North-east amidst unwarranted controversy

Bangladesh, adjacent to India's north-eastern region, continues grabbing international media headlines even though most of the time for the wrong reasons.

- NAVA THAKURIA

Bangladesh, adjacent to India's north-eastern region, continues grabbing international media headlines even though most of the time for the wrong reasons. The South Asian nation recently created breaking news that its premier political party, Awami League, which was instrumental in the freedom movement, giving birth to sovereign Bangladesh (out of Pakistan in 1971), has been virtually shown the door. It was followed by a dramatic escape of former Bangladesh President Mohammad Abdul Hamid to Thailand to avoid legal procedures in his home country. The former lawmaker belonging to the suspended party is a co-accused in a murder case and remains under police investigation. Lately, the current interim government head, Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus, found himself amidst a controversy relating to the integrity of the north-east.

The Prof Yunus-led caretaker government, which came to exist last year after a student-led mass uprising compelled the sitting Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, to resign and leave her country (to take a temporary shelter in India), recently banned all kinds of activities for the Awami League in Bangladesh under a revised anti-terrorism law. Soon after the development, the Bangladesh Election Commission suspended the registration of Awami League, which means the party of deposed premier Hasina may not be able to participate in the national elections scheduled for in-between January and June 2026. Adding salt to the wounds of the Awami League, Hasina's son Sajeeb Wazed Joy recently accepted citizenship of the United States of America (curtailing his immediate space in Bangladeshi politics).