‘Greek tragedy’ returns to Bangla apex court
Dhaka, May 28: Bangladesh on Sunday reinstalled the statue of a Greek goddess, taken down from the front of the Supreme Court after religious hardliners deemed it “un-Islamic”, to a different location within the premises.
The sculpture of a blindfolded, sari-clad woman holding a sword and the scales of justice had been in place for less than six months when when authorities removed it on Friday under pressure from hardliners who claimed it hurt their religious sentiments.
The removal triggered violent clashes between police and secular groups, who saw the move as further evidence of creeping Islamisation in the officially secular country.
Sculptor Mrinal Haque, who engraved the statue, supervised the reinstallation process, completed with the help of around 30 workers. “I wasn’t given any clarification but was only ordered to relocate it,” Haque said, adding the new location was at the back of the court where hardly anyone could see it.
Hifazat-e Islam, Olama League and several other Islamist organisations have been demanding for months that the statue of Lady Justice be destroyed and replaced with a Koran.
Radical group Hefazat-eIslam had targeted the statue since its erection in December 2016, saying it did not reflect the Islamic culture of the Muslims in Bangladesh, The Dhaka Tribune reported.
The statue, which is not of the Greek goddess but a Bengali woman, has ruffled feathers in the Muslim-majority nation, with hardliners staging massive protests in recent months.
The protesters held that the statue, a variation on the Greek goddess Themis, goes against Islam, the report had said.
In April, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who leads the secular Awami League party, apparently backed the Islamists by expressing her dislike for the statue and approved its removal.
Analysts say Hasina’s stand intended to woo Islamists and conservative rural voters before a general election expected next year. Reacting to criticism, Hasina said she had asked Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha why the statue of a Greek goddess had been distorted by having it clad in a saree.
“Why shouldn’t it be removed? Don’t they see that it is no more Greek. It’s half Greek, half Bengali. It’s GreekBengali now. Don’t they see it?” she had enquired.
Bangladesh has experienced increasing tensions between hardliners and secularists in recent years, suffering a spate of killings of atheist bloggers, religious minorities and foreigners. — PTI