Recently we posted on Twitter and Facebook to highlight the important debunking done by the BBC of false and exaggerated claims of the mistreatment of Hindus in Bangladesh.
It bears repeating that there has been violence and intimidation of various people and groups in Bangladesh, and that even one attack or killing is one too many. But it is also true that Professor Yunus and the government he leads have been taking practical and symbolic steps to curb violence. Throughout his life he has shown he is a humanist who leads by example through treating all people equally regardless of faith, ethnicity, or gender. Professor Yunus talked about his focus on improving law and order in a wide-ranging interview with Prothom Alo English, in which he said, “We are trying [to improve the law and order situation]. We have not been successful as yet. Law and order is not completely back to normal as yet. I do not want to go into explanations, but things haven’t improved that much. They may have improved to an extent, but not to the level required. So our utmost effort will be to stabilise that. That is our primary task. Unless that is done, we can’t carry out the rest of the tasks.”
Some violence against Hindus appears to be based more on their past association with the now disgraced Awami League government led by Sheikh Hasina, rather than on their religion. There are suspicions that some of it is being perpetrated by sympathizers of the prior regime to create the impression of incompetence or malfeasance by the current Interim Government. And some of it is simply made up and completely false.
Regarding those that are untrue, Shohanur Rahman, who goes by @Sohan_RSB on Twitter/X, has been doing some excellent work debunking fake stories. He also publishes under the handle @RumorScanner. Check out this fact check and also this one. Rumor Scanner claims to have debunked more than 40 fake or misleading stories coming from India. Let’s hope they continue this valuable service.
We can expect many more of these stories to surface. It is inevitable that some of the billions stolen by leaders of the Awami League will begin being used to undermine the Interim Government. Indeed, it is already happening. Neither the government nor the Support Yunus Campaign has the resources to match those who seek to destabilize the Interim Government, but with the assistance of people of goodwill playing the roles of fact-checkers and critical thinkers who don’t fall prey to the latest outrage that may be fake or misleading but challenge them instead, we can collectively turn the tide.
