Bangladesh: Wary Of Republican Rebuke, Interim Govt May Walk Back On Punitive Action Against ISKCON

The interim government in Bangladesh is likely to step back from taking any punitive action against the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). 

Led by Mohammad Yunus, who has been very soft on Islamic fundamentalists and has allowed them a comeback in the country, the interim government was planning to impose a ban on the Hindu Vaishnavite religious order (read this). 

However, Donald Trump’s decisive win in the United States (US) presidential elections last week has forced the Yunus administration to put brakes on the obnoxious move. 

Yunus is believed to have strong ties with the Democratic Party, particularly with the Clintons. It is widely suspected that the influential Democrats and their organisations facilitated Yunus’ ascension to power in Bangladesh after Sheikh Hasina was forced to flee the country (read this).

Yunus was confident that under a Democrat President, the US would overlook his mollycoddling of Islamist hardliners and remain silent on the persecution of religious minorities in Bangladesh. That’s why he was hoping Kamala Harris would win the Presidential election and become the next US President. 

But his hopes were dashed when Donald Trump won the elections. It became clear that Trump would not be indulgent towards Yunus and Bangladesh’s Islamist hardliners when he posted on X on October 31 about the “barbaric violence” against religious minorities in the country. 

Trump, much to the acute discomfiture of Yunus and his Islamist friends, wrote: “I strongly condemn the barbaric violence against Hindus, Christians, and other minorities who are getting attacked and looted by mobs in Bangladesh, which remains in a total state of chaos.”

But there was little that Yunus could do about this condemnation by a powerful figure. So, his administration preferred to keep quiet and swallow the insult, hoping the Democrat nominee would become the next US President.

However, with Trump poised to become the next US President, the Yunus administration rightly apprehends that it will come under acute scrutiny from the new US administration. Yunus knows he can no longer count on the support of the Clintons and his other close friends in the Democratic Party to continue with his pro-Islamist agenda. 

“Under Donald Trump, Yunus and his administration will face very tough scrutiny and will not be able to go soft on Islamist radicals. He (Yunus) knows that if attacks on religious minorities continue under his watch, he will be hauled up by the Trump administration. He also cannot take any action that will be seen as appeasing the Islamists,” a senior Awami League leader who is on a self-imposed exile in a Southeast Asian country told Swarajya. 

This assessment was also supported by a senior Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader engaged in talks with the Indian establishment. After Sheikh Hasina's overthrow, New Delhi had launched a successful outreach to the BNP leadership. 

What has also forced the Yunus administration to step back from taking any action against ISKCON is the fact that the religious order, with branches all over the world, has many influential devotees in the US.

Some of these devotees, including successful industrialists and professionals in the US, are close to senior Republican figures. Some ISKCON devotees, who are US citizens, also have strong connections with senior figures in the Democratic Party. 

Sources say that in the past few days, there has been bipartisan pushback from both the Republican and Democratic establishments against Yunus' move to prosecute and proscribe ISKCON. 

That is why, according to some senior figures in the current administration, the move to prosecute certain monks and brahmacharis of ISKCON and ban the religious order has been kept on the back burner. 

ISKCON’s Conflict With Yunus and Islamists

ISKCON has drawn the ire of the Yunus administration and Bangladesh’s Muslim hardliners because some of its monks and devotees took the lead in forming the Bangladesh Sanatan Jagaran Manch. The group organised a massive rally in Chittagong on 25 October to protest the ongoing persecution of religious minorities in the country.  

The rally contradicted claims by Yunus and his administration that reports of attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh after Sheikh Hasina's overthrow on 5 August were greatly exaggerated, asserting that Hindus were safe in the country. 

The interim government was left red-faced after the rally, and to Yunus' further humiliation, a second massive rally took place in Dhaka on 2 November, demanding protection for minorities. 

What further angered the Yunus administration and Bangladesh's Muslim hardliners was the Bangladesh Sanatan Jagaran Manch’s eight-point charter, which included prosecuting Muslims who attacked Hindus and reserving parliamentary seats for Hindus. 

The Chittagong rally sparked demands from angry Muslim hardliners to proscribe ISKCON and prosecute its monks and devotees. These calls gained traction after prominent Muslim leaders supporting the Yunus administration backed them. 

Last week, an abusive social media post about ISKCON and its monks and devotees, and Hinduism in general, made by a trader in Chittagong triggered angry protests by Hindus of the city. 

The police there intervened and lathi-charged a group of Hindus who had mobbed the Muslim trader to demand an apology from him. Some angry Hindu youths attacked the police, but community elders intervened promptly and apologised to the police. 

However, later that evening, a ‘joint task force’ comprising soldiers of the Bangladesh army, its paramilitary Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) as well as the Chittagong Police, all in riot gear and armed with lethal weapons, raided a Hindu locality in the city. 

They broke into Hindu homes, arrested all Hindu males, assaulted Hindu women, and looted valuables. The men in uniform also broke into Hindu-owned business establishments, including jewellery shops, and looted valuables and cash from them. 

A senior officer of the Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) later said that the police are investigating the role of some “ISKCON supporters” and also some monks and brahmacharis in the violence. He, and other senior police officers, accused the ISKCON of instigating the protest by Hindus against the offensive social media post by the Muslim trader. 

These accusations led leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, believed to have close ties with the Yunus administration, along with Muslim hardliners and some within the administration, to call for strong action against ISKCON. 

Earlier, after the 25 October rally in Chittagong, the local administration registered a sedition case against an ISKCON monk and other devotees who took a leading role in organising the rally.

They were accused of hoisting a saffron flag atop the Bangladeshi national flag, a bailable offence under the country’s national flag code. 

A junior BNP functionary (later dismissed by the party leadership) filed a sedition case against the ISKCON monk and devotees, who, incidentally, had no involvement in hoisting the saffron flag. 

The Chittagong Police promptly accepted the complaint and registered a case against the ISKCON monk and devotees who had been falsely accused. 

These developments sparked fears of an impending ban on ISKCON and the prosecution of its monks and devotees on trumped-up charges. These concerns were amplified by hostile comments against ISKCON from prominent figures in the Yunus administration. 

However, with Donald Trump’s decisive victory, these fears have subsided. Nevertheless, Hindu leaders caution that the move to ban ISKCON has only been put on the back burner, not abandoned.