India's Feudal Rapists (Op-ed from International New York Times, June 4 2014)
India's Feudal Rapists By AMANA FONTANELLA-KHANJUNE 4, 2014
Eternal Injustice in India/Bangladesh
Without being blatantly communal or casting aspersion on religious sensitivities of any religion, I thought the following piece of text reflects the true condition not only of India but also of Bangladesh. So please read it and reflect on it.
A breath of fresh air
On my recent trip (Feb/March, 2014) to Bangladesh, I came across a moderately new university by the name Khwaja Yunus Ali University (KYAU), which gave me a renewed hope and confidence in the propriety of educational establishments and academic excellence in Bangladesh. But before I go into the details of this university, let me set out the prevailing situation in the higher education system in Bangladesh.
Passing away of Suchitra Sen
Suchitra Sen, the brightest icon and the 'queen of hearts' of Bengali films, sadly passed away on Friday, 17 January 2014, aged 82 in Kolkata, India. She succumbed to the respiratory malfunction and breathed her last at 8:25am this morning. She was born as Rama Desgupta in Pabna, Bangladesh on 6 April 1931. She left behind innumerable admirers of all ages on both sides of the border. It is a very sad day indeed for Bengali culture in general and Bengali film industry in particular.
Silver Lining in dark clouds
Bangladesh's political horizon is now dark and getting darker by the day. A bunch of self-aggrandised predacious people, surrounded by slavish cronies and sycophants, are making the lives of millions of hard-working, self-reliant people up and down the country a total misery.
In Search of National Identity
Bangladesh, now just one month short of 42, has come a long way from the heady days of 1971 in trials and tribulations of nationhood. By any standards, this is a considerable period of time - long enough to establish its national identity, to position itself in the comity of nations and chart out its future course of action. But yet for some inexplicable reasons Bangladesh seems to be falling apart on each of these accounts.
Flagrant Violation of Human Rights
Human rights issues may be the despised terms to some prejudiced sections of the society or even to some despicable sovereign States of the world, but human rights epitomises what is good in human conscience, what constitutes inalienable rights of human beings and above all it highlights the sheer value of humanity. Without human rights, human beings would be no better than two-legged human animals, particularly in the modern society where money speaks louder than anything else and might is proclaimed to be the absolute right!
Who cares for Bangladesh?
There had been a number of reports recently in Bangladeshi newspapers regarding the activities of US Ambassador to Bangladesh, Mr Dan W Mozena and the Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Mr Pankaj Saran. It had been alleged, with substance, that these two foreign emissaries were discussing Bangladesh's present political stalemate situation and charting out the future course of action for Bangladesh. The agenda may have included: how the incoming national election should be conducted, who will supervise the election, which party is desirable to come to power etc. Additionally it had been reported that Mr Mozena went to Delhi last Wednesday, 16th October at the behest of Indian Foreign Ministry for the explicit purpose of discussing Bangladesh's present situation with Indian South Asian Desk officials. For three days they discussed Bangladesh issues and the Bangladesh government knows nothing about the outcome!