

West Bengal Police persecute Bangladeshi Hindu refugee

Originally published in Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, November, 2014

Dr. Richard Benkin

Around midnight on October 27, West Bengal police from the Gaighata police station barged into the home of Apurba Ray as he and his family were sleeping and seized him.  When his wife asked the police for the charge, they said it was suspicion of illegal arms possession.  That was a ruse, and Roy’s wife knew it.  His real “crime” in West Bengal is his strong Hindu identity.

Apurba Ray is a refugee from anti-Hindu persecution in Bangladesh and has been fighting back any way he could trying to save his Bengali Hindu brethren.  Ray is an activist in the group, In Search of Roots, organized by Bikash Halder and me to defend Hindus and Hinduism, especially in Bangladesh.  Unfortunately, that sets him in opposition to West Bengal political leaders who have controlled the region—first under the Left Front, now under the Trinamool Congress—by turning a blind eye to anti-Hindu persecution.  In the past, they could count on support from the Center government; not anymore, which makes Ray’s situation all the more significant.

At first, the police held Ray incommunicado.  When the authorities failed to meet the deadline, established by the Indian penal code, to produce him within 24 hours of his arrest, friends became concerned about his well-being.  Thanks in part to a flood of calls to the North 24 Parganas Superintendent of Police and others; they finally did produce him.  When they did, however, they no longer accused him of illegal arms possession.  Instead, according to my associates on the ground, they are bringing a case against him as an “illegal infiltrator.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has stated that Hindu refugees would be welcome in India, and that could threaten the cozy deal between West Bengal authorities and Muslim groups who have waged a demographic jihad in West Bengal.  That has turned border areas and others from majority Hindu or mixed Hindu-Muslim to, in many cases, areas where Hindus have been pushed out.  This population shift has been extensively documented by demographers like Bimal Primanik, and by me in A Quiet Case of Ethnic Cleansing: the Murder of Bangladesh’s Hindus.

It also has created a reliable vote bank for Mamata Banerjee who has been itching to force a confrontation with Prime Minister Modi.  Earlier this year, I was at a Mandir in West Bengal’s Burdwan District where I confronted a member of the West Bengal government over its inaction in stopping anti-Hindu persecution.  The official admitted that it was a problem but said that his party was afraid to raise it because “certain parties” would react angrily.  As we talked further, he admitted that his government’s policies were “communal” (not Modi’s) because they further divisions between Hindus and Muslims.  The party would not change, he admitted, because it was necessary to protect its vote bank.

The family has engaged local counsel, and we are watching the proceedings to make sure that Hindu rights are protected

Sunlight is the Best Disinfectant

Originally published on CrimeFlash, October 22, 2014

Dr Richard Benkin

The great US Supreme Court justice Louis Brandeis once noted that “sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.”  He was telling us that people—especially government officials—get away with doing bad things because they can do them without other people noticing.  Bring it into the light where others can see it, their crimes will be obvious, and the people will know that they must take action to stop them.  No case better reflects Justice Brandeis’s observation than that of Hindus in Bangladesh

Hindus have been persecuted in Bangladesh mercilessly for decades.  Just since Bangladesh’s independence in 1971, they have dropped from almost a fifthof the population to an estimated one in 15 today.  It does not matter which party controls the government; both are complicit in these crimes.  Bangladeshi Ambassador to the US Akramul Qader tried to explain away the population decline by calling it voluntary, saying that Hindus in Bangladesh “cannot find suitable matches for their childrenso they go to India where there are more Hindus.”  That’s ridiculous, and I was surprised that Ambassador Qader would have the gall to make such a remark.  (Several US officials who control US-Bangladesh trade policy had a good laugh with me over that idiotic statement.)  I have interviewed hundreds of Bangladeshi Hindu refugees and not one told me they left their country to find matches for their children.  Moreover, we have documented proof of ongoing atrocities that the current government has refused to prosecute:  between one and 1.5 per week since the Awami League took office, and these are only those we have been able to verify with at least two independent sources using our limited resources.

Bangladeshi governments have been getting away with letting this happen, rarely prosecuting cases and frequently rewarding perpetrators with Hindu land seized under the Vested Property Act.  The current government’s apologists admit this then add that any other Bangladeshi party would be “worse,” which provides little comfort to the victims of their complicity in terror.  But things are starting to change, and ironically, the Awami League helped that by refusing to let me into the country earlier this year.

US officials wanted to know what they had to hide and whether I was uncovering facts that they wanted to cover up.  The resulting dialogue with both Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill has led more Senators and House Members to be concerned with the plight of the Bangladeshi Hindus.  Congressman Ed Royce, who chairs the House Foreign Relations Committee, is working with me to hold public hearings on the matter.  Our work also contributed to the recent fact-finding mission to Bangladesh by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom that addressed the persecution of Hindus there for the first time.

We cannot be certain when but sometime soon, Americans will begin demanding that their government and retailers find non-Bangladeshi sources for their readymade garments and other products.  The only thing that will prevent it is a real end to government sponsorship of ethnic cleansing:  annulling the Vested Property Act and returning all seized property to their Hindu owners; dismissal, prosecution, and punishment of any and all public officials complicit whether through active participation or cover up; strong police and if necessary, military action to protect all of Bangladesh’s citizens; and the consistent application of the rule of law to all regardless of religion.

As I have made clear to Bangladeshi cabinet ministers and others:  what happens depends on action, not words, and it is in their hands.

A Quiet Case of Ethnic Cleansing: the Murder of Bangladesh’s Hindus

Dr. Richard Benkin

Bangladesh’s Hindu population is dying. This is not opinion or the ravings of an ideologue: It is a fact. Pakistan’s 1951 census counted Hindus as almost a third of East Pakistan’s population. When East Pakistan became Bangladesh in 1971, Hindus were less than a fifth; thirty years later, less than one in ten; and reliable estimates have them as few as one in 15 today. Professor Sachi Dastidar of the State University of New York estimates that about 49 million Hindus are missing from the Bangladeshi census. Still having trouble wondering where this is going? Take a look at Pakistan where Hindus are down to one percent or Kashmir where they are almost gone. Take a look at the future of Bangladesh’s Hindus if we do not act.

Bangladesh’s Hindu population is dying and little has been done about it. This, too, is not opinion but fact. It is the reality that millions live with but about which only a few others seem to care. Joseph Stalin is said to have remarked, “The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic.” Forty-nine million is difficult to fathom, so I am consumed by the individual victims of gang rape, pogroms, illicit land seizures, religious desecration, and other atrocities; all with government complicity and international apathy. More important for us, however, than the 49 missing million people are the millions more at risk right now. And if we do not take resolute and unbending action soon, those millions will die as well. We cannot do anything about the first group except mourn them and learn from what happened to them. But we can do something about the second group. While there is no gestapo or Janjaweed in Bangladesh, the fate of its victims is no different than theirs.

