If I ask a simple and straight question - why do we erect a statue, make a sculpture or an artwork of a particular individual - not only in Bangladesh but anywhere around the world - what would be your answer?
If you leave out the statues of gods and deities of other religions - mainly meant for worshipping - statues of political icons and reformers are erected for a completely different purpose. They are erected for their contribution to society and their respective nations. At a broader scale, they are also erected for their humanitarian contribution to mankind.
There is this crafty Gandhi bronze statue erected at Johannesburg - depicting the Indian independence campaigner and nonviolent pacifist as a young man. There surely are scores of Gandhi statues in India.
The million dollar questions here, how many times Gandhi statues had come under attack by religious zealots - Hindus, Muslims to whatever religion the supposed hooligans may belong to? Has a Gandhi statue ever been compared to the religious sanctity of a Hindu god or goddess?
Construction of a Mujib sculpture has recently stirred up a lot of unnecessary debates while fomenting tension among some of our religious political and non political groups.
Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh Chief Junaid Babunagari issued threats during a rally in Chittagong last month that all sculptures in the country will be removed (Read demolished). Other hardliner Islamist organizations of the country have also followed suit by saying that Bangladesh cannot have any sculptures as it is 'against the religion of Islam.'
I agree, when it comes to statues, artwork or sculptors, radical Islamic groups in the Middle East countries have always been divided. But what I am witnessing in today's Bangladesh is completely a different issue.
You are most welcome to agree or disagree, but Hefazat threats against sculptures in today's Bangladesh have little to do with religion, and more about establishing political prowess based on outmoded and flawed religious interpretation.
At least, this writer hasn't forgotten the removal of the Lady Justice statue from our HC premises, taking place on 26th May of 2017. Sadly, the government at that time had bowed down to the pressure by those who had played the religion card for a political victory.
That religion card is played once more, this time it isn't the statue of a female, but the very architect of The Peoples Republic of Bangladesh - Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
The latest outcry automatically raise the question - is this Bangabandhu statue the first in the country? Bangladesh, rather conspicuously, has had a long history of sculptures and busts made of political, social, and prominent personalities and figures, and they are scattered all across the country.
Why the sudden onslaught on statues and sculptures in Bangladesh?
Let this writer explain his viewpoint.
Following the removal of Lady Justice Statue in 2017, statue is no longer a religion card, Hefazat top-brass is replaying its old statue card or however, you desire to rename it. The Hefazat purpose this time too, is to renew its political authority over the government.
As usually, the fundamentalist religious group has always been sponsored and strengthened by an external force, and with fast changing regional and international geopolitical developments, I fear, Hefazat will come into play even more sinister cards capitalising on our religious sentiments.
On and off the record, we often talk about how powerful countries always attempt to usurp our defence establishment to bring in political change in Bangladesh. I believe it is also time to draw lesson from history and cautiously examine how super powers also exploit our religious fundamentalist groups to bring down their opposing governments. I personally feel a similar conspiracy is brewing up.
In international diplomacy, setting up of statues and sculptures of a famed person of another country can also strengthen bilateral ties. As soon as it was learnt that a sculpture of Bangabandhu will be set up at Ankara and a sculpture of Kemal Ataturk at Kamel Ataturk Avenue in Dhaka, the Hefazat suddenly refrained from responding to the Turkish envoy's official statement issued to the media.
The Hefazat top brass may be contemplating which card to play now. And I fear only the worst, when the statues in two countries turns into a reality, the Bangabandhu statue will be much safer at Istanbul to the Ataturk statue in Dhaka.
Hefazat - e - Islam is indeed a quasi political force in Bangladesh, and once again such pseudo force cannot exist and keep growing without US and Middle Eastern endorsement.
Take Iran of the mid 70s for instance, as soon as the Shah had become a spent force, the West didn't need him any longer. Khomeini was sheltered and nurtured in the West to serve a hidden geopolitical agenda; however, the plan had backfired miserably for the West. Similar realities had manifested in the last twenty years with Syria, Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Our party in power, in all its earnestness, must uncover which external force is bolstering Hefazat with its irrational orthodox religious claims. Today the Hefazat is demanding to remove statues; tomorrow it will challenge the validity of whoever is in power. It has already done once by vowing to revive the Madina Charter.
Hefazat chief Junaid Babunagari has just played the wrong card but at the right time to distance itself from the people including the government.
To finish with, it is rather confusing to follow that Hefazat-e-Islam, in the web is widely acknowledged as an 'Islamist advocacy group consisting of Madrasa teachers and students' in Bangladesh.
My personal reading, it is neither an advocacy group, nor believes in the core teachings of Islam. It is just another distracted extremist religious school-of-thought attempting to have its share in our political power sharing formula. That said - Hefazat has been playing a key role in the development of political and social systems in today's Bangladesh. Motives behind its recent actions are based on the old statue card.
More to it, in the past three years it has been applying varied methods to try to achieve its political ambition. The ambition includes lobbying, media campaigns, publicity stunts to polls, research to policy briefings to whatever god knows.
Hefazat mustn't be allowed to play politics while emerging as a political force in Bangladesh. It has repeatedly displayed dangerous and powerful potentials to flare-up with its extremist religious creed. It is therefore; essential to locate where it is drawing strength from outside Bangladesh and cut-off the source.
The writer is assistant editor,
The Daily Observer
