Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed has said no community in Bangladesh should be viewed or identified as a “minority”, stressing that all citizens are entitled to equal rights and security regardless of religion or other identities.
“Our foremost and primary identity should be that we are all Bangladeshis,” he said.
The home minister made the remarks on Friday afternoon while inaugurating the historic “Central Janmashtami Procession” at the Dhakeshwari National Temple in the capital’s Palashi area.
The procession was organised by the Mahanagar Sarbojanin Puja Committee and Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad as part of the Central Janmashtami Festival 1433.
Calling for a non-communal Bangladesh, Salahuddin Ahmed said the government’s guiding principle was to build “a Bangladesh for all”.
“Our leader has clearly said, ‘Bangladesh first’. If Bangladesh comes first, then we are all, first and foremost, Bangladeshis. Our religious, social and ethnic identities come afterwards,” he said.
Referring to past political practices, the minister said some political actors had sought to portray followers of the Sanatan faith as the “vote bank” of a particular political party for political gain.
“The conscious people of this country have completely shattered that misconception and artificial myth,” he said.
Salahuddin Ahmed claimed that over the six months since the present government took office, religious freedom and the observance of religious practices by people of all faiths had been ensured.
“The people are the judges. You have already delivered your verdict, and you will continue to play a united role in strengthening democracy and standing against all evil forces and extremism,” he said.
‘Religious freedom must be ensured in practice’
Highlighting the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom, the home minister said the state was obliged to protect every citizen’s right to practise their religion.
He said the Constitution did not permit discrimination on religious grounds and that places of worship and those responsible for them had been provided full security and freedom.
“The government does not want to keep this only in the books of the Constitution. We are determined to ensure equality and harmony in practice as well,” Salahuddin Ahmed said.
He also called for a change in the language used to describe relations among different religious and social communities, saying the term “communal harmony” should be replaced with “religious and social harmony, coexistence and peace.”
The programme was chaired by Gopal Chandra Debnath, president of the Mahanagar Sarbojanin Puja Committee, while Dhaka South City Corporation Administrator and freedom fighter Md Abdus Salam attended as the inaugurator.
Bijon Kanti Sarker, the prime minister’s special assistant for Hindu, Buddhist, Christian and ethnic minority affairs with the rank of state minister, and Dhaka-7 lawmaker Hamidur Rahman were present as special guests.
Mahanagar Sarbojanin Puja Committee General Secretary Shubhashish Kumar Biswas (Sadhan) moderated the programme.