But things are beginning to change. At least one US locality has recognized the human rights travesty in a proclamation; the US Commission on International Religious Freedom just returned from Bangladesh where it addressed this issue for the first time; several members of the US Congress have raised the issue on Capitol Hill; and the new Indian Prime Minister has addressed the issue. More is being done, and more can be done.

I have put the Bangladeshi government on notice that their days of supporting these atrocities are over. Several initiatives are in the works—including Congressional hearings, an infographic, and several commercial actions. You—each one of you—can be part of a great moral action to save millions of lives, stop violence against women and children, and put an end to the ethnic cleansing of an entire people in which the world is complicity with its silence.

Human rights organizations, members of the media, government officials, NGOs, or anyone else who wants to make a difference in stopping this atrocity can contact Dr. Richard Benkin by clicking here.

More hypocrisy from the Obama administration

Originally published on the American Thinker, August 27, 2014

Dr. Richard Benkin

In the August 27, 2014 edition of “Foreign Policy,” Gordon Lubold and Nathaniel Sobel have a piece about ongoing Islamist attempts to trade hostages for imprisoned terrorist Aafia Siddiqui.  She is currently in a Texas prison for attempted terrorist murder of US troops in Afghanistan.

“Two years ago,” they write, “a group of senior U.S. national security officials received a tantalizing proposal from officials in Pakistan. If the United States would release a Pakistani woman serving a lengthy prison sentence in Texas for attempted murder, Islamabad would try to free Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.”

But the really interesting part is the Obama administration’s response:

“According to current and former U.S. officials familiar with the proposal, President Barack Obama's national security advisors swiftly rejected the offer. To free the prisoner, Aafia Siddiqui, who's linked to al Qaeda and was convicted in 2010 of attempting to kill Americans in Afghanistan, would violate the administration's policy of not granting concessions to terrorist groups, the officials concluded. It would also put a potentially dangerous fighter back on the street.”

Yet, according to all reports about the latest and previous conflicts, this same administration saw no contradiction in their continual pressure on Israel to grant concessions to Hamas and other terror groups, including large releases of prisoners.

Is this more evidence of the Obama administration’s antipathy toward the Jewish State?

India's Modi carries out pledge to downsize government

Originally published in the American Thinker, 
June 1, 2014

Dr. Richard Benkin

In office only five days, India’s new Prime Minister Narendra Modi is already showing people how a small government, conservative head of state acts.  Without even touching his people’s services or their quality, he began on his very first day in office fulfilling his promise to cut the size of his country’s bloated government.

He began by swearing in only 23 cabinet ministers, combining several portfolios and eliminating others.  It was the smallest number of cabinet posts in 16 years.  Only five days later, the Prime Minister did away with an entire layer of government by summarily abolishing the country’s 30 “ministerial groups.”  These groups were designed to protect entrenched and immediate interests, whether legitimate or not; and stood between India’s citizenry and the cabinet.  They had to give their blessing to any measure requiring cabinet approval before it could even get there for deliberation.  Under the previous, left leaning Congress Party government, ministerial committees numbered as many as 60.

Modi, whose theme has been “minimum government, maximum governance,” got rid of these groups even though in doing so he took on more personal responsibility and the greater accountability that comes with it.  According to The Hindustan Times, their abolition means that Modi himself “will now have to adjudicate matters where there are differences among cabinet colleagues,” rather than having an additional bureaucratic layer to cut deals and run interference for him.  And he will be responsible for those decisions, something his immediate predecessors assiduously avoided.

Reducing the size of government and speeding up the pace of decision-making are two critical elements in the free market conservative Modi’s plans to revitalize the Indian economy and polity and make government responsive to the Indian people.

India's New Prime Minister Bodes Well For Us

Originally published in the American Thinker, May 19, 2014

Dr. Richard Benkin

Since Friday when India’s election results were announced, pundits worldwide have been trying to tell us what should make of the landslide victory that made Narendra Modi Prime Minister (PM).  Most of it, however, is punditry through Google that misses the point:  Narendra Modi’s election was a victory of free-market capitalism over socialism and national pride over geopolitical docility; in short, for Conservatism and we better get on the victory train quickly or watch it speed by without us.

Recognize the Scope of the Victory

India’s Congress Party occupies a special place in the nation’s heart:  it is the party of its founding fathers Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru.  It has ruled India alone or in coalitions for all but eight years of the country’s national existence.  Half of its Prime Ministers have been members of the Gandhi-Nehru “dynasty” as Indians call it.  Last week was the first time in the nation’s history that any party other than Congress ever won a majority outright in this parliamentary democracy.  The 2014 Indian elections were also the largest democratic exercise in history with over 550 million votes cast.  For some perspective on how decisive the BJP’s mandate is, as recently as March when I was in India, pollsters predicted that for the BJP to win, it would have to capture at least 32 seats in the nation’s largest state, Uttar Pradesh (UP).  Many wondered if the BJP could do it, having one only ten seats in the previous election.  It ended up winning 71 of UP’s 80 seats.

 The mandate was also an explicit rejection of the Congress Party, whose big government policies had slowed India’s economy to a trickle over the past two years, with the nation’s “best and the brightest” hit especially hard.  A December 2013 study found almost half of India’s graduates “unemployable for any job.”   Those same policies had entrenched an endemic corruption that made our own Tammany Hall and Chicago machine politics look like amateur night.  The media was finally reporting on them, and the people had enough.

They elected a leader who is virtually incorruptible in his personal life, with a track record of economic progress built with a relentless free-market capitalism.  While the rest of India suffered, Modi’s state of Gujarat (where he was Chief Minister) became the nation’s economic miracle.  Modi’s pro-business policies helped give his state the lowest unemployment rate in India.

So, what’s the rub?

Modi has long been demonized by the left for 2002 riots in Gujarat that occurred only months after he became the state’s chief.  Several investigative commissions have cleared him of any wrongdoing. In issuing the same opinion, India’s internationally-praised Supreme Court also noted that a lot of the “evidence” brought against Modi was fabricated.  Yet, it is a narrative that international elites from Islamist organizations foreign and domestic to the US State Department have adopted in whole cloth.  In 2005, it refused to issue a visa for Modi to visit the United States based on these allegations; and though they have been thoroughly discredited, as recently as February, State Department spokesperson Jan Psaki said that there had been no change in the Obama administration’s position.

