OP-ED: In 2021, the new enemy within

A half century ago, we waged war against the occupation Pakistan army. We lost millions of our compatriots. And we won that war.

Fifty years on, we wage a new war, this one against the purveyors of “Bangladeshi nationalism,” against such medieval outfits as the Hefazat-e-Islam. We cannot afford to lose this new war, in the interest of our collective self-esteem, in the larger interest of the generations of Bengalis to be.

As we remember the triumph we achieved on the battlefield a half century ago, it is appropriate that we move against those elements, the new merchants of communal hatred who today demand that all things secular be destroyed, that Bangabandhu’s sculpture be smashed, that the principles upon which the foundations of this Bengali republic rest be abandoned, that all aesthetics which define and determine the course of cultural sophistication be put to the sword.