A Year of Paradoxes
The most appropriate description of the year 2019, particularly of Bangladeshi politics, is perhaps a dialogue in Act 3, Scene 4, of the Twelfth Night of William Shakespeare: “If this were play’d upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction.”
Two contexts of influx from India
The influx of people from India crossing the borders to Bangladesh in the past weeks warrants the attention of Bangladeshi policymakers. Unfortunately, the foreign minister’s recent statement that
NRC in Assam: What Happened? What’s Next?
The bizarre phenomenon called updating the National Registry of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, completed under the auspices of the Indian central government with direct supervision of the Indian Supreme Court, which made 1.9 million people stateless citizens,
Revoking Article 370: Why now?
More than a week has passed since Articles 370 and 35A of the Indian constitution have been scrapped by the Narendra Modi-led BJP government.
Rahul Gandhi’s resignation: Three inconvenient issues
The public announce-ment of the resignation of Rahul Gandhi as president of the Indian National Congress on Wednesday was surprising and expected, at once.
Impeaching Trump: ‘To be or not to be?’
The opening phrase of a soliloquy uttered by Prince Hamlet in Act 3, Scene 1 of the play Hamlet—“To be or not to be?”—was about life and death, not about politics; yet perhaps this aptly captures the current US political scene. Facing a decision of great significance, the Democratic Party leaders of the House of Representatives seem to be in the same quandary.
New wave of radicalisation or taking advantage of the trust deficit?
The wave of terrorist attacks in Sri Lankan churches and hotels frequented by foreigners, which killed at least 290 people and injured around 500, is astounding both in scale and sophistication in planning.
It is not the system but its misuse that is at fault
The idiomatic expression, “Don't throw the baby out with the bath water”, is not something we expect to use every day. The origin of it
DUCSU Election - Let us not become the ostrich
What happened in the Ducsu “election”—which was made into a farcical show by the Dhaka University authorities, including the Vice Chancellor and the teachers of the institution—requires no elaboration.
DNCC Election: The alternative facts and life imitating art
Oscar Wilde wrote in his 1889 essay “The Decay of Lying” that, “Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life.” Little did he know