Views & Opinion

Our light in the deep dark

Syed Badrul Ahsan: There was integrity about him. There was in him the committed soul of a socialist. In him lived and breathed a leader in the real sense of the term, for he was mild in manner, humble in his attitude and firm in his views. Had he not been around in 1971, in the absence of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, history would be dif...

The political aspirations of Dr Yunus

Sufi Faruq: The other day I was going through an article by Mohiuddin Ahmed on 1/11 in the Prothom Alo Eid Special, and I found it quite intriguing. In the article, Ahmed claimed that Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus had turned down the army’s offer to become the chief of the caretaker government. He claimed then army chief General...

The myth of the anti-incumbency factor

Shah Ali Farhad: One of the most prevalent and long-standing notions of Bangladeshi politics is that of the “anti-incumbency” factor in politics. In simple terms, this idea propagates that every five years or more, the people of Bangladesh prefer to vote out of power whichever party heads the government in the hopes of changing or s...

The emergence of the politics of development

Shah Ali Farhad: Awami League, the oldest and largest political party in Bangladesh, celebrated its 69 years of founding in the early hours of 23 June 2018. That, in political time, is quite a long duration for any party to remain influential and most importantly, relevant in the fast moving politics of late 20th and early 21st century. A dura...

The story of the Awami League

Syed Badrul Ahsan: History took a decisive new turn for the Bengali nation on 23 June 1949.There were some courageous men - Moulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani, Yar Mohammad, Shamsul Haque, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and, of course, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy - whose names are today engraved in the Bengali consciousness. These men, grown acutely aware...