The deepest fault line is not between secular and religious, or even between rival nationalisms. It is between a society that aspires and a system that no longer feels responsive. Whoever speaks to this issue will have the heart of the Bangladeshi voter.
The Jagannath University election, therefore, is not merely a matter of victory or defeat. It raises a deeper question -- what lessons will political parties draw from the changing realities of student politics? That, more than the numbers themselves, is the most critical issue going forward.
I’m not against using AI, I never was. I just want you to use it cautiously. Because the more you are replacing AI with your own mind, the more it will take space in your soul. If we keep asking AI solutions for every simple problem, our mind will become too fragile to face challenges.
The question for a republic is whether it can learn to look away from the dazzling, authoritarian image long enough to see -- and rebuild -- the dull, demanding, and essential foundations of a reality-based politics.
Second chances are possible. But history does not reward clever positioning or carefully worded distance. It honors courage, sacrifice, and fidelity to truth -- especially inconvenient truth.
What is ultimately at stake is not merely the ease of obtaining visas. It is how Bangladeshi citizens are perceived as participants in the global order.
Rumour is part of politics and society but now it can be magnified and curated at speed in the age of the (un)smart phone. Compared to the digital control of the previous regime what we have now is the information bomb.
In this episode, Jon Danilowicz and Zafar Sobhan sit down with Dr Shamaruh Mirza for a wide-ranging and insightful conversation on India–Bangladesh relations, questions of justice and reconciliation, and what lies ahead as the country looks toward the upcoming elections.
We cannot let the Bangladesh-India relationship and discourse be hijacked by the hard-liners on either side of the border who favour hostility and antagonism over cordiality and cooperation.
Normalizing forced extractions in the name of justice does not advance accountability; it advertises that power can dispense with law
As we enter the final phase before elections Jamaat-e-Islami may be poised to win far more votes than previously predicted. There is still time for BNP to regain the momentum if it appreciates the situation and pivots accordingly. But there is little evidence that it does so.
In the fifth episode of Counterpoint Generations, Counterpoint Editor Zafar Sobhan and Professor Rehman Sobhan step back from daily headlines to reflect on history — focusing on the great homecomings, returns, and janazas that have shaped Bangladesh’s political and emotional landscape.
It is often the person of colour who has to bring up colonialism in the room. To name racism even when it makes everyone uncomfortable. To remind people that representation is not neutral, and that curiosity does not absolve power.
The right to live in peace is not a gift from empires. It is a demand, shouted into the barrels of their guns. It is a world, built stone by stone, in the ruins they leave behind.
The axes of Bangladeshi politics have shifted dramatically. Where do the political parties line up in the new dynamic?
