|
EX-DICTATOR'S MENACING GAME
Is Ershad to scuttle polls again?
M. Shahidul Islam
Remember the sequences that had jelled into a combustive atmosphere to prevent the holding of an election and led to the imposition of emergency rules on January 11, 2007?
Lest our tormented memory fails to flicker, the final blow to deprive the people from enjoying fundamental rights and democracy in early 2007 came from a person who made his conspiratorial debut into politics by overthrowing an elected government in March 1982 that had deprived the people of democratic governance for almost a jolly good decade, until December 1990...[ FULL STORY ]
Free, fair, credible poll a far cry?
Faruque Ahmed
The election environment is yet to take a concrete shape as contradictory statements are being aired. A question is looming large whether the scheduled December 29 poll will face another hurdle.
Awami League (AL) President Sheikh Hasina is speaking about conspiracies and a spectre of 'engineering' centring round the election before it is finally set on the track. However, others are also speaking about such conspiracies from different angles...[ FULL STORY ]
PARTIES SORTING OUT NOMINATIONS
Government under pressure to withdraw emergency
Abdur Rahman Khan
The Emergency Power Rules still remains a bone of contention between the government and the political parties.
The two major political parties, Awami League and Bangladesh Nationalist Party, have kept up pressure on the interim government to give a specific date for a complete withdrawal of the state of emergency.
The visiting UN election assessment team on Wednesday said it wanted to see the upcoming elections without the state of emergency...[ FULL STORY ]
IMPEDIMENTS TO POLL MUST END
Let people elect a govt. of their choice
Sadeq Khan
The Caretaker Government that irregularly vested itself with an extraordinary agenda and an extended tenure, is nearing the end of its roadmap. It appears to have successfully veered the aggrieved and abused political parties towards the electoral race in December. The mainstream political parties felt much-abused by the heavy-handed anti-corruption drive of this government directed against top political leaders and business tycoons who financed political frays. Indefinite detention on charges under investigation and in some cases allegedly routine torture under a non-transparent authoritarian administration shook up the political establishment...[ FULL STORY ]
CHINA HELPS AMERICAN ECONOMY
Bangladesh needs to be cautious
Fazle Rashid in New York
American economy in particular and the global economy in general are on life support. These are being given huge infusion of cash. Yet then these are far from healthy. They will take months to stand on their own.
Who can rescue the sinking ships ? China is the patent answer. It is broadly speaking true, wrote the Economist. China can do much to mitigate the rich world's recession. Fareed Zakaria writing under the heading "world view" in the current issue of the Newsweek has gone one step forward saying "China is the key to America getting through the worsening economic crisis". This acknowledgement by world's two reputed newsmagazines' would inflate China's pride to sky high. China is America's largest creditor. Beijing, according to Fareed Zakaria, holds 10 percent of all US public debts. China is America's banker. America is running a deficit of $1 to $1.5 trillion. Some one has to buy American debts. And the only country that has the cash to do so is China...[ FULL STORY ]
Terrorists strike in Mumbai again
Holiday Desk
The city of Mumbai, financial capital of India, has been made the target of deadly terrorist attack on Wednesday night, report agencies.
The crisis continued overnight as the Indian government on Thursday equated the Mumbai terror attacks to a "war" thrust upon the nation and vowed to give a "befitting" reply to the perpetrators...[ FULL STORY ]
Whither police reform?
Moinuddin Chisti
Police is such an important functionary of the state in the control of crime and maintenance of law and order that an attempt to reorganise the force from bottom up would, however, require careful analysis and thorough examination indeed. It would, perhaps, be better to include, in addition, a study of the workings of the relevant departments and their inter se relationship with the police, Even though police is an important organ of the government, it does not work in isolation but in association with others. It is, therefore only logical to obtain the opinion of all other associated services before undertaking a massive reform in the department. Any study which would make necessary recommendation for structural change in the police administration should also keep in mind the need and sentiment of others with whom. Police are in working relationship ever since their birth. A system change and a break from the past must be carefully done so that others are not offended and have reasons to put up objections...[ FULL STORY ]
GLIMPSES OF THE GREAT
Albert Einstein
K. Z. Islam
The word Einstein (1879-1955) has passed into all the languages. Frequently used: are phrases like It doesn't take an Einstein. A poor man's Einstein. He's no Einstein. He discovered, just by thinking about it, the essential structure of the cosmos. The scientific touchstones of our age - the atomic bomb, space travel, electronics - all bear his fingerprint...[ FULL STORY ]
FINALLY POLLS ARE TAKING PLACE
State and people belong to each other
M. Faizur Rahman
At last it appears that the much talked about and delayed election would now be held. I always like election though I never participate as a candidate. Beauty of democracy is the right to participate in the affairs of the state. State belongs to people and people belong to state. In a state if the right of the people is taken away in guiding the affairs of the state by their chosen representatives then that society or state cannot be in real term called civilised even if it is rich, even if people are prosperous...[ FULL STORY ]
TERRORISM IN INDIA
Hindu outfits' militant postures
cause concern
Shalini S. Sharma in New Delhi
Peering out of the pages of a magazine, her calm and placid face - perched serenely in the midst of a typical middle-class Maharashtrian household, filled with bric-a-brac, a strict dates-only calendar and a garlanded portrait of freedom fighter Veer Savarkar on the wall - could well be that of a doting grandmother who would indulgently chide a child with faux anger for a misdeed. But 'appearances can be deceptive' was probably said with 61-year-old Himani Savarkar - niece of Nathuram Godse and married to the nephew of Veer Savarkar - in mind. For she is not your regular fairy-tale weaving granny, but the fiery president of a belligerent organisation, Abhinav Bharat. Sample her words in an interview to a weekly recently: "If what the police claim against Sadhvi Pragya Singh and the others is true, then it is just a reaction against the real terrorism. . . why can't we have a blast for a blast?"
While no Muslim organisation has so openly supported acts of terror, there are many others like Savarkar, such as Lt. Col. Jayant Chitale, a retired air defence artillery officer, the brain behind the Maharashtra Military Foundation (MMF), who is on record having said, "If they blow up one bus in India, we must have the capability to blow up five of theirs. This is the only way we can tackle this kind of terror."
According to Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan, "Such open espousal of a militant approach should be reason enough for such organisations to be declared unlawful". There are various sections in the Indian Penal Code - 153A, 153B -dealing with inciting of communal violence under which, these organisations can be charged. But Bhushan says state authorities everywhere choose to turn a blind eye to them as they are all communal. "While BJP is overtly communal, the Congress is perversely so," he says...[ FULL STORY ]
BNP alliance appears comfortable
in Jessore
Saifur Rahman
With a good number of competent candidates, the BNP-led four-party alliance is in a better position in the south-western district of Jessore compared to Awami League-led grand alliance. The grand alliance has been facing internal conflicts for nominating "controversial" candidates.
In the 2001 general elections, the four-party alliance won 30 seats out of 37 in 10 districts of the south-western region. AL-led alliance got only seven seats in 2001.
| 
