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 country is no longer simply divided by class and by geography. It is now divided into four different kinds of society defined by education, language, migration, and access to power: expatriates, English-medium graduates, Bangla-medium graduates, and Madrasa-educated students.
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.
Now, at any moment, a mob can be summoned and the state paralyzed. The potential that emerged after Hasina’s fall is now impossible. This country will become a playground for fallen Indians and Chinese.
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.
A timely conversation on media, culture, and power, as Professor Rehman Sobhan and Zafar Sobhan reflect on recent events shaping Bangladesh’s democratic landscape.
What Bangladesh lacks is not culture, talent, or stories -- but the vision and infrastructure to translate them into sustained soft power
The authoritarian habits cultivated over a decade and a half did not disappear with the fall of a government; they seeped into the public bloodstream. When state violence takes a step back, social violence often steps forward.
In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint, Sam Dalrymple talks about his book Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia. He reflects on forgotten geographies and the near-misses of the past, and how hastily drawn borders still unsettle lives, loyalties and conflicts across South Asia and beyond.
The moment you raise your voice, people come rushing -- not to listen, but to remind you of your past silences. It doesn’t matter if the incident they cite happened months ago, years ago, or even decades ago.
As we move forward to build a new Bangladesh, we need to put minority protection and minority rights front and centre, not because of inflammatory accusations from across the border from those who frankly need to do better protecting the rights of their own minorities, but because it is the right thing to do.
