Sheikh Hasina

While decades separate Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Sheikh Hasina, there are parallels in their cases. Both reached the pinnacle of power and popularity in their respective countries, and both ended up getting accused of centralising authority. Both faced allegations of electoral fraud and dictatorial conduct by the opposition. Both of them were abruptly and forcibly removed from power, and their departure plunged their countries into the jaws of Islamist fanatics and triggered chaos.

In the twisting rivers of the Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest between Bangladesh and India, pirates have resumed their terror.

Is Rahul Gandhi sowing long-term distrust in India’s democratic institutions? Is the Congress leader, joined by the anti-BJP parties, laying the groundwork for a more radical and destructive political manoeuvre—an election boycott? Is Rahul Gandhi planning to replicate the Khaleda Zia playbook?

Anti-Hindu violence, anti-India rhetoric and Islamist hegemony have become an opprobrious reality of Bangladesh sans Sheikh Hasina.

Life seems to have come to a full circle for Mahfuz Alam. In September 2024, 'chief advisor to the interim government, Muhammad Yunus, hailed Alam as the ‘brain’ behind the sinister campaign to remove Sheikh Hasina from power.

Despite all the pessimism, the Awami League supporters are gradually rebuilding the party in the absence of Sheikh Hasina. They are taking to the streets, without fear for their safety and security, to challenge the Yunus regime and its puppets in the political arena.