INDIA MUST TAKE PUNITIVE MEASURES AGAINST BANGLADESH

Utter mayhem has been unleashed in Bangladesh against the minority population, particularly Hindus.

- JOYEEETA BASU

The pogrom that started on 5 August, post Sheikh Hasina's removal, is continuing. But now that the Hindus are standing up against the massacre of their co-religionists by Islamists, the regime in Dhaka and its followers and backers have started branding anyone who speaks out as a terrorist. Bearing the brunt of this ire is the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), a Hindu sect popularly known as the Hare Krishna movement, established by Swami Prabhupada in 1966. The sect has a major international following. Even Tulsi Gabbard, who has been picked by Donald Trump to be his Director of National Intelligence, is an ISKCON devotee. Practitioners of non-violence, ISKCON members are among the most peaceful that the world has known and are involved in major philanthropic activities. They draw their inspiration from the 15th century Bhakti movement saint Shri Chaitanya, the founder of Vaishnavism. Anyone who has had even the mildest of interactions with the followers of ISKCON would know that terrorism and radicalism are words that cannot be associated with them. So to brand them as terrorists and arrest their head in Bangladesh, Chinmoy Krishna Das, not only reeks of fakery but is essentially an instance of administrative overreach