In 2013, I spoke with Modi about the visa denial.  While he brushed it off as something that was not going to distract him from doing the work his people elected him to do; I noted that my concern was what it meant for us, especially if he became India’s Prime Minister.  Those concerns remain.  The administration offered a grudging admission of the inevitable in March saying, that “the United States has welcomed every leader of this vibrant democracy, and that a democratically elected leader of India will be a welcome partner.”  But it has never changed its position on Modi and the 2002 riots.

Modi and 2002 is reminiscent of the left’s mantra about former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon; namely, that he was responsible for the 1982 Sabra and Shatila Palestinian camp murders.  Josef Goebbels’ big lie (keep repeating something and people will believe it) did not work then, and it did not work now.  As I told BJP leaders in 2013, almost every Indian voter has heard about 2002, and it is unlikely that many have not made up their minds about it.  That proved prescient, as Congress’s periodic attempts to raise the issue during the recent campaign proved to be a non-starter.

We’re still in trouble

As reported here previously, a coalition of US Congressional leftists, Conservative Christians, and others banded together in House Resolution 417, which was a blatant -- and thankfully unsuccessful -- attempt to interfere with an ally’s democratic election.  They have been mum about whether or not they will continue to tell a half billion Indians that they support atrocities and that their Supreme Court knows less than we do.  They need to drop 417 now or face theire of constituents.

Nor has the White House acknowledged the new geopolitical reality.  Asked about the election results, Press Secretary Jay Carney said that “the president looks forward to building on the progress that we’ve made with Prime Minister Singh in our relationship.”  Carney and his boss need to realize that Mr.President, I know Narendra Modi.  Narendra Modi is a friend of mine. Mr. President PM Singh is no Narendra Modi.  If Obama and company expect business as usual, they will hand this opportunity to Russia and China.

What we must do

• First, make it clear that we are not grudgingly welcoming Modi because the Indian elections forced us; make a quick and clean break from factually incorrect positions, citing the Indian Supreme Court’s “excellent work,” the Indian people’s clear judgment (and they know better than we do), or any of several options and welcome as a friend and ally the man who has received more freely-cast votes than any other person in history.
• Second, Democrat and Republican leaders have to prevail on their members to withdraw as sponsors of House Resolution 417, so we as a nation are clear about our friendship with India.
• Third, when Modi takes action against Islamist attacks on his country funded and supported by neighbors Pakistan and Bangladesh (which I can tell you he will), support his efforts to protect his citizens.
• Fourth, proactively engage Modi and the new Indian economy.  He once told me that he would “do any joint ventures with the United States or Israel,” and we need to take him up on that.  It will help India and create jobs here.  Besides, if we do not, others will.
• Fifth, through Congressional Committees like Foreign Affairs, help craft a cooperative foreign policy with Modi on South Asia, especially in the fight against radical Islam and Maoist insurgencies.  Under the leadership of Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) with support from lawmakers like Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), the committee can send a bi-partisan message to the peoples of India, the United States, and those who seek to harm us both.
• Sixth, Narendra Modi has expressed strong support both privately and publicly for my efforts to stop the ethnic cleansing of Hindus in Bangladesh.  Senate Foreign Affairs and others need to recognize these atrocities and take action to stop them.

Narendra Modi’s historic mandate has given us as much of an opportunity as it has given India.  We can support a free-market capitalist who will dismantle a system of hoary bureaucracies and endemic corruption, be a counterweight to China, and lead an India that demands instead of begs.  We can embrace that or strengthen those who wish both nations ill.

Chicago suburb tells feds to keep their money -- and their regulations

Originally published in the American Thinker, May 10, 2014

Dr. Richard Benkin

A school district in Chicago’s northwest suburbs is quitting the National School Lunch Program over new regulations championed by first lady Michelle Obama.  The so-called Smart Snacks in School policy, set to take effect on July 1, is the latest attempt by our Regulator-in-Chief to dictate every aspect of Americans’ behavior.  It dictates strict calorie, sodium, fat, and sugar guidelines for any food sold in schools during the day.  That even includes the ubiquitous bake sales and other fundraisers.  Instead of forcing the school district’s 500 low income kids and others to eat “healthier,” however, the administration is only creating uncertainty for them.

Arlington Heights Township High School District 214 gave the feds the heave-ho rather than submit, even though it will lose a $900,000 federal subsidy.  Board members, however, said that it’s “relatively certain” that the new regulations would take a sizeable bite out of other revenue:  its $2.2 million that comes from its a la carte menu, which sells things like pizza, fries, and Subway sandwiches; and its $543,000 annual vending machine revenue.  School districts cannot forego that kind of revenue, especially these days, without hurting education.

With the federal government’s heavy hand off its back, the district is taking a free-market based approach with its own healthy menu that it believes will draw more businesses into the program. 

“We have a nutritionist who runs our food services,” school board president Bill Dussling told the Chicago Tribune. “We’re not looking at this willy-nilly.”  The board also noted that even the feds can’t force kids to eat their food and that their own menu provides variety as well as nutrition. 

One low-income parent told The Tribune that it would hurt his family if the reduced-price meal model is significantly changed.  “It would affect me, but I’m for it,” he said. “You must try something because the government can’t control everything.”

Muslim Illegal Immigration in India Sparks Violent Resistance

Originally published in the American Thinker, May 7, 2014

Dr. Richard Benkin

India’s troops poured into violence-torn areas of India’s far northeastern state of Assam after several days of inter-communal violence left 32 dead and hundreds fleeing their homes.  By Monday morning calm was restored; relatives began burying their dead, families started returning, and it appeared that the violence would not approach that which displaced almost 400,000 people in 2012. 

Though actual hostilities stopped, the political war was just getting started.  The ruling Congress Party, about to face an unfamiliar role out of power (See “India’s Impending Conservative Victory), tried to blame the violence on its rival BJP and the man likely to be India’s next Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.

The attackers, Bodo tribesmen, are Hindu, and their victims, illegal infiltrators from Bangladesh, are Muslim.  The Congress Party and their allies on the left have long tried to paint Modi as a radical Hindu, and even while the violence still raged, Congress’s beleaguered Prime Ministerial candidate Rahul Gandhi warned that 22,000 people would be massacred if Modi became Prime Minister.  Another cabinet minister claimed that the BJP was using morphed pictures to spread communal propaganda on social media but provided no proof of his allegations.

As a Muslim friend in India told me, however, Congress has ruled Assam for 24 years, is still in power, and created the current state of affairs and “violence against Muslims of Assam.”

