Delegates from Bangladesh met President of India over the issues of Hindus and other minorities.

Members of BHBCUC, BDMW, BDMF and CAAMB met President of India over the issues of Hindus and other minorities in Bangladesh.

Hindu Existence Bureau | New Delhi | 22 April 2014:: The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee met the delegation from Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council (BHBCUC), USA led by Shri Sitangshu Guha at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on April 21, 2014.

A 15 member delegate team from India and aboard met Shri  Pranab Mukherjee, President of India at Rashtrapti Bhavan, New Delhi on 21 April, 2014. The team constituted of  Shri Sitangshu Guha and Shri Nabendu Dutta of Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council (BHBCUC), New York; Shri Swadesh Barua and Shri Udayan Barua, BHBCUC, France; Shri Tarun Chowdhury and  Smt. Chitra Paul, BHBCUC, Sweden; Shri Dilip Karmakar, BHBCUC, Canada; Shri Arun Barua, Bangladesh Minority Council, Switzerland; Shri Rabindra Ghosh (Advocate), Bangladesh Minority Watch (BDMW), Dhaka; Shri B B Chowdhury, Bangladesh Minority Forum (BDMF), UK and Shri Mohit Ray, Canpaign Against Atrocities on Minorities in Bangladesh (CAAMB), Kolkata, India. The team was also accompanied by  Smt Alpana Guha, Smt Snigdha Ghosh, Smt  Parboti Dutta and Smt Shilpi Chowdhury.

In the 40 minute meeting, Honble President heard the experiences in brief from all the delegates. A number of delegates described in tears about the existence of the minorities, especially Hindus, in Bangladesh. The delegates requested President to take special concern to save the minority Hindu-Buddhist-Christians in Bangladesh. They remembered the great role played by India during the liberation war in 1971. They highlighted the facts that Hindus in Bangladesh have reduced from nearly 30 percent to 8 percent of the population. All appealed to the President of India to do something about it. The delegates presented memorandums, documents and some gifts of honor to the Honble President of India.

Prof. Mohit Ray, representative of CAAMB  highlighted the issues of the persecuted Bangladeshi Hindus after they have been forced to leave the country. They are refugees by the criteria promulgated by United Nations. However they are now treated as illegal migrants in India and are deprived of citizenship. He appealed to President to look into this matter and amend 2003 Citizenship Act to facilitate granting citizenship to the persecuted minority refugees from Bangladesh.

Honble President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee heard the delegation meticulously and expressed his deep concern about the information on Bangladesh minorities. He assured to convey the message and reports of the delegation to the Office of Prime Minister of India so that Govt of India may pursue BD Govt for taking appropriate action to ensure the interest of Bangladesh minorities in its true terms.
The matters of upsurging Jehadi force and the plight of non-Muslim minorities in Bangladesh under an adopted State religion of Islam by violating the norms of Constitution of 1971 in Bangladesh,  greatly attracted the attention of Honble President of India.

Advocate Rabibdra Ghosh of BDMW handed over a printed a book of fact-finding report on the continuous atrocities, torture, abduction, eviction, rape, murder of Bangladesh Hindus and other minorities in the span of 2011-2014 to Honble President of India and Mr. Sitangshu Guha of BHBCUC New York handed over a Memorandum of Appeal urging protection of rights of minorities of Bangladesh.

The delegation team as above expressed their pleasure and satisfaction over the warm hospitality at the end of Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Incidentally, CAAMB invited Ms Taslima Nasrin, Bangladeshi writer in exile now living in Delhi, in the evening. She met the delegates of various rights groups present in Delhi and had detailed discussion about the pity condition of Bangladesh minorities and the threat of Radical Islam in the sphere of art, culture, literature and human society as a whole, with them over a cup of tea.

Courtesy: CAAMB | BDMW.