The High Court down the 7th Amendment to the Constitution of Bangladesh. This ruling deems unconstitutional the various decrees General Ershad passed through under martial law between March and November 1982. The 7th Amendment retroactively legitimated the very acts that successfully engineering the coup undertaken by then Chief of Army staff H.M. Ershad. Thus, striking […]
This weeks news has run the gamut of silly, inconsequential and headscratchingly troubling. In the first instance, the BNP leader and former Prime Minister, Khaleda Zia has said that if the sitting government fails to govern with the consent and agreement of the opposition, it should step down. Apart from the vainglory of the claim, […]
The government has arrested 3 garment industry labor leaders on charges that they had engineered violent and disruptive street protests.. This after mass protests against a proposed 3000 taka minimum wage for working in the retail garment industry in Dhaka and its environs. Though nearly double the standing wage, workers had demanded 5000 taka. Indeed, […]
The BBC reports that along with the national security portfolio, the Bangladeshi army is now encroaching on the civilian government’s major writ to spur on commercial activity. Through interests in commercial banking and the hospitality industry, food production and textiles, the Army is branching out as a leader in Bangladesh’s economy. The BBC reportages suggest […]
We sit pat in August, in what is likely to be a set of hazier days, than the hot set just recently passed. But seven day out July is still fresh in our minds. Is it not? The month just passed in Bangladesh might strike anyone as a set of strides in the direction […]
Rabindranath Tagore, Nobel Laureate and the first universally acclaimed Bengali poet died 69 years ago today. Cultural fora and celebrations in India and Bangladesh mark this day every year. And though there’s much to say about his accomplishments, I can say little about the man or the tremendous impact he’s had on Bengali letters. Therefore, […]
The Awami League government has rounded up all the usual suspects, pushed and pulled away from their seats of power and carnage. Its almost as if it were spring, just so and Sheikh Hasina thought it was time to clean house. In the first instance and most recently, the paramilitary group Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) […]
Four top leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami have been arrested and stand accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the murder of Bengali intellectuals during the Pakistani military’s strategic massacre of then East Pakistan’s Bengali and Hindu communities. The Daily Star reports, quite movingly: “They are no stranger to court. They stood in the dock […]
The principle of ‘Democracy’ has been re-enshrined in the politics and constitutional policy-making in Bangladesh. That at least is what The Daily Star wants you, my reader, to think. Quite apart from the sheer nonsense of the claim, the Supreme Court (SC) of Bangladesh released the text of a ruling it had delivered some months […]
Garment factory workers have been demonstrating and engaging in violent street protests to call for a 5000 taka monthly minimum wage. The government has come to meet them more than half way. It is offering a 3000 taka monthly wage that will be announced later on Thursday afternoon. The Daily Star reports that the Labor […]
Mr. Mannan Bhuiyan, a former Secretary General of the BNP passed away in Dhaka on Wednesday morning at the age of 67. He had been suffering from lung cancer. Mr. Bhuiyan had served as Secretary General of the BNP for 11 years and had also served his country in the capacity of the Minister for […]
The War Crimes Tribunal has issued arrest warrants for the 4 senior Jamaat leaders already in government custody. The charges: committing genocide and crimes against humanity and peace during the 1971 War of Liberation. The leaders wanted in connection with the crimes: none other than Motiur Rahman Nizami, the Jamaat-e-Islam chief and his Secretary General, […]
Consider for more than a breath that about 50% of children under 5 years of age in Bangladesh are malnourished. That hard to picture statistic masks more than 8 million hungry, often starving children. These babies often do not eat for stretches, born without fault in a country where the median age floats around 22. […]
Imagine a piece published in the New York Times that tries to tackle the epidemic of tax evasion in Bangladesh. Imagine that in the first few paragraphs, the piece rushes to describe the sights and smells that stand behind and in front of that seemingly intractable epidemic : “Much of Bangladesh’s capital city looks like […]
Bangladesh’s political economy made it into the front page of the New York Times this morning. Unfortunately, though important, it was a story about the garments industry in Bangladesh. That is, it was a story about the downward push of wages and regulations in the garments industry in Bangladesh. The kind of downward push that is […]