COMMENT 132 -Remembering the martyrs of the ‘Bengali Language Movement’
In Bangladesh, we all know the history of the Language Movement of 1952 from our school textbooks. In that year, very shortly after independence and partition, one of the first Bangladeshi national-cultural phenomena took place: a revolt against West Pakistan’s (present-day Pakistan) imposition of Urdu as national language in...
COMMENT 131- Azerbaijan: Pakistan’s newfound strategic partner in the Caucasus
Azerbaijan: Pakistan’s newfound strategic partner in the Caucasus
The state of Pakistan continues to draw attention from the Western media for its growing proximity with China and for its alleged support for Islamic terror groups acting in Afghanistan. Amid rising global criticisms towards Pakistan, the newly-elected Prime Minister Imran Khan...
COMMENT 130- The saga of Asia Bibi
After spending eight years on death row, most part of which she passed in isolation, Aasiya Noreen Bibi (internationally better known as Asia Bibi) has finally been acquitted in a landmark ruling on 31 October 2018.
In 2009, Asia Bibi, a Christian mother of five, fell victim to the Islamic...
COMMENT 129 – Radicalisation and the upcoming elections in Bangladesh
Radicalisation is rapidly on its rise worldwide and is increasingly challenging democracy and secularism, particularly in Bangladesh. Besides earlier processes of religion-based radicalisation, particularly pushed by former military regimes and the BNP-Jamaat-e-Islami coalition government of 2001 to 2005, several major trends in Bangladesh can be identified today....
COMMENT 128-India achieves ‘nuclear triad statute’
‘Nuclear triad status’ is the expression used in defence jargon to refer to the capacity to deploy nuclear weapons from land, air and sea through nuclear-powered submarines. On sea, nuclear weapons are particularly valued when based on submarines, as submarines offer the possibility of moving undetected; and this will...
COMMENT 127 ‘Better late than never’: India’s #MeToo moment is here to...
The Rupan Deol Bajaj vs K. P. S. Gill case, also known as the Butt-Slapping case, remained in the media limelight for several years when I was a teenager. In this high profile case of the late 1980s, a senior male police officer was accused of the charges of...
COMMENT 126 – A sustainable business ecosystem connecting South Asia and Southeast Asia
Prevailing scenario
South and South East Asia have achieved remarkable economic growth in recent years, around and above 5 percent annual growth rate. South Asia has remained the fastest growing region in Asia, while South East Asia has closely followed behind. This growth has been driven by export-orientated...
COMMENT125-The Factors Driving Asia’s Sand Crisis
Newspaper articles around the world have issued a dramatic call to arms regarding what many consider a new global environmental crisis – a sand crisis. While it is true that commercially recoverable sand is outstripping demand in some areas of the Asia-Pacific, that hardly amounts to a global crisis of the world's most...
COMMENT 124 – Digital Silk Road: Internet Connectivity or Internet Captivity?
The importance of digital connectivity - in addition to physical connectivity - was realised by China as it carefully created the concept of the Digital Silk Road and enmeshed it within its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The Digital Silk Road has been spurred into action with the...
COMMENT 123 – Asian Connectivity: Finance, Influence and Collaboration
New Connectivity
Asian connectivity is undergoing fundamental changes. Large-scale, ambitious projects linking territories, markets and communities across borders are coming up rapidly across the continent. Nothing symbolizes the burst in connectivity more than the China-led Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Other initiatives such as the Asia-Africa Growth Corridor (AAGC) are...