‘Whatever she said was on her own responsibility’

Bangladesh Hindu-Bouddha-Christian Oikya Parishad yesterday said it has no links with the comments made by its suspended organising secretary Priya Saha while meeting US President Donald Trump.

“Although Priya Saha was one of the organising secretaries of the Parishad, she didn’t meet the US president on behalf of the organisation,” Rana Dasgupta, general secretary of Oikya Parishad, said at a press conference at Jatiya Press Club yesterday.

“Whatever she told the president is solely her own responsibility. There is no connection of the organisation to it,” he said.

Rana Dasgupta said they have seen in a release of Freedom House of USA that Priya Saha had been mentioned as “general secretary” of the Parishad.

“Some US media mentioned Priya Saha as general secretary and me its president. Actually, I’m not president of Bangladesh Hindu-Bouddha-Christian Oikya Parishad,” he said.

Against the backdrop of confusion created due to bearing such organisational identity during her stay in USA, the standing committee of the Parishad suspended Priya at an emergency meeting. She had been relieved from all organisational activities, he said.

Rana Dasgupta said upon her return to Dhaka and hearing her statement, next course of action will be taken.

Pointing out Priya’s allegation of disappearance of 3.7 crore Hindu, Buddhist and Christian people to Trump, the Parishad general secretary said, “Only she can explain what she had meant by disappear.”

“If she meant minorities disappeared from independent Bangladesh, then it is untrue. We condemn and protest it,” said Rana Dasgupta.

Quoting different governments’ census carried out between 1947 and 2011, the Parishad said the number of minorities has been reduced to 9.7 percent from 29.7 percent of total population in the last five decades. Of the 9.7 percent minority population, the number of Hindu population was 8.4 percent.

Although the incidents of torture and discrimination against the minorities in the country are still going on, it is undeniable that the overall rights situation has improved significantly over the last 10 years, Dasgupta said.

“For the welfare of the country, we should positively face the problems of the minorities instead of ignoring those,” he added.

WHAT DID PRIYA SAHA SAY?

In a video clip that went viral on social media on July 19, Priya Saha was heard telling Trump: “Sir, I’m from Bangladesh ... 37 million Hindus, Buddhists and Christians are disappeared. Please help us - for the Bangladeshi people. We want to stay in our country.”