For a nation like Bangladesh, the challenge is not whether to depend on others, but how to manage that dependence intelligently. The question, then, is not how to escape vassalhood, but how to master it.
The message for Bangladesh's policy-makers is clear: ground this decision in data, not delusions of grandeur. Commission and publish an independent, peer-reviewed fleet plan.
Bangladesh has turned a page in its political history and a new phase of political governments is about to start. This may therefore be a good time to think about the future socio-economic tasks.
As a Bangladeshi Millennial, looking towards 2026 gives me the feeling I used to get before riding a roller coaster in my childhood. I fear it’s going to be a horrifying ride, but I can’t skip it now because I’m at the front of the queue and the next turn is mine.
Governments have changed. Elections have come and gone. Political narratives have shifted -- sometimes dramatically. Yet NCTB has remained reliably unable to perform its most basic function.
If NCP grows too strong, it risks becoming a genuine rival. My sense is that Jamaat has neither the intention to reform itself nor the willingness to allow such growth. Jamaat will remain the benchmark of right-wing politics in Bangladesh, while exploiting the NCP whenever a secular shield becomes necessary. The greatest casualty of this alliance will be July itself.
Tarique Rahman’s return is undeniably historic. But history alone does not guarantee success. The comparison with 1972 is not about personalities -- it is about the structural burden placed on returning leaders in moments of national uncertainty.
What is being proposed is a National Education & Skills Master Plan -- not a document, but an operating system. Its core rule is brutally simple: no training exists unless it maps to a destination country, a verified certification standard, and a real wage ladder.
We must view with suspicion any party that risks becoming fascist through excessive internal control or by bypassing state institutions and encouraging mob rule -- especially parties that obstruct elections and make the path to sustainable democracy thorny.
The signal is clear: Change your brand of money-driven politics. Abandon hypocrisy. Or people will abandon you.
The critics are right: the system is unjust. But addressing anger without repairing the economic wiring that produces it has only ever muted the noise. We are not risking a tinderbox. We are responsible for the one we are already living in.
This demographic dividend becomes a curse when policy fails to match demography. The interim government’s focus on political stabilization overshadows economic planning, leaving youth unemployed and restless.
In Ukraine, time is measured in survival. In Moscow, it is measured in leverage. In the West, it is increasingly measured in patience. And therein lies the most dangerous imbalance of all.
That Bangladesh did not turn into a hardcore right-wing country is because of Tarique. The country continues to progress as a centrist, tolerant nation. For this, we should forever remain indebted to him.
AI has and may usher in many wonderful opportunities and possibilities. But, at the same time, AI may be the last nail in the coffin of that glorious era where a broad-based social mobility achieved through higher education brought about greater economic and political equality.
Tarique returns to Bangladesh as the indispensable man of Bangladeshi politics, the fulcrum of its democratic transition, the lynchpin of its liberal politics, and the prime minister in waiting.