The most intense fighting took place in Kokrajhar, a major Bodo center where the air is full of political activism and resentment over an unresponsive government.  I was there in March, met with Bodo leaders and activists, and observed conditions on the border between Bangladesh and the contiguous Indian states of Assam and Meghalaya.  I also uncovered compelling evidence that tensions were running high for some time.

Activists told me that they are ready “to defend their homes and families” and that the prospect of a Modi victory and government action was the only thing stopping them from rebelling -- for the moment.  I got a distinct impression that things could unravel at any time and wrote that “the rising tensions on the border will explode unless the infiltration [from Bangladesh] stops.”

For years, Bodos and other tribal groups have been complaining bitterly that the government’s refusal to stop massive infiltration by Bangladeshi Muslims is destroying both their culture and the arboreal environment that is so much a part of it.  While in the areas, I watched as Bangladeshis crossed into Assam brazenly in broad daylight with no action by the Indian Border Security Forces who were supposed to stop them.  One border guard told locals who were protesting the illegal migrants that their protests were futile and would earn them nothing but opposition from "higher ups.”  “Our hands are tied,” he told them.  The guards were nowhere to be found until I photographed the border’s massive gaps and two of them tried (unsuccessfully) to seize my camera.

Those conditions, that make Bodos fear for their people’s future, are the real cause of the violence.

In July 2012, they took a stand against the illegal “infiltrators,” as they are called, to indicate the deliberate attempt to change the area’s demographics.  After they did, Muslim mobs attacked those Bodos who were too frail to leave their village for safety.  I spoke with the families of three victims who were hacked to death by Muslim mobs.  One elderly man described how he and his wife were sitting under a tree on their property when the mobs swarmed their home, hacked him with a machete which they then used to kill his wife.  An elderly widow told me that she was unable to flee so the Muslim mobs attacked her and killed her bedridden and disabled husband.

Back in the Assamese capital of Guwahati, a group of scholars at the Vivekananda Kendra Institute of Culture describe how Bangladeshi infiltrators have changed the area’s demography and disrupted the lives of the Bodos and other Assam tribes.  Their communities have been dispersed and the forests, central to Bodo culture, face an environmental catastrophe:  de-forestation, reduction in crop varieties, and near extinction of creatures like the one-horned rhino.

Even though the fighting has stopped for now, tensions remain high.  Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has told India to expect more “climate refugees” from her country.  The Bodos told me they are ready for them.

India's Impending Conservative Victory

Originally published in the American Thinker, May 1, 2014

Dr. Richard Benkin

Few Americans are aware of the potentially earth-shaking events currently unfolding in India.  The left-center Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, which has ruled India for all but eight of its 67 years of national existence, is about to be voted out of power in favor of the conservative opposition under the leadership of Narendra Modi.  As Chief Minister of Gujarat, Modi turned his state into a pro-business economic miracle that accounts for 72 percent of India’s new jobs and has its lowest unemployment rate.

That’s the good news.  The bad news is that we might be shooting ourselves in the foot.

Modi is a free-market capitalist and unapologetic opponent of radical Islam in both its open and surreptitious variants.  He gave a speech recently in the Northeast Indian state of Assam promising immediate and strong action to stop the large scale infiltration of illegal migrants and Bangladesh’s anti-Hindu violence.  “Assam lies next to Bangladesh, and Gujarat lies next to Pakistan,” he said. “People of Assam are troubled because of Bangladesh, and Pakistan is worried because of me.”

With 815 million potential voters, India’s voting began on April 7 and will run through May 12.   Like Israel and the UK, India is a parliamentary democracy.  People elect representatives to the lower legislative chamber (Lok Sabha), and the party with the most seats can form a new government and name the Prime Minister by controlling a majority.  Because one party rarely wins the necessary 272 seats on its own, governments tend to have ruling coalitions.

While most of the parties are regional, two dominate.  The ruling Congress Party and its United Progressive Alliance (UPA) have a European socialist flavor and the weak foreign policy that goes with it.  The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its National Democratic Alliance (NDA) have a conservative, pro-business tilt with an anti-Communist, anti-Islamist foreign policy.  A “third front,” led by communists, a political gadfly, and larger regional parties appeared to emerge this year; such that by the time I left India last month, it was clear that the BJP would garner the greatest number of seats but could be blocked from getting 272.

With over half the votes already cast, however, things have changed.  Third front leaders have either discredited themselves or faded into insignificance.  Congress is widely predicted to suffer its worst showing in decades due to a sagging and mismanaged economy, numerous scandals, and a sense that it is time for a change.  Narendra Modi has come to embody that change.  Indians across the social and religious spectrum are excited by this man.  The latest poll, conducted by a major Indian TV network, has the BJP garnering 226 seats and its NDA coalition partners taking it to an absolute majority of 275.

The significance cannot be over-estimated.  Absent a conservative majority, the BJP would be forced to cut deals with parties and personalities outside its coalition that could demand it adopt certain policies or refrain from others in exchange for their support.  They could threaten to leave the coalition and bring down the government whenever a proposed action did not suit their interests.  With a majority, Modi will re-shape India into an economic counterweight to China and a geopolitical counterweight to radical Islam.  His free-market, anti-big government domestic policies and strong foreign policy are good news for the United States.

Then why are some Americans -- including some conservatives -- trying to push India back into leftist hands and a foreign policy that has failed to confront the twin threat of Islamist and Leftist terrorism?

A coalition of leftists and conservatives have combined to forward House Resolution 417, which one-sidedly targets Hindus; and “ignores the fact that 80% of attacks in India in 2012 were carried out by the Indian Mujahideen, with much of the remaining 20% carried out by Maoist terrorists,” according to the Hindu American Foundation (HAF).  Ominously, 417 also calls for “minority” (read: Sharia) courts.  The anti-Modi mania is based on discredited charges that he was complicit in Gujarat’s 2002 anti-Muslim riots.  Several investigations and even India’s Supreme Court, a body lauded internationally for its judicial independence, have completely exonerated Modi of any wrong-doing, which also determined that “some human rights activists deliberately falsified evidence and concocted macabre incidents of violence.” The left has kept the drumbeat alive nonetheless and has seduced others to its side.  It has won over Republicans like Frank Wolf (VA), Chris Smith (NJ), and Joe Pitts (PA) who are now wittingly or not helping radical Islamists and Maoist insurgents. 

