-
Secularism Under Siege: The Long Battle to Keep Religion Out of Bangladesh’s Constitution and Courts
Bangladesh’s 1972 constitution, drafted in the first year of the republic’s existence, listed secularism as one of four foundational pillars of the state, alongside democracy, nationalism and socialism. It was not an abstract commitment. The country had just emerged from a Liberation War fought partly against the Pakistani state’s use of Islam as the ideological…
-
The Teesta Trap: How Chinese Loan Architecture Could Quietly Mortgage Bangladesh’s Budget Sovereignty
When Bangladesh’s interim government revived negotiations for the Teesta River Comprehensive Management and Restoration Project (TRCMRP) with Beijing in early 2025, it framed the decision pragmatically: India had repeatedly failed to deliver a water-sharing agreement, leaving Dhaka with few credible alternatives for one of its most critical rivers. The origins of that frustration trace back…
-
522 Attacks, 66 Dead: Inside Bangladesh’s Devastating Year of Communal Violence in 2025
On 19 January 2026, Muhammad Yunus posted on social media that his government had investigated 645 incidents involving minorities in Bangladesh during the previous year. Of those, he said, only 71 could be classified as communal in nature. The remaining 574, the government maintained, were ordinary criminal or social disputes — land conflicts, theft, sexual…
-
Pipes Over Politics: How the India–Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline Became a Lifeline in Times of Crisis
Somewhere beneath the paddy fields and dusty market towns of northern Bangladesh, a steel pipe runs quietly underground. Most people living above it have no idea it exists. But every time a farmer fills his irrigation pump, or a bus pulls out of a depot in Rangpur, or a hospital generator kicks on without interruption…
-
Naval Diplomacy Emerges as Anchor in India–Bangladesh Ties During Diplomatic Downturn
The last 18 months under the Yunus-led interim administration have been marked by visible strain in India–Bangladesh relations. During this period, political engagement slowed across multiple fronts. High-level meetings were postponed, routine dialogues lost momentum, and bilateral initiatives faced hesitation. Bangladesh’s cancellation of a defence procurement deal with an Indian shipbuilder in May 2025 reflected…
-
Probe Killers First: Delay Polls to Mend Fractured Bangladesh
A nation, much like a human body, cannot heal if the wound is left open and festering. From the world’s point of view, it is clear that Bangladesh is currently a patient in critical condition. The uprising of 2024 was not just a political shift but a seismic event that tore the very social fabric…
-
Bangladesh’s Pro-Pakistan Tilt Risks Borders, Unity and Strategic Autonomy
Bangladesh’s emerging pro-Pakistan posture is reviving old fault lines at home while creating fresh vulnerabilities along its borders. It is more than five decades after independence that any political recalibration that appears to soften Dhaka’s stance toward Islamabad inevitably reopens the unresolved scars of 1971. At a time when Bangladesh should be consolidating national unity…
-
Why Bangladesh’s Tilt Toward Pakistan Undermines Its Independence Legacy and Strategic Autonomy
Bangladesh’s recent political and diplomatic proximity with Pakistan is not just a routine foreign policy recalibration, it is infact a troubling departure from its very foundations of 1971. The country’s independence was forged through major sacrifices and any attempt to dilute that legacy risks undermining national unity, strategic autonomy, internal cohesion as well as long-term…
-
Remembering the Fallen: Safeguarding Bangladesh from the Shadows of 1977
In 1977, Bangladesh faced a dark chapter in its history when many brave soldiers and patriots who had fought for the nation’s independence were persecuted under a brutal authoritarian regime. These heroes, who had sacrificed everything for freedom, became victims of political oppression, torture, and extrajudicial actions. The events of that year left deep scars…
-
Bangladesh’s Interim Government: From Democratic Promise to Authoritarian Drift
When Muhammad Yunus assumed leadership of Bangladesh’s interim administration on August 8, 2024, following unprecedented student-led protests and the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the nation cautiously anticipated a period of calm, reform, and rapid democratic transition. Mandated by the Supreme Court under the controversial “doctrine of necessity,” Yunus’s government initially presented itself as…