Religious differences and a communal mindset are the key factors behind the attacks on temples, which have broken the trust between Muslims and Hindus in Bangladesh. To rebuild this trust, the government needs to go beyond simply allocating money to reconstruct Hindu houses and temples.
Read More »View from Bangladesh: India’s Need for Soul Searching
India’s relations with its South Asian neighbors are on a free fall at present while their own relations with China are on an upward trajectory. The freefall in India’s relations with its South Asian neighbors has come at a time when ironically prime minister Narendra Modi has been pursuing a ‘neighbors first’ policy in his second term; an irony indeed.
Read More »Is it Too Late for Bangladesh to Release its Opposition Leader for Treatment?
Many in Bangladesh and abroad are questioning the timing the country's authoritarian government chose to release the country's opposition leader Begum Khalida Zia. Is the life of Bangladesh's former prime minister in any danger?
Read More »Bangladesh: A Case of Diminishing Oppositions
There are only seven seats that the opposition political parties won in Bangladesh's December 30 parliamentary elections, setting a trend of diminishing parliamentary opposition. Many analysts in the South Asian nation wonder who will play as the opposition in the new parliament?"
Read More »Bangladesh Transforms Despite its Vicious Politics
The past 25 years have seen astonishing and unexpected transformations in social and economic welfare. Unless something extraordinary happens, Bangladesh looks to be headed for a political transformation involving the decline of at least one political dynasty.
Read More »Bangladesh’s Fading Democracy
Bangladeshi people are showing signs of frustration with political leadership that is preoccupied with mud-slinging. They are losing trust in state institutions. Stuck in political limbo, they have no higher authority to turn to. This in turn encourages third parties to fish in troubled waters.
Read More »Bangladesh’s Democracy Sinks into the Mire
Bangladesh's government is unlikely to treat the unrest as a political crisis and call fresh elections. Given this, both ruling parties must do what they can to avoid further political turmoil in Bangladesh by taking the initiative to pull back from their own dogmatic positions and to restrain violence by embarking on a dialogue to overcome the challenges facing the country because of democratic paralysis and systemic violence.
Read More »Breaking Bangladesh’s Dynastic Conundrum
For the first time in three decades, an opportunity exists in Bangladesh for a new challenger of genuine merit and capacity to step into the ring and stake his or her claim, ending the outsized political presence of Sheikh Hasina Wajid and Khaleda Zia.
Read More »Bangladesh: The Tyranny of the Majority
A disease in democracy has entered Bangladesh’s politics, and unless the root of the disease is addressed, things will remain unstable in the South Asian nation.
Read More »Bangladesh: Part-time Peacekeepers
The Bangladesh Army’s record in the Chittagong Hill Tracts belies its prominence in UN peacekeeping missions.
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