The left has reason to be concerned.  A Prime Minister Modi will begin dismantling the costly and inefficient tangle of big government programs built up over decades of misrule, the same way President Ronald Reagan did at the start of his presidency.  His foreign policy would be more concerned with overcoming threats than political correctness.  For instance, although the India-Israel relationship has become a significant one, Indian rulers have appeased leftist and Muslim voters with a pro-Arab public stance.  They voted in favor of the Palestinians’ UN statehood gambit; India’s President stood with Bashar Assad, and if you happen to be in the diplomatic section of New Delhi, you can see a building with a large sign that reads:  “Embassy of the State of Palestine.”  Modi, on the other hand, is openly and proudly pro-Israel.  He once told me he would do any joint venture with Israel or the United States.  He also scares the pants off the terrorists and their enablers.  I have seen them shake close up at the prospect of a Prime Minister Modi.

Congressional conservatives, like Kevin Creamer and Trent Franks in this unholy alliance base their anti-Modi animus on the belief that he will be bad for Indian Christians, which does not make sense.  Not only has there been no credible accusation of Modi even abetting anti-Christian actions, Indian Christians themselves are moving into the Modi camp.  "Believers . . . don't have any difficulties with Modi. In fact, they applaud his developmental efforts," the head of the Jacobite Syrian Church told reporters.  I’ve spoken with several Indian Christians, most religious, who voiced strong support for Modi.

I know Narendra Modi.   He is a good man who has supported my human rights activities.  He recently warned China to shed its “mindset of expansionism,” promised a tough stance toward Pakistan, and would be the only regional ally to fill the power vacuum created when the US quits Afghanistan.  This plea is not for Modi; he is running away with the election.  It is for us not to compromise our future and stand naively with Congress’s most radical left, like Jan Schakowsky, Raul Grijalva, and Barbara Lee (at times ranked its most liberal) and “Bagdad Jim” McDermott who famously stood with Saddam Hussein on the eve of our war with him.

Consequences promised after Bangladesh refuses entry

Originally published on News Baharati, April 16, 2014

Dr. Richard Benkin

For a nation dependent on American purchases of its readymade garments and US support in the UN for its peacekeeping troop receipts; Bangladesh is not acting like a friend. Every day, scores of Indian nationals along with a smattering of others line up at the Bangladeshi High Commission in New Delhi to apply for and later retrieve a visa so they can enter the country legally. It is a rather perfunctory process, over quickly and without incident.

I know that to be true because I have been in those lines and at other times observed them close up. This year, a combination of bureaucratic inefficiency and the worst bout of food poisoning I ever had delayed my visa application about a week; then Bangladeshi mendacity and the need to cover its sins denied one.

People often want to know how Bangladesh can engage in the ethnic cleansing of Hindus (reducing the Hindu population from one in five to one in 15) and get away with it. One way is to control the information others get about their country and censor out the evidence of their human rights atrocities. Their refusal to allow me in the country is a good example of this—although in the end it will backfire.

After three round trips to the High Commission and two more to its bank; a Bangladeshi official told me that if I returned the following Monday, they would process the visa and get it to me on Tuesday “100 percent.” So I did, giving the Bangladeshi official my passport, evidence of the fee paid, pictures, and my application. He promised me that I could pick up my passport with the visa in it the next day. It was a simple process, he said, and I could be sure of getting my visa on Tuesday. Based on his repeated and unequivocal assurance, I purchased plane tickets for Bangladesh as my schedule was getting tight.

But when I returned the next evening as told, I encountered something quite different.

I was toward the front of a line whose occupants’ nerves were worn pretty thin already because without explanation, the Bangladeshis opened the gates over an hour late. I watched the first few people in front of me get their visas in the expected manner, even as the clerk piled through hundreds of applications and passports to retrieve that one belonging to the individual at the window. I anticipated the same as my turn came. Instead, the clerk told me that they could not locate my passport and application, even after going through the disorganized piles several times and calling for yet another large group of passports.

He had to call in reinforcements, for not only was he dealing with my missing documents; he also had to contend with a crowd getting angrier while he did. Eventually, another official appeared and told me, “Come back in two days,” while they processed my request. “Whoa,” I said. “I was told in no uncertain circumstances that I’d have my passport this evening ‘100 percent.’ And on the basis of your promise, I purchased plane tickets for Dhaka leaving tomorrow morning.” Besides, I told him, I had a limited amount of time, but he seemed to know that.

“Two days for processing,” he said with that disingenuous smile that seems to come with bureaucratic training.

“I can’t do that. I’m a foreigner here and can’t be without my passport that long.”

“Two days,” he said, holding up two fingers. “Processing.”

Now, I had been through this before with the Bangladeshis. Their human rights record is abominable and I was uncovering the evidence to prove it. I knew that if I returned in two days, I’d be told to return in another two days; and so on until it was time for me to fly home—unless, there really was some reason why a process that was quick and simple for everyone else was complicated and extended for me. So, I asked for one, which the official either could not or would not give me. With it now clear that the Bangladeshis had no intention of issuing a visa, the official asked me to step to the side so they could get out the other visas. It was getting dark, and the crowd was losing patience.

I refused to move. The Bangladeshis still held my passport, which gave them a tremendous advantage over me. So I peppered them with rapid fire questions (“Why am I being singled out,” “Is it because I’m an American,” “Or a Jew,” “Is this how a US ally acts”) and with equal rapidity squeezed in, “Give me my passport.” He did! Now I had no incentive to follow his abusive commands. I refused to budge and again demanded “Why am I being singled out for special treatment? I wanted my application with the time stamp and promise of a visa; so I pressed for it as the crowd grew even angrier and the bureaucrats started anticipating a very late night. The official called his boss for instructions and told me I could have my documents; but only if I wrote a note stating that I was withdrawing my visa request “voluntarily.” In the end, I got the application, but the note they received said that I was acting under duress and enumerated exactly why; nothing voluntary about it.

I intended to show up at the American embassy the next morning to file a formal complaint against Bangladesh and its Awami League government. On the way home, however, I decided to use the time I had to explore new avenues that would document Bangladesh’s complicity in regional human rights atrocities; which turned out to be the right way to go.

• • First, I contacted my associates inside Bangladesh, and they have been sending me authenticated evidence of anti-Hindu atrocities and the government’s complicity in them. It is not the same as being there myself and encouraging victims and activists alike, but the evidence remains compelling.
• • Second, I contacted several friends and associates on Capitol Hill in Washington, and they were rather peeved at Bangladesh’s “unfriendly” actions. We are having ongoing discussions about what that means, and more than one has said that they indicate Bangladesh, as I have been saying, is not the “moderate” country it postures itself as.
• • Third, instead of going to Bangladesh, I went to Assam’s tribal areas and documented the environmental disaster caused by government-supported Bangladeshi infiltration; the lack of border control; the rising tensions on the border that will explode unless the infiltration stops; and I saw for myself, Bangladeshis entering India illegally through the open border and without any opposition by Indian or Bangladeshi forces.

