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NSA Ajit Doval attended the exhibition on the first day which, the curators say, sends a message to Dhaka that the government is taking minority persecution seriously
Namrita Gautier and François Gautier have curated the exhibition to raise the issue of Hindus being persecuted in Bangladesh. (News18)
Ever since the unceremonious exit of Sheikh Hasina on August 5 last year, India has been grappling with the issue of persecution of Hindus and other minority communities in Bangladesh. Now, an Indo-French couple’s exhibition in New Delhi — portraying the atrocities on Bangladeshi Hindus particularly since Md Yunus has taken over — is helping raise awareness on the issue.
“Neither am I Indian, nor am I a Hindu. But as a political journalist, I acknowledge the media’s influence on public policy. I do wish that India, which is a very powerful country and shares more than a 4,000-kilometre border with Bangladesh and has 10-20 million illegal Bangladeshis living here, would have taken a stronger stand on Bangladesh,” says François Gautier, who served as the South Asia Correspondent of multiple reputed French-language dailies and is closely associated with FACT (Foundation Against Continuing Terrorism) — the organisation that curated the exhibition.
National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval attended the exhibition on the first day at Vivekananda International Foundation and stayed back to attend the panel discussion highlighting India’s deep concern over the plight of minorities in Bangladesh.
Namrita Gautier, wife of François Gautier and the co-curator of the exhibition, thinks it’s a deliberate move by the government to send out a message to Dhaka.
“Doval’s presence sends a message to Dhaka that the government is interested in knowing what’s happening there as far as minority persecution is concerned and they are taking it seriously,” she says.
She adds: “We hope this exhibition will have an impact on an awakening that there is some kind of pogrom happening in Bangladesh that needs to be looked at seriously. We hope this exhibition helps in awakening the public too which is quite complacent.”
François says: “The idea was that we spread the word about how much Hindus along with other minorities are suffering at the moment in Bangladesh and the world in silence.”
As Doval made his presence felt at the exhibition, India’s external affairs Minister S Jaishankar — at another event — used strong words like “ridiculous” while talking about Bangladesh’s claims against India and expressed concerns over the state of minorities in the neighbouring country.
“There are two aspects to the problem that our bilateral ties are facing – the first being communal attacks on minorities. What is very troubling for India is the spate of attacks on minorities. It obviously is something that impacts our thinking. It is something we have to speak up about, which we have done,” Jaishankar said. His remarks came days after he met Bangladesh’s Foreign Affairs Adviser Touhid Hossain in Muscat.
