True, secularism is to discourage all religions; and I never suggested that by allowing Saraswati Puja at the parliament premises Bangladesh was promoting secularism. What I suggested was that by allowing that event there, Bangladesh would be showing respect for the Hindu citizens of that country, much like what it has been doing to an extent for the Christians and overwhelmingly for the Muslims. Of course, one can paraphrase Shah Deelder's words like "why do the Hindus need respect?"
In any case, Bangladesh is not secular. The way madrassas and mosques have been growing there, the country is going in the backward direction from secularism. One way to make some improvements wound be to encourage the Muslims to think that the non-Muslims are also part of Bangladesh.
Sukhamaya Bain
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On Wednesday, January 28, 2015 2:56 AM, "Kamal Das kamalctgu@gmail.com [mukto-mona]" <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
Secularism is not to encourage all religions. It is to discourage them all.
Sent from my iPad
Sent from my iPad
On Jan 28, 2015, at 8:08 AM, "Shah Deeldar shahdeeldar@yahoo.com [mukto-mona]" <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
This was an odd idea to begin with and as expected it failed to materialize for very obvious reasons. Look, anything that promotes Hindu,Budhist or Christian traditions would be unpalatable for many Bangladeshis.This is not new. I am not sure why Hindu members even bother to propose such event at the parliament? How that makes Bangladesh more secular and tolerant? Do these people live in the bubble?-SDOn Tuesday, January 27, 2015 8:04 PM, "Sukhamaya Bain subain1@yahoo.com [mukto-mona]" <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
{Postscript from the Author (January 27, 2015): It is a great disappointment that in spite of the initial consent by the Prime Minister and approval by the Speaker, there was actually no Saraswati Puja at the Bangladesh Parliament. I am not sure why the big leaders' approvals were not implemented. But there is no doubt that this reneging pleases and supports the Islamic/Muslim hate-mongers of Bangladesh.}
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Posted by: Sukhamaya Bain <subain1@yahoo.com>
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