Amid the Islamist onslaught against Hindus across Bangladesh, Indian YouTuber Akash Banerjee stepped in to whitewash the atrocities committed against the minority community in the neighbouring Islamic country.
During his 25-minute long programme, ‘Are Hindus Really Being Systematically Wiped Out In Bangladesh?’, he claimed that no one knew who was behind the attacks on Hindu homes, shops and temples.
At about 9:20 in the show, he claimed, “The journalists and the minority right groups in Bangladesh are not able to give the exact scale. Are people being killed?
“If yes, then how many have been killed? We have not received this number yet…Neither the Indian nor Bangladesh government is doing any confirmation,” he blurted out rhetorical statements.
Instead of focusing on the fact that Hindus are being attacked en masse and that the perpetrators are violent Muslims, Akash Banerjee claimed that the identity of the attackers was unknown.
“The second question is, who is attacking? The answer is not clear. It is difficult to find out who is behind this,” he was heard saying.
Akash Banerjee gives ‘political twist’ to religious targeting against Hindus
The controversial YouTuber alleged, “It is complicated because other Islamic fundamentalist organizations like BNP and Jamaat are being accused of attacking Hindus but some people are pointing fingers at Awami League and some of their people.”
“It is being done to prove that Sheikh Hasina was protecting minorities, and in her absence, this was bound to happen,”he shrewdly deviated the public discourse from religious persecution of Hindus.
Akash Banerjee not only cast doubts on the extent of attacks on the Hindu community but also suggested that it could be the result of political violence and not religious targeting.
OpIndia has documented cases of atrocities against Hindus in Bangladesh by Islamists masquerading as ‘pro-democracy, anti-quota and anti-government’ protestors. The total number of incidents of attacks on minorities has reached 205.
Interestingly, Akash Banerjee is a late entrant in the game of whitewashing Islamist violence against Hindus. Prior to him, Arfa Khanum Sherwani of The Wire and Mohammed Zubair of Alt News did everything they could to negate reports about targeting of the Hindu community.
Special invite to Akash Banerjee by US embassy
On 17th July, the US Embassy in India informed about its event for Indian social media influences and content creators to learn about boosting social media engagement on social issues and learn about “active citizenship”.
However, for this “Influence to Impact” event, the US Embassy chose the YouTuber “DeshBhakt” Akash Banerjee who has earned notoriety for peddling leftist and anti-BJP propaganda.
While on the face of it, the US Embassy’s promotional content reeked of political interference in India’s internal political discourse.
Earlier in March, OpIndia reported how the US Embassy’s choice of ‘personality’ for Women’s History Month sparked outrage on social media with people pointing to Sayema’s anti-Hindu, regressive and Islamist views. Despite this, the US Embassy was undeterred from promoting Sayema on their social media handles.