The result of all this was to make US Congressional Hearings on Bangladesh a reality and to disseminate—not block—the truth about specific atrocities and the Bangladeshi government’s role in them. Perhaps the Bangladeshis believed that denying entry to a national from a “friendly” country would protect them from the consequences of their anti-Hindu atrocities; in the end, however, it only brought the day of reckoning for them closer.

Stop the destruction of Bangladesh’s Hindus—or let them die: It’s YOUR choice.

Address by Dr. Richard L. Benkin, Delhi University, Delhi, India, February 25, 2014

[This is an expanded version of my address to students at Delhi University, which I truncated to allow for a more interactive and expansive discussion.]

Namaste.

In 1951, Hindus represented almost a third of East Pakistan’s population.  When East Pakistan became Bangladesh in 1971, they were less than one in five; thirty years later fewer than one in ten; and according to reliable estimates, only one in 15 today.  If anyone is still having trouble understanding where this is going, take a look at Pakistan where Hindus are down to one percent; or at Afghanistan or Kashmir, where once thriving Hindu communities are all but gone.

The difference between those two places and Bangladesh is that we have a chance to prevent the total destruction of the Hindu community there; and each of us has a moral imperative NOT to sit by idly.  Let us begin today to act like moral individuals and stop sitting by idly; stop hiding behind our fear of loud ideologues; stop hiding behind a topsy-turvy world view in which their ideology is more important than people’s lives; stop hiding behind the studied non-involvement of others; stop hiding behind the excuse that everyone has to do something before any one of us does; stop hiding behind the let’s-pretend-world in which ethnic cleansing is all right as long as we cover our eyes.

            The Facts

There is no question that Bangladesh’s Hindu population is dying; that is not in dispute; neither is the fact that Hindus face ongoing attacks in Bangladesh.  There are, however, several comforting myths to which people cling rather than face the rest of the truth.  Unless we grow up and cast them aside with other childhood myths; then, you can take it from me that Hinduism in Bangladesh will be nothing more than a memory and WE will be as shameful as those Europeans who closed their shutters in the 1940s while their Jewish neighbors were being carried off to their deaths.  So, what are those deadly myths that must be cast aside?

1.     Myth #1:  That somehow identifying the ethnic cleansing of Hindus in a Muslim-majority country is “communal” or anti-Islam.  What a deadly bit of nonsense that is.  It somehow comforts the cowardly into believing that standing still while others die is the moral thing to do.  Fighting this evil is not the province of any religious community.  It is a human rights atrocity that should move all decent people to action, regardless of their religious community.  I have stood shoulder to shoulder with Muslims who have been beaten by Bangladeshi police and by Islamists because they protested the ethnic cleansing of Hindus.  I have spent time with Muslim police who on their own guard a Hindu village from Muslim attackers because, they told me, the government will do nothing.  In a short time, I will meet with a group of Fundamentalist Muslims, who also stand against the persecution of Hindus; and, not incidentally, for Bangladesh-Israel relations.

2.     Myth #2:  That Bangladesh is a “moderate” Muslim country.  The word, moderate, has been misapplied so frequently that I really do not know what it means anymore.  I DO know, however, what it is supposed to mean.  Is a country that permits the ongoing persecution of its non-Muslim population “moderate”?  How about one with a radical Islamist party that is the third most powerful and a former and possibly future member of the ruling coalition?  What about a country that silences journalists and authors by charging them with blasphemy, a capital offense (and I have been involved in defending at least two of them)?  Is a country with laws that make blasphemy a capital offense and governments that enforce it “moderate”?  Is it even civilized?  And what about a country that prohibits its citizens from simply visiting Israel (and you can see it right on the Bangladeshi passport) and jails those who try?  Does that sound “moderate” to you?  I could go on, but no need.  Clearly, calling Bangladesh moderate is about as accurate as calling a cat a dog.

3.     Myth #3:  That the Awami League is any different from other parties in Bangladesh or that Hindus could expect justice under its rule.  I want to address this one head-on; and I just hope someone in this room wants to take me on about it later.

Sheikh Hasina and the Awami League have had numerous opportunities to change their country’s anti-Hindu laws and practice; and in each case decided that Hindus just were not worth their support.  In May 2009, for instance, she told French naval commander Gerard Valin that her government would repeal the country’s anti-minority laws—which probably made her the first sitting Prime Minister in modern times to admit that her country has anti-minority laws.  True to form, she made those promises with no thought of keeping them.

Just before she took office, for example, Bangladesh’s Supreme Court issued a rule nisi asking the government to show cause why Bangladesh’s racist Vested Property Act should not be declared contrary to the constitution and ruled null and void.  Bangladesh’s Vested Property Act, as many of you know, was taken in whole cloth from Pakistan by the current Prime Minister’s father and the man Bangladeshis affectionately call Sheikh Mujib.  It legalizes official theft of Hindu property and its use to fill the coffers of whatever party is in power.  The military leaders in charge at the time of the rule nisi told me that the matter exceeded their charter as caretakers. Besides, they said, elections were about to be held so they were leaving it to the next government to comply with the Supreme Court’s demand and put an end to this terrible law that has allowed all but a small amount of Hindu owned land to be confiscated.  Despite its landslide victory and rule without coalition partners, however, the Awami League ignored the court and left the law to remain the economic engine driving ethnic cleansing of Hindus.

In 2011, the Supreme Court again tried to civilize the Awami League, asking that the Jatiya Sangsad (or Bangladeshi parliament) submit substitutes for a series of constitutional amendments passed under the Ershad dictatorship in the 1980s.  And it did—for all except one:  the Eighth Amendment, which made Islam the official state religion and provided government support for that majority religion with comparative disabilities for minority faiths.  Many Hindus—and other minorities—have complained that this makes them feel like second-class citizens in their own country.  Imagine Bangladesh’s official reaction if India declared Hinduism the official state religion and favored it over Islam; or if America declared a Christian country.  But of course, we do not do that sort of thing.

All of that, however, pales in comparison with Sheikh Hasina and the Awami League’s support for deadly attacks on Hindus.

In January 2009, a consortium of Bangladeshi Hindu groups asked me to advise them on what to do now that the Awami League was in control.  “The last thing you should do,” I said, “is to go back to sleep.”  I urged them to act; to push the Awami League to live up to its posturing as a “pro-minority” party, which won it the vast majority of Hindu votes.  If you don’t, I said, “we will see that their words are nothing more than words.” 

Unfortunately, most of the Hindu leaders placed their trust in the new government rather than in themselves:  a very bad decision.

•          During the Awami League’s first year in office, major anti-Hindu incidents occurred at the rate of almost one per week.

