The Death of a Nation’s Secular Soul and the Politics of Personal Resentment
The recent statement by Bangladesh’s Home Affairs Advisor, Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, is not merely laughable — it is a naked expression of his government’s deep-seated contempt for secularism, the Constitution, and democracy itself. He has claimed that in nearly eight hundred Durga Puja pandals, beards were painted on the faces of demons to incite religious division and communal tension — allegedly at the instigation of “fascist intellectuals.”
But behind this absurd accusation lies something far more personal — a private bitterness that has become the driving force of his politics.
For Jahangir Alam Chowdhury is himself a Makunda man — one upon whom nature, since adolescence, has refused the gift of facial hair. Don’t mistake his clean-shaven face for style; it is biology’s denial. From that wound of envy burns the fury that now drives him: he provokes the mullahs of Jamaat to shear the hair and beards of Bauls and Fakirs, and sends DCs, SPs, and UNOs to shave the beards of demons in Durga idols. His conduct is not merely ridiculous — it is the grotesque marriage of personal insecurity and political abuse of power.
To debate whether a demon should have a beard is an exercise in folly. Ancient art, literature, and mythology all attest to bearded demons — to deny this is to confess one’s ignorance. But this government has no interest in knowledge or culture. Its true intent is domination — to control the rituals of minorities, to humiliate their faiths, and to erase the secular essence of the nation itself.
Behind this regime’s illegal seizure of power lies the money of foreign states, the muscle of jihadist militias, and the shadowy blessing of the military. The riots of July, the coup against the elected government, and the subsequent usurpation of power — all bear witness to the fascist nature of this administration. They have trampled the Constitution, murdered democracy, and unleashed terror upon the country’s minorities.
On one front, they unleash Jamaat’s clerics to forcibly shear the hair and beards of mystic Bauls and Fakirs; on another, they spread lies about the demons’ beards in Hindu worship. They storm temples, deface idols, slice off the beards of asuras, and shroud their faces — all as part of their campaign of communal provocation.
One must ask: is the beard Jahangir Alam Chowdhury’s ancestral property? Who shall wear it and who shall not — is that now to be decreed by this illegitimate government?
And as Christmas approaches — the birth of Jesus Christ, the bearded prophet of peace — one cannot help but wonder: by the government’s new logic, will Christ himself be next?
Will the beard of Jesus survive this season of zealotry?
Or, like the demon of Durga Puja… shall it too be shaven away into silence?
