The only way to preserve our newly acquired freedom is to put power where it belongs—to the people.
Post-revolution challenges and the new generation’s role in shaping our future
Democracy cannot operate as a simple majority steamroller, as we also saw in the early days of our independence.
The July-August uprising cannot afford to falter in the face of an entrenched opposition within political parties.
The mutilation done to the nation would require more than run of the mill actions or traditional approach.
Isn’t it time for India to come to terms with the reality about its neighbours, particularly about its most strategically located neighbour, Bangladesh?
Reform is not only overdue, but it has also become urgent given the rot that has engulfed the security sector, particularly over the last 15 years of misrule.
Former army chief Moin’s excuse of following the chain of command betrays his puerility at its worst.
Our policymakers should appreciate, more importantly acknowledge, that the radicals have made inroads in our midst. The affluent and the educated youths have been targeting those whose minds have been indented enough to be motivated to not only disown the parents but also indulge in suicide attacks.
I believe that the police had taken measures that they deemed necessary after getting the wind of something impending, but the point illustrated by the course of events of July 1 is that no contingency plan is ever adequate enough or completely foolproof unless put to test.
As one pores over the newspapers reading endlessly reports and commentaries and personal recollections of people who were associated one way or the other with some of the unfortunate victims of the Holey Artisan massacre one is inundated by multiple thoughts agitated by comments of friends and family members living far away in body but enmeshed in spirit with this land and deeply distressed by what has been happening in their beloved country of late.
Of late we have seen pictures of the police handing over bamboo sticks to groups of people in various districts ostensibly for the purpose of combating militancy and extremism in the country.
We should feel happy that the police have been able to round up 189 'listed militants'. It speaks of the very good intelligence of the intelligence agencies that they have been able to cull the names of the militants and their address too, but the question is why they had to wait for the special drive and not pick them up sooner. What one interested in now is how the police deal with the 'listed extremists'.
The government must realise that it is against heavy odds, that it faces an organised group that is well led both at the strategic and tactical level as evident from the recent conduct of the killings.
Predictably the issue of 'illegal migration' had featured most predominantly in the latest state elections in Assam.
It is said that foreign policies should not be dictated by the heart but by the head. And I believe that that precept must always predominate our foreign policy formulation.
The matter is compounded further when one of the two happens to be the main protagonist of the current global war on terror and whose policy of fighting that war stemmed from the most injudicious, self-centered strategy that has accentuated rather than attenuated extremism, and whose policy has helped extremists spread their tentacles in countries which were not in their radar before the start of the GWOT.
While there is no gainsaying that there is no ‘physical presence’ of IS in this country, the fact that the terrorist organisation has brought this country under its radar is a matter that the security agencies in Bangladesh cannot overlook.