•          The number and intensity of anti-Hindu atrocities did not drop the next year, which included one period with anti-Hindu actions every three days.

•          The Hindu American Foundation, Bangladesh Minority Watch, and others document a similar level of atrocities in the third year, 2011.

•          As 2012 began, there were at least 1.25 similar incidents a week in the first quarter; as it ended, one a week during the fourth.  In between, there was a nine day period in May with an abduction, a murder in broad daylight, and two gang rapes, one of a child on her way to a Hindu festival:  four horrific crimes in nine days and no action against known perpetrators.

Human rights activist Rabindra Ghosh, my own associates, and I investigated and confirmed these incidents.  They were reported in local media, yet major media ignored them.  Each of those incidents, by the way, met all of the following criteria:

1.     They were major crimes:  murder, rape, child abduction, forced conversion, physical attacks, land grabs, religious desecration, and more.

2.     They occurred under Awami League rule.

3.     They were anti-Hindu and not just random.

4.     The government neither prosecuted the crimes nor helped retrieve victims, and actually participated in some actions or their cover-ups.

5.     And they were confirmed by at least two independent sources.

Life under the Awami League is better for Hindus?

·        In 2009, there was a three-day attack on a poor Hindu community right behind a Dhaka police station.  Police accompanied the attackers and supported their actions.  Many of the poor Hindus they made homeless still roam the street of Dhaka.

·        In 2012, angry mobs stormed a tiny Hindu village in a remote part of Dinajpur in northern Bangladesh, destroying homes and farms, looting possessions, and abusing women.

·        The government did not punish criminals in either case.  It participated in cover-ups and threatened human rights activists investigating the incidents.  I went to both places to see for myself, met with victims, and confirmed the attacks and the government’s complicity.

·        In December 2012, 21-year old Eti Biswas was abducted by local thugs and government officials after her family defied threats and would not abandon their land.  Her family met me in Dhaka and asked me to help bring back their young daughter.  In this case, though, not only local officials but also people as high up as the Bangladeshi Home Minister (who promised me he would investigate any incidents I brought to his attention) and perhaps even Sheikh Hasina herself were aware of what happened, including the government’s tacit approval.  Young Eti Biswas remains missing to this day, and the family remains devastated.

·        Koli Goswami (21), Pradip Das (22), and many other young Hindu women—taken and still missing, months or even years after their abduction.  Or 17 year-old Subarna Biswas, abducted just last month and forcibly converted to Islam.  Refusing to help recover the girl, police claim it was “voluntary.”

·        Roti Bala Biswas (15) and too many Hindu women and girls raped because the rape of Hindus almost never gets prosecuted by this government.  In this case, this young girl’s victimizer made no secret of what he did to her and was never punished for it.  In Bangladesh, the rape of Hindu women and girls is allowed if not encouraged.

·        This is not even to mention the scores of women who described being gang raped, often as minors, often with husbands and fathers forced to watch before being killed.  There was the 14-year-old girl who described being gang raped just 22 days after she and her family escaped to India.

And all of this was done to the victims because they are Hindus—that’s all, Hindus.

Now let me tell you just how horrible the situation is.  Despite the egregiousness of these atrocities and the government’s open support for them, the Bangladeshis are so confident of our cowardice that they do not see the need to even appear credible.  In May 2012, I met with Bangladesh’s ambassador in Washington, Akramul Qader, and confronted him with evidence I have gathered.  It was an interesting encounter in which he issued successive denials after which I would provide evidence that rendered him either an ignorant fool or a liar.  Each time that happened, he would act as if he just remembered the well-documented incident or atrocity.  At one point, I pointed out that demographers have said that the precipitous population drop in Bangladesh’s Hindu population could not have come about through demographic processes like birth rates or through voluntary emigration.  Here was his response.  He did not dispute the objective facts but asserted that it is voluntary:  that they “cannot find suitable matches for their children, so they go to India where there are more Hindus.”  His comments were so insultingly stupid that they bear repeating:  Hindus leave Bangladesh to find suitable matches for their children.  I have interviewed scores of Hindu refugees and not one said they left Bangladesh to find their children marriage partners

He is not the only idiot in Sheikh Hasina’s government.  Last year in Dhaka, the Bangladeshi Home Minister, Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir, responded to the overwhelming evidence of atrocities against Hindus by saying that “union membership has declined in the US” and that “33 people were killed in Connecticut.”  Is he really that much of a fool or does he think I am?  Other Bangladeshi officials admitted the problem, but only if I kept it anonymous as they feared the worst reprisals if I did not

            What Bangladesh must do

So, what must Bangladesh do to re-join the community of civilized nations?  And we cannot let them off the hook until they actually do these things, not just promise them as Sheikh Hasina did in 2009.

1.     It needs to admit its problem and stop denying it.  Any drug addict knows that the first step on the road to recovery is admitting that you have a problem.  Is there any doubt that Bangladesh has a problem?

2.     Once it does, it can call on all forms of international help—from the UN, from individual countries, and from its own citizens.

3.     It needs to announce that henceforth, it will have zero-tolerance for any communal actions of the sort we noted; and that officials who tolerate them or, worse, participate in them or in their cover-up will be dismissed and prosecuted.

4.     It needs to go beyond words and announce a string of prosecutions for the worst of these crimes and for government officials who took part in them or obstructed justice.  And it needs to prosecute them vigorously.

5.     It needs to introduce in Parliament use its political muscle to pass an immediate and final repeal of the Vested Property Act, including a panel composed of independent academics, activists, and others including international authorities who will return seized property to their rightful owners or, if the latter prefer, provide just compensation for their losses.

6.     It must also extend official and effective protection to human rights activists attacked for their work, and prosecute their attackers.

For any item promised but not enforced, Bangladesh needs to be held to a tight and specific deadline or face the consequences of non-action.

Other things, not directly related to the ethnic cleansing of Hindus that Bangladesh can do to put the brakes on its march toward radicalism:

·        Repeal the Eight Amendment to the Constitution.

·        Drop all charges of blasphemy against writers, journalists and others.

·        Repeal anti-blasphemy laws.

·        Drop the ban on its citizens’ travel to Israel, as it did for other countries.

All of this is within the Awami League’s power.  It either does it or exposes itself for what it is and put to rest its phony posturing as the pro-minority party.

            What we must do 

The biggest obstacles we face are:

1.     Ignorance:  most people do not now about this, and the lack of coverage by major media and others leads them to question how it can be true.

2.     Our own good intentions:  our tendency to accept the Bangladeshis’ empty words, to hang on desperately to the wish that they are moderate and so would never allow such a thing if they could stop it; and the rather pathetic belief that the Awami League somehow would act any better than its rivals.

