The BNP has just announced that on May 3rd, it will lead a protest march to the election commission to demand a that the voting results of the Bhola-3 elections be annulled. Further, the BNP will demand that the electoral commissioners resign. I understand that all protests are extra-legal acts and– taken together–movements. But this […]
The reportage in the course of the day presents a slightly more nuanced take on the government shut down of the private Channel 1 television station. On the one hand, though the channel has gone through several iterations of leadership and journalistic talent, the news programming certainly was less frivolous than other outlets. On the […]
The last few days have seen significant uproar in the Indian parliament and media about the alleged wire-tapping of four senior politicians in India. The Outlook Magazine reported that telephones of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat and Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh were tapped by […]
The Awami League government has now shut down another television station in the span of less than six months. This is the second such censorious clamp-down since the Awami League returned to power in December 2008. This is a troubling move, for the official excuse for the revocation of the license to broadcast seems like a […]
An interesting aspect of India’s defense strategy today is its focus on increasing its naval power, currently the fifth largest in the world. Last month, the Woodrow Wilson Center hosted a panel to discuss this “dramatic maritime transformation.” Within the next decade, the country plans to introduce 40 new warships and 400 new aircraft to […]
The Commerce Ministry of Bangladesh was set to lift a ban on public commercial import and exhibition of Indian films in Bangladeshi cinema theaters. That move will now be scrapped. The Commerce Minstry was set to lift a ban placed on exhibitions of Indian films in 1972 to nurture Bangladesh’s then nascent film industry. […]
Richard Samuels and Robert Madsen have a thoughtful piece on US-Japan relations in The National Interest, in which they push for a “limited liability partnership”: “a cooperative scheme in which Tokyo’s military role is scaled back significantly and the U.S. presence in Japan is rendered less onerous.” The strength of the article lies in its […]
Malaysia: PM Najib Razak has launched an economic reform initiative, the New Economic Model (NEM), which is geared to transform Malaysia into a developed nation by 2020. The problem with this lofty goal is that Malaysia is currently facing ascending competition, a marked decrease in foreign direct investment (FDI), and the fact that this reform […]
As the Indian government strives to elevate people out of poverty, it should realize that good athletes can serve as more than a way to equal China’s Olympic might.
Straight on the heels on charges of election fraud, the BNP leadership has announced that it will commence its country-wide protest plan to challenge and, perhaps overthrow Awami League rule on Wednesday. Claiming that the Bhola-3 by-election was riven with fraud, Begum Khaleda Zia has decided to operationalize her plans to try to bring about […]
The Awami League candidate has won the by-election in the (thern) district of Bhola by an overwhelming margin. The BNP has challenged the outcome. Even with such a strong, ringing public endorsement, the proceedings were not marked with civility and respect. Widely shared anecdotal evidence of voter intimidation and physical violence besmirched the election. Specific, […]
Monday April 19, 2010 – President Zardari made history by signing the landmark constitutional reforms amendment bill into law. Zardari – after taking office 18 months ago – pledged to reform the constitution. He promised that all the anomalies that were created by the dictators to protect their powers will be removed from the constitution. After this amendment the […]
Two day SAARC Summit to begin on April 28 in Bhutan. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation’s (SAARC) 16th Summit will be held in Thimphu, Bhutan on April 28-29. The theme of this year’s summit is ‘Conservation of Environment and Climate.’ Leaders from the eight member countries in South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, […]
The government of Bangladesh has nearly completed prosecuting members of the Bangladesh Rifles for February 2009 mutiny that led to the death of 74 people, among them high ranking officers of the military and workaday civilians. The Times published an edited Associated Press write up that provides just the fact ma’am: “A court in southwestern Bangladesh […]
The government of Bangladesh recently denied unregistered Rohingya people refugee status within Bangladesh’s borders. More distressingly, the government has carried on a policy of detainment and coercively repatriation of Rohingya individuals. This is a wholesale violation of their human rights, according to the doctrinal values enshrined in the Constitution of the People’s Republic of […]
