The BNP’s chairperson, Begum Khaleda Zia has responded to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s populist political gambit. Her response is to form a 10-person caretaker government comprised of five members of Awami League and BNP. The catch: that each one of the five members of each party hail from the two seemingly successful caretaker governments, 1996 […]
There’s another protest strike in the works for this Monday. This time, the opposition BNP has promised a massive hartal that will make good use of the grievances of the four rightist parties with which it was in coalition. Global food prices have skyrocketed with attendant increases in the price of cereal grains. Moreover, the […]
I’ve written on this before; now, sadly, I’m writing on this again, so here goes: I could not then, cannot now and will not, ever, defend the jerked, jolting way that every instrument of industry, learning and commerce in Bangladesh has shuttered for the second time this month just because one lady with political pull […]
It can’t have come as much of a surprise that Khaleda Zia would put together another week-long program of country wide public protests. After all, she’s about to be kicked out of her home. But to this writer this is one scream, one time too many, too much, too often, ad nauseum, a pitched battle […]
The Supreme Court of Bangladesh delivered judgment on an appeal brought by 5 former Army officers who were held responsible for the 1975 murder of the founding leader of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Rahman, known hagiographically as Bangabandhu–the Friend of Bengal– was the first Prime Minister of Bangladesh. After electing to switch to a presidential form […]