We have not gotten it into our heads that the Bangladeshis will never stop the ethnic cleansing of Hindus because it is the right thing to do.  We must make it in their interests to do so.  And let me start with what I am doing in the United States to bring that about.

While most people in my country remain uninformed about what is happening to Hindus in Bangladesh that is changing.  While major media still ignore the problem, more local and online media do not.  Then, on October 1, 2013, we achieved a real breakthrough when the Chicago suburb of Mount Prospect, Illinois, became the first US locality to issue a formal proclamation that recognized the persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh and the lack of attention this serious issue receives.  Citizens of localities all across America are working slowly but steadily to make Mount Prospect the first of many to do so.

Starting last year two major US NGOs involved with the genocide issue began recognizing Bangladesh’s actions as something that deserves their attention.  One of them, the Simon Wiesenthal Center mentioned of Bangladesh’s ethnic cleansing of Hindus in an article published in a major Washington daily.

The time when Bangladesh could count on our silence has come to an end.

But knowledge without action is sterile and self-serving.  It is worthwhile only if we build on it to end the atrocities; and how do we do that?  Know our adversaries’ weaknesses, the most important of which from our point of view is that the Bangladeshi economy is inordinately dependent on one thing:  the export of textiles and garments to foreign markers—and the United States is one of its top customers.  Just since this decade began (2010-2013), the United States has imported almost $20 billion in Bangladeshi goods, almost all of it textiles and apparel.  Several other Asian and Latin American countries, including India, export garments to the US and would love to grab a bigger piece of that market; countries that would move in quickly if the Bangladeshis were no longer competitive; countries that would not cede their new market share if the Bangladeshis one day decide to do the right thing.  If discussions going on in Washington now bear fruit, Bangladeshi garments will be more expensive and harder to get unless that country stops its ethnic cleansing of Hindus.  And I can guarantee you that Wal-Mart and other US companies will decide that it is not such a good idea to do business with a nation guilty of ethnic cleansing, especially when their purchases help fund it.

Here are some of our current initiatives in Washington

1.     Last summer, representatives of two Congressmen approached the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) about Bangladesh’s persecution of Hindus.  They were concerned, and so is USCIRF.  They are working with me on follow up, which might result in downgrading Bangladesh’s status, affecting trade and other legislation.

2.     The United States Congressional Committee on Foreign Affairs has approached me about public hearings on Bangladesh’s persecution of Hindus later this year.  I have been working with committee staff and actually am structuring some of this trip in consultation with them.

3.     Within the past months, the number of Congressmen/women who have raised the issue of the Bangladeshi Hindus has tripled.

4.     Together, we are making this an issue in Washington, and using our voting power, are making it particularly critical in this election year.

Please forgive my bluntness, but how shameful would it be for India if the United States made a big noise about the ethnic cleansing of Hindus in Bangladesh; and India—the country most closely associate with Hinduism remained silent.  Though the crimes are happening right next door and we are halfway across the world, India’s government did not think things were that bad.

India must wake up about its responsibilities, save millions of people not condemn them, and stand up for justice.  For instance:

·        Host an international human rights event that focuses on what is happening to Hindus in Bangladesh.  It is almost certain that if you do, there will be those talking heads who try to tell you that you cannot do such a thing without including other persecuted people no doubt of their choosing.  Resist those efforts whatever you do.  Whether they are doing so consciously or not, they will distract your attention and once again leave this matter as a nothing more than a footnote.  Besides, the notion that you cannot identify any human rights atrocities unless you identify all of them is a fatuous one.  Ask them how many human rights events they were involved in that left out the Bangladeshi Hindus.  Tell them that there might be a time and place for their pet issues; but not now.  Ask them to work with you to plan and fund one after this one.  See what they say then.  So to repeat:  host an international human rights event solely about the Bangladeshi Hindus.  I am happy to help.

·        Raise the issue at every international forum involving India and Bangladesh:  World Trade Organization, SAARC, UN Human Rights Council; put the destruction of Mandirs there on UNESCO’s agenda.  If every session of these organizations is about the Bangladeshi Hindus, then it is not about other issues Bangladesh might prefer.  Do not let them breathe; make it an issue wherever Bangladesh raises its head.

·        Last year, the idea of by-passing Bangladesh with the Myanmar-India gas pipeline was raised.  Use that as leverage.

·        How would Bangladesh react if you closed the border between your countries?  What about the water resources you control?  What would Bangladesh do without the 500 megawatts or power you sell them?  Or what if you made it more expensive?  Bangladeshis are still angry at their government for undependable power.

·        Tie the Free Trade Agreement that they want so badly to their stopping the ethnic cleansing of Hindus.

·        Most of all, make sure Indians let their elected officials know that they will not stand for governments that put votes ahead of people’s lives; that are too fearful to stand up to Bangladesh—because if it does not have the strength to stand up to Bangladesh, it will not have the strength to stand as a world leader; or governments that refuse to defend Hindus.

In the end, it is up to each of us:  face the truth or make excuses; act or let them die.

Hometown Proclamations shed light on Bangladesh’s oppression of Hindus.

(Originally published on January 1, 2014 on the Forum for Hindu Awakening)

Pousha Shukla Pratipada, Kaliyug Varsha 5115

Dr. Richard Benkin

UPDATE:  On October 1, 2013, Mount Prospect, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, did issue the proclamation noted in this post and thereby became the first US locality to recognize the oppression of Hindus in Bangladesh.  We expect this to be the first of many.  Click here.

The late US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once noted that “Sunlight is said to be the greatest disinfectant.”  His words told us that evil deeds will be opposed and stopped if people are made aware of them.  This is our challenge in stopping the ethnic cleansing of Hindus in Bangladesh.  Our most recent success in doing that is working with cities, towns, and villages throughout the US to have formal proclamations issued that recognize this human rights travesty.

Every citizen has the right to approach his or her town with a passionate request for them to help save 12 to 15 million innocent lives–innocents who are being brutalized while an unconcerned “civilized” world turns the other way.  Every locality in the US has the ability to help save these lives, and each of us can be the major driver of that effort.

Most people do not think of themselves as heroes.  Imagine how you would see yourself if you played an important role in saving millions of people!

We have the evidence, sample proclamations, and the necessary understandings so that your approaches will resonate with your home town.  Right now, we are working to issue proclamations around Durga Puja, October 9-13, 2013; if there is not enough time, Diwali is November 3-7, 2013.  You have a chance to save lives and honor Hinduism and the growing number of Hindus in the United States.

We are operating in several places.  If you want to join in this effort, contact me at drrbenkin@comcast.net.