Afsan Chowdhury – Page 10

Lessons from Mamata’s win

Editorial

- Afsan Chowdhury - May 4, 2021May 4, 2021

Mamta Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress was expected to win but with a slim margin when the electoral campaigns began. By the time the vote day had arrived, Indian media was contemplating a hung assembly or even worse for Mamata, a role in the Opposition. The reasons were not just the BNP/Modi

Press freedom is only just one freedom

Article

- Afsan Chowdhury - May 3, 2021May 3, 2021

Press freedom day is being observed when the media is facing some of the toughest questions about its role. This issue center around the murder /suicide of a young girl who was reportedly in a relationship with a married boss of a major corporate house. The person concerned has been

Corona, China and India’s lost priorities

Editorial

- Afsan Chowdhury - May 3, 2021May 3, 2021

Suddenly India looks very vulnerable in the face of corona. The general feeling was that the virus had been tackled in India and it emerged as a “hero ‘to its people. While infection rates soared in the rest of the world, India was relatively safe. On top of that India

Global realities begin to accommodate the Myanmar junta

Article

- Afsan Chowdhury - April 30, 2021May 3, 2021

The guarded approval by the ASEAN of the Myanmar regime is a sign of current global real politics. It shows that the mono-domination of global politics by Western agenda, perhaps masked by its slogan of ‘democracy’ is reaching the limits of its sell by date as regions and even the

Lessons to learn from India’s Covid

Editorial

- Afsan Chowdhury - April 28, 2021April 29, 2021

India’s disaster in managing the Covid and the resultant human suffering is a brutal lesson in reality checking. India not only looks unprepared but downright incompetent. For a country that has always claimed to be the best run in South Asia, it’s scary to see how hard one may fall

Hefazat on the run?

Editorial

- Afsan Chowdhury - April 27, 2021April 27, 2021

Although the Hefazat and the shushil community in Bangladesh and abroad were convinced about Islamist power, the government it appears wasn’t. Some saw in Hefazat an overwhelming monster that could swallow their vision of Bangladesh. To the government, it seems, it was another threat to manage. BNP had also bought the

As the viral tsunami waits to arrive

Editorial

- Afsan Chowdhury - April 26, 2021April 26, 2021

Bangladesh may have given priority to economics over health in its intent to relax the sort of a serious lockdown. It was never very strict in the first place and except for the first day, it was not taken too seriously either by the imposers or the imposed upon. Police

Press Freedom: Does the Western model apply?

Article

- Afsan Chowdhury - April 23, 2021April 24, 2021

That Bangladesh lacks press freedom is no secret. That all developed countries do is no secret either barring a few maybe. That all rich countries show greater levels of press freedom is also a fact. That such wealth making was/is largely based on exploitation of the poorer countries is now

Taming Hefazat is a major issue but so is taming the virus

Editorial

- Afsan Chowdhury - April 20, 2021April 20, 2021

The Government has taken a very hard line against the Hefazat and is reining in one leader after another including the “Resort Maulana” who triggered the crisis. The Government is on the offensive and has many tools and weapons it can use against the ambitious Hefazatis. It is a madrassa

Why pay too much attention to India?

Article

- Afsan Chowdhury - April 18, 2021April 18, 2021

This is an intense period of Indian election and in two places – West Bengal and Assam - Bangladesh is an important hate card that works to get votes. Bangladeshis are painted as illegal immigrants who steal jobs and prosperity. The objective is to ignite fear and thus gain votes