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REASSESSMENT OF OPTIONS NEEDED
Gripped by crises, Govt. must exercise great caution
M. Shahidul Islam
The Awami League-led regime came to power with a promise to change things. But it must change itself sooner to ensure survival as the ruling party.
Whether by choice or default, the regime has crept into some of the most intractable crises within and without. Not only serious fault lines have emerged within the party hierarchy due to recent resignations of the party Secretary General, M.A. Jalil - and the State Minister for Home, Tanjim Sohel Taj -- some recent changes in the regional and global dynamics are exacerbating further the predicaments of the nearly seven-month- old regime...[ FULL STORY ]
CONSPIRACY AGAINST BNP
AL to say goodbye to its old guards
Faisal Rahim
Going beyond the party politics to relegate and marginalise major opposition parties like BNP, Jamaat and other Islamist groups, Awami League (AL) this time has turned its hand to downgrade the opposition from within the AL camp. As things appear, the party chief is moving to get rid of 'reformists' from the party mainstream through the forthcoming national council to be held on July 24. In the process, a new formation is going to emerge to identify it as an opposition block within the party framework, analysts say wondering whether it may sustain the challenges to stay the course or may disappear over time, as the loyalists camp to Sheikh Hasina predicts...[ FULL STORY ]
POLITICAL CONSENSUS IN DHAKA?
Tipaimukh dam 500 times larger than optimum size
Sadeq Khan
Discerning citizens of Bangladesh were gratified by newspaper reports last Sunday carrying a rare signal of consensus-building inclination over Tipaimukh issue in national interest between the two main political parties, the ruling Awami League and the Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist party. In a seminar at the Sheraton Hotel on Saturday afternoon, BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia urged Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to abandon the controversial Tipaimukh dam project to make good his assurance that India would do nothing that could cause harm to Bangladeshi people: "I urge the Indian prime minister to formally announce cancellation of the project...[ FULL STORY ]
Khaleda asks India to scrap
Tipaimukh project
Holiday Report
Former Prime Minister and presently the Leader of the Opoisition in the jatiya Sangsad Begum Khaleda Zia urged Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to abandon the controversial Tipaimukh dam project as a manifestation of his assurance that India would do nothing that could cause harm to Bangladeshi people.
'I urge the Indian prime minister to formally announce cancellation of the project,' she told a seminar organised by BNP Saturday to make people aware of the possible disasters the planned Indian dam could spell for Bangladesh.
'I had written to Indian prime minster Manmohan Singh and he already assured that India would not do anything harmful for Bangladesh. I appreciate his statement,' Khaleda said.
"Cancellation of Tipaimukh project will mitigate the tensions between Bangladesh and Indian over this issue. It will bring accord in the region, and strengthen ties with our neighbour," said Khaleda. ..[ FULL STORY ]
Rise of Maoists worries Delhi
Shamsuddin Ahmed
The Indian Maoists in a statement issued last Monday threatened Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Home Minister P Chidambaram by saying: "They will face the fate of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi (who was assassinated).... If Chidambaram has the courage he should come to Jharkhand." The statement was issued by outlawed CPI (Maoist) central leader Anup-ji in Ranchi, Jharkhand.
This, needless to say, has worried New Delhi. Maoist spheres and influence are rising rapidly in India. Chidambaram, according to Zee News on July 15, has admitted failure in tackling the Maoists who are holding a large swathe of land - nearly 390 square miles in West Bengal state for more than six months. Deployment of paramilitary force and Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (COBRA) hasn't reportedly made any difference in the Maoist infested areas.
In the neighbouring state of Chhattisgarh, the epicentre of the Maoists, a Police Super and 29 cops were killed and about two dozens wounded on July 12 while 13 policemen remained missing. In March 2007, 55 police were killed in a single attack by the Maoists in Batsar district of the state. Two years ago they broke a prison and freed 300 of their comrades. ..[ FULL STORY ]
Move afoot to control Govt. advertisements again?
Shahriar Noori
A move is on at the Ministry of Information (MoI) to again control the government advertisement through the Department of Films and Publication (DFP) within a few weeks.
Apparently it aims to provide advertisements from a single window for the print media to ease time-consuming efforts for collecting advertisement from different government offices across the country and also to save money, said the sources.
For this a study paper is being prepared by the MoI officials to materialise the political desire of the present government, said the sources...[ FULL STORY ]
Bangladesh's viceroy?
Hafiz Shamseer
Who is this guy called Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty? Is he the Viceroy of Bangladesh, or a diplomat from India?
Lot of people here in this country tend to believe that he is actually the High Commissioner for India to Bangladesh. But the problem is that the so-called (we are using this term because it seems the phrase is very darling to him) High Commissioner does not behave the way a diplomat should. He has thrown the book of diplomacy in to the wind, sent Vienna convention or whatever it is called into a shredder, and used at will such contemptuous words as "so-called experts" and "touts and tricksters" against the people of this country...[ FULL STORY ]
GLIMPSES OF THE GREAT
Charles Darwin
K. Z. Islam
Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882) was an English naturalist who realized and presented compelling evidence that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors, through the process he called natural selection.
Darwin studied theology in Cambridge. But at that time doubts were in the air which went to the very heart of orthodox teaching and Darwin inevitably become involved with them. On the one hand was the accepted belief in the literal truth of the Old Testament, including the story in Genesis of how God created the world in six days with every living thing in it, and man 'from the dust to the ground'. It was even said that the work had begun at 9 a.m. on Sunday, 23 October 4004 BC and this date was printed in bibles.
But at this stage Darwin was highly gregarious young man when he came under the influence of a young professor of Botany, J.S. Henslow, with whom he became close friend. It was Henslow who in 1831 had a hand in an unusual proposition inviting him to become unpaid naturalist on board HMS Beagle a ship shortly to sail to conduct a survey of the South American Coast. After some hesitation Darwin sailed on the Beagle on 27 December 1831 when he was only 22 years old. ..[ FULL STORY ]
ALL POLITICAL LEADERS MUST UNITE
Regional cooperation needed to solve trans-boundary water sharing disputes
Abdur Rahman Khan
The political leadership of Bangladesh must unite with the spirit of Liberation War to attain her right on the common rivers originating outside the boundary. A regional cooperation is also needed to resolve the disputes on sharing trans-boundary river waters, said Atiqur Rahman Salu, Chairman of International Farakka Committee (IFC).
Stressing water and rivers as the lifeline for the survival of Bangladesh, Salu said that it was the responsibility of the political leaders to unite the people at this critical stage of national crisis.
Bhashani's Farakka march
During the War of Liberation, an all-party coordination committee was formed with Maulana Abdul Hamid Khana Bhashani when Awami League Chief and the majority party leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had been imprisoned in Pakistan, Salu recalled and said that the same Maulana Bhashani took the responsibility of leading the historic long march against Farakka Barrage when Ziaur Rahaman was the president of the country...[ FULL STORY ]
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