Bangladesh, Even India, Should Follow Europe On Genocide Denial Law

The historical amity between India and Bangladesh came to the fore during the 1971 liberation war of Bangladesh, when people from both countries joined hands against the oppression of an evil, religious force.
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The historical amity between India and Bangladesh came to the fore during the 1971 liberation war of Bangladesh, when people from both countries joined hands against the oppression of an evil, religious force. Apart from the Pakistani Junta, other South Asian countries also joined in the cause of the common people of these two countries with some of them engaging diplomatically in the warfare, thus helping accelerate the birth of Bangladesh. The role of India during that period can only be compared to a kind and caring progenitress dedicated to the ease of the birth of a nation.

Despite the fact that around three million people were killed in a planned genocide during the liberation war of Bangladesh, the number of killed people has always been manipulated in an international arena in the name of revisionism, which was deliberately orchestrated by the political allies of those who committed the genocide. The number of people killed in the war has always been at the center of debate on the 1971 freedom struggle because of the political intentions of the Jamaat-e-Islami and Pakistani junta to strengthen religious fundamentalists in the political sphere of Bangladesh and to cover up their crimes against humanity. As an ally in the war, India is also affected by this propaganda campaign. Not only that, this so-called debate on the actual death toll is an ill-intentioned move to disgrace the sacrifices of the people of both India and Bangladesh.

It is already academically proven and universally recognized by numerous independent researchers that three million civilians were in fact killed during the nine-month long liberation war on the Eastern front, where the Indian and Bangladeshi forces fought against the Pakistani army and local Islamist militia groups. Further academic studies and political debates on this issue should be welcomed, but only on the pre-condition of this resolution, violation of which is a dishonor to the martyred and to the struggles of a freedom-loving nation.

In Europe, revisionism of the holocaust, questioning the genocide itself or raising doubt on the actual number of victims is a criminal offense. Let alone raising doubt on holocaust, any kind of negative approach towards the genocide of WWII or legitimizing the fascist's approach is considered a serious crime punishable under various laws, commonly known as the "Laws against Denial of Holocaust", which is widely accepted and practiced in almost all the member state of European Union. There are plenty of examples of putting this law into practice in Europe. For example, the case of David Irving, a British writer infamously known for his denial of holocaust, which resulted him a thirteen-month-long prison term.

Another such example is that of historian Professor Bernard Lewis whose main area of expertise was genocide and war crimes. Professor Lewis commented that the Armenian Genocide is not a real genocide based on the academic definition of genocide, which caused a public outburst among the Armenian dissidents in France and later a French court penalized him with a token punishment of One Franc. The same happened with Lawyer Peter Erlinder, Lead Defense Counsel for the UN International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda. Erlinder portrayed the genocide of Rwanda as a "by-product of war" which led him to a three-year sentence in prison. Recently a Bangladesh-based British journalist David Bergman was fined five thousand Taka by the International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh for raising obfuscated and intentional questions regarding the number of people killed during the genocide of Bangladesh in 1971.

During 1971, India hosted around ten million Bangladeshi refugees, referring to which Mother Teresa compared the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's work as "the act of Jesus". The official statistics of the Indian Army suggests that a total of 3,630 Indian soldiers laid their live on eastern and western fronts for the independence of Bangladesh and the war cost the country around seven-thousand-million rupees.

The quest of making laws against denial of Holocaust in Europe was to safeguard Humanism, prevention of such heinous crimes and prevention of discrimination on the basis of race and religion. The UN Universal Human Rights Declaration in 1981 clearly states that the genocide of Bangladesh was the fastest one within a small area. The daily count of killings in that genocide was the highest in genocidal history according to the same report. However, it's a pity that this genocide is still not recognized internationally, and because of that the Pakistani and pro-Pakistani perpetrators continue to deny the truth of a crime known for its rarity.

The present Awami League government undertook the challenge to end this culture of impunity by holding trials of the perpetrators. It needs to be clear that the local war criminals of Bangladesh are part of the web of South Asian extremists. Challenging these extremists and their political allies has become an urgent and crucial task as they are the source of hindrance to the development and religious harmony in Bangladesh.

To deny or distort the number of martyred civilians in the war of 1971 is synonymous to denying the struggles of the valiant fighters of both India and Bangladesh, denying the agony of the ten million refugees of Bangladesh and thus denying the sacrifices of those who shed their blood for the cause. All these denials help in avoiding the liability of a serious crime which Pakistan committed and admitted through its surrender on 16th December 1971 to the joint force of India and Bangladesh. Such a denial is a flagitious crime both from moral and judicial perspective.

Thus, like Europe, it is high time for both India and Bangladesh to secure and preserve their history by adopting laws against genocide denial. This would also prevent repetition of such crimes and weaken radical Islamist groups all over South Asia. If these two countries step forward to make such laws, then other countries of the world that contributed diplomatically in favor of the India-Bangladesh alliance during 1971, might also follow and recognize the genocide, ultimately resulting in the recognition of true history of the Sub-continent.

To make South Asia more habitable, to counter Islamic fundamentalism in the entire region and to combat extremism, there is little or no substitute to such laws that will help reveal the true face of radicalism. It is time that both Bangladesh and India made a joint effort to eradicate the roots of extremism by preserving their own history through laws of genocide denial.

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