Staff Reporter/

Kajal Debnath, member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Parishad, a human rights figure, said that independent Bangladesh was born with the conviction of establishing a non-sectarian democratic and secular state, but the whole nation is far away from it in its mentality. Equality, human dignity and social justice are guaranteed in the Great Declaration of Independence, but today’s reality is that sectarianism, bigotry, fundamentalism has spread through the cracks of society, state and politics. The religious-caste population of the country is suffering from existential crisis due to the rampant rise of communalism and bigotry. In order to protect the existence of the country’s minorities, the government should form a minority ministry and a national minority commission before the next national elections, enact a minority protection law, properly implement the transfer of vested property law, establish a land commission for the tribals of the plains, enact a law on abolition of discrimination and implement the Hill Land Dispute Settlement Commission Act. The Mountain Peace Agreement must be fully implemented.

He said these words while addressing the tri-annual conference of Sylhet Metropolitan Branch of Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Parishad at Sylhet Zilla Parishad Auditorium at 10 am on Friday (October 28). The organization’s Metropolitan President Advocate Mritunjoy Dhar Bhola presided over and General Secretary Pradeep Kumar Dev was the main speaker of the conference.

Central Presidium Member Advocate Swaraj Ranjan Biswas, Organizing Secretary Malaya Purkayastha, Puja Udjaj Parishad Central Organizing Secretary Professor Rajat Kanti Bhattacharya, Oikya Parishad Central Co-Organizing Secretary Ashu Ranjan Das, Habiganj District President Jagadish Chandra Modak, Puja Parishad Sylhet spoke as special guests. District President Muktijoddha Gopika Shyam Purkayastha, Sylhet Metropolitan President Subrata Deb, Sylhet District General Secretary Kripesh Pal, Sunamganj District General Secretary Advocate Vishwajit Chakraborty, Moulvibazar District General Secretary Nakul Chandra Das, Puja Parishad Sylhet District General Secretary Advocate Ranjan Ghosh, Metropolitan General Secretary Rajat Kanti Gupta, Moulvibazar District Branch General Secretary Mohin Dey.

In the speech of the main speaker, Jayant Kumar Deb said- He called upon anyone who was or is involved directly or indirectly in any kind of activities against the interests of the minorities to not be nominated as a candidate from any political party or coalition in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

Speakers at the conference said that political parties and alliances should take responsibility for ensuring the representation of religious ethnic minorities in the parliament at a proportional rate of population, including ensuring the representation of tribals. The speakers strongly demanded the government to ban religious hate speech. Arindam Das Hablu gave a congratulatory speech on behalf of Advocate Pradeep Bhattacharya, District President of Oikya Parishad. Advocate Debbrat Chowdhury Liton read the condolence proposal at the conference.
At the beginning of the program, freedom fighter Vivekananda Samajpati read the Holy Gita, Bible was read by Reverend Philip Samaddar, Tripitaka was read by Chandra Shekhar Chowdhury.

Mirnal Sinha, freedom fighter Panna Lal Roy, Danesh Sangma, Dhirendra Dhar, Rajkumar Pal Raju, GD Rumu, Babul Dev, Apan Das, Advocate Vivasu Goswami Bappa, Dhananjaya Das Dhanu, Ratindra Das Bhakta, Rocky Dev and others spoke among others. In the conference for the third time Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Oikya Parishad Sylhet Metropolitan Branch Account Advocate Mruthunjay Dhar Bhola and Pradeep Kumar Dev were re-elected as General Secretary.