Sea of Poppies

'The Ghazipur And Patna Opium Factories Together Produced The Wealth Of Britain'

At an age when other writers begin to worry about running out of words, the author of Sea of Poppies has just embarked on his biggest writing project. It's a labour of love, he says.

SHEELA REDDY

At 52, life couldn't get any better for Amitav Ghosh. At an age when other writers begin to worry about running out of words, he has just embarked on his biggest writing project. It's a labour of love, he says in an interview with Sheela Reddy, that will perhaps keep him busy for the rest of his writing life. The first of his serial magnum opus, The Sea of Poppies, will hit the bookstores on June 1...............................

CTG is in a state of Redundancy

FAKHRUDDIN GOVERNMENT IS IN A STATE OF REDUNDANCY
Can the political leadership regain initiative?

NM Harun

There was or is nothing unavoidable or inevitable about whatever has happened during the periods of the BNP-Jamaat government, the caretaker government of Iajuddin Ahmed or the current Fakhruddin Ahmed government or whatever will happen at the demise of this government. Everything happens because of decisions – be they right or wrong – the actors in politics or the power game take in their wisdom or stupidity.......................

The trial of war criminals

The trial of war criminals: a litmus test

NM Harun

Freedom-fighters are freedom-fighters and war criminals are war criminals in the context of the War of Independence. In the post-’75 Bangladesh, the freedom-fighters are remnants of a radical, revolutionary past that is no longer cherished by the Islam-pasand, neo-liberal political class. The players in the power game are actually busy playing the musical chairs of power though they occasionally mouth the slogan of trying the war criminals as a convenient political tactic …Those who are committed to the cause of trying the war criminals need to stop the process of the ‘destruction of the past’ and link their ‘contemporary experience’ to that of the birth of Bangladesh ..................

The defenning silence

The deafening silence of echoes from the past

NM Harun

What is certain is that the powers that be are finding the prolongation of the queer Fakhruddin government increasingly problematic. Hence all the talk about dialogues between the government and the political parties or the disclaimer about the military’s support for constitutionalism and their non-interest in takeover of power. Concerns are also expressed by sections of civil society about plausible ‘exit formulas’ of the emergency rulers. These are signs of power struggle among the rulers themselves and not of political development …One wonders what kind of solution the powers that be may come up with for the real world problem of power struggle through the application of the process of elimination of the exotic political formulas and schemes. That will determine the course of politics in the near future.................

General Moeen's extension

General Moeen gets extension: time for the court to act

NM Harun

At the present ‘critical juncture of the nation’, the court under Chief Justice Ruhul Amin has two options: either a) uphold the rights of the people through judicial activism or b) uphold the Emergency Powers Rules and facilitate political engineering at the behest of the powers that be…Which way will the Supreme Court eventually go? Let us keep our fingers crossed
There is nothing unusual for a government servant to get extension of his job tenure. General Moeen U Ahmed has taken care to explain the ordinary nature of the recent extension of his tenure as army chief by one year. General Moeen loves to describe the media as the parliament in the absence of an elected parliament in the country now. He got the order extending his tenure on April 6. He convened the so-called media-parliament on April 8 at the Army Headquarters and, as it were, celebrated the good turn of his career by hosting a potato-dominated lunch with the attending editors and senior journalists. Popularising potato-eating as a complement to rice consumption is the latest campaign of the general. What a good sense of humour!......................

Hasina's writ against EPR

Hasina’s writ against EPR: on the dock is the rule of law

NM Harun

As the court got involved in the matter of preparing a proper electoral roll during the periods of the BNP-Jamaat government of former prime minister Khaleda Zia and the caretaker government of Iajuddin, so now, during the period of the military-installed emergency government, it finds itself in the thick of the process of political engineering
In the high drama of politics is usually lost the crucial role the court plays – through action, ambivalence, inertia or inaction – in the life of a modern democratic state. Alexis de Tocqueville, the most authentic and prescient chronicler of the American democratic experience, in his classic book Democracy in America, wrote about 170 years ago:..................

Kpaliks are on prowl

Kapaliks are on the prowl

NM Harun

In the maddening confusion of the open-ended reforms programme of the emergency regime is hidden vital issues of restructuring the polity as well as the state. This is against the backdrop of historical debates over Bengali nationalism versus Bengali Muslim nationalism, secularism versus Islamisation or socialist path versus capitalism and in the present-day contexts of the rise of a new-rich crony capitalist class, increasing influence of the military and NGOs and, above all, the hegemony of Pax Americana
Fidel Castro in his April 15 ‘Reflections’, published in the Cuban official newspaper Granma, mildly admonished a section of the Cuban press for its gullibility while discussing the current situation of Cuba. He warned the Cubans against the danger of being credulous, casual or rash in matters of political thinking....................

Politics Vs.election roadmap

Politics versus electoral roadmap: a situation too fluid to call

NM Harun

Talk of election seems to be premature. The immediate outlook is a clash between the political parties and the powers that be on the issue of releasing Hasina and Khaleda. Only if the political parties lose the battle, the powers that be will be able to stage an election of their choosing, manufacture the election results and perpetuate themselves in power in whatever shape they want. On the other hand, if the political parties succeed in seizing the initiative from the powers that be, it will be an altogether new ball game .........................

My Brother Dulal

My brother Ferdous Alam Dulal
by Shamsul Alam Belal
ON MAY 7, 1981 Ferdous Alam Dulal was killed along with the eminent labour leader Abdur Rahman on Bijoy Nagar Road in the capital. His death was a bolt from the blue for our family. Our mother, who had already lost two of her sons in their minor age, refused to accept that Dulal was no more among us; she still doesn’t. The second among nine children of my parents, Dulal was born in the first half of January 1951. Our mother had extra affection for him, maybe because he was her only fair-complexioned son with a large head, thick curly hair, slim but tall figure and an innocent fact. He used to be timid in his adolescence but became somewhat bohemian in his youth..........................