BJP MLA Suvendu Adhikari
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and the Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, triggered massive public condemnation after his statement that Bangladesh should be taught a “lesson like Israel has taught Gaza.”
Speaking to reporters in front of the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission on Friday, December 26, the leader said, “These people must be taught a lesson, just like Israel taught Gaza. Our 100 crore Hindus and the government working in the interest of Hindus must teach them a lesson just as we taught Pakistan a lesson in Operation Sindoor.”
Protests have been held in front of the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission since December 22 over the lynching of Dipu Chandra Das, a 27-year-old garment factory worker. His body was hung from a tree and burned in full public view on December 18 in the Meymensingh district.
Reacting to his statement, the All India Trinamool Congress said that the BJP had “perfected hate and intolerance into an artform.”
“Their venomous loudmouth, @SuvenduWB, just bared his fascist fangs again, spewing genocidal bile by proclaiming that India must teach Muslims a lesson like Israel taught Gaza. This is naked hate speech, a bloodthirsty call for MASS MURDER and ETHNIC CLEANSING. NO FIR. NO ARREST. NO PROSECUTION. NO UAPA slapped on this Hitler-in-the-making.” they stated in a post on X.
Adhikari had met senior officials of the Deputy High Commission on Friday as part of a five-member delegation, and claimed that the diplomats had “no answer to most of his questions”.
“I asked them that if the former Bangladeshi PM Sheikh Hasina granted asylum to Myanmar Rohingyas in Cox’ Bazar because they were Muslims, why are the Hindus being indiscriminately targeted? If they think two crore Hindus in that country will get constantly targeted and 100 crore Hindus on this side of the border will sit and watch silently, then they are grossly mistaken,” he said.
The BJP leader also launched a sharp attack on the Mamata Banerjee government over police action on protesters who demonstrated before the deputy high commission earlier this week.
“There is no difference between the police of Mumammad Yunus on that side of the border and those of Mamata Banerjee here. Both serve their masters blindly,” Adhikari said, referring to the baton-charge and arrests of 19 supporters of a Hindu organisation which had breached barricades and clashed with the police in their attempt to raid the mission premises on December 23.
Police were deployed in large numbers before the Deputy High Commission office on Friday. Metal barricades bolted to the ground were set up, which cordoned off the zone and turned it into a virtual fortress to stop protesters from reaching the premises, a sovereign Bangladeshi territory on Indian soil.
Adhikari, accompanied by a few hundred Hindu monks, threatened to return with a much larger force and storm the mission office if the attacks continued unabated.
“Monks will set up camps at Babughat on their way to the Gangasagar mela. I will return with five lakh Hindu pilgrims of Gangasagar at the beginning of next year and uproot these barricades on our march to the high commission office,” he said.
Large scale violence erupted across the neigbouring nation since December 18 — including riots, arson, and attacks on minority Hindus, vandalism at cultural sites and targeting of a section of the media — after news spread of the killing of Osman Hadi, a leader of the July 2024 uprising against Sheikh Hasina and a prospective candidate for the upcoming parliamentary elections.
At least two Hindu youths were lynched and houses of minorities in Bangladesh being ransacked and torched in the wake of the violence.
Dipu Chandra Das, a 27-year-old garment factory worker, was lynched after allegations of blasphemy. His body was hanged from a tree and burned in full public view on December 18 in Meymensingh district.
Six days later, on Christmas Eve, 29-year-old Amrit Mondal was beaten to death by locals in Rajbari district. Bangladeshi authorities, while condemning the incident, said Mondal was a listed criminal who had entered the area to collect extortion money and clashed with residents.
(With inputs from PTI.)
This post was last modified on December 28, 2025 1:37 am