BJP’s victory  in the West Bengal assembly elections has been widely described as a tectonic shift—only the second change in power in the state in the last 50 years. Both transitions are significant: the first ended 34 years of rule by the socialist Left Front, while the second has now replaced the centrist Trinamool Congress (TMC) with the right-wing BJP, a party rooted in Hindutva politics. Although broadly secular forces governed West Bengal after India’s independence, the state was also home to the early seeds of Hindutva-based politics. BJP’s ideological forebear, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, who was associated with the Hindu Mahasabha and Jana Sangh, hailed from West Bengal. It is, therefore, unsurprising that BJP’s state leadership marked its victory by  paying homage  to him, underscoring the symbolic significance of this political shift. According to  data  from the Election Commission of India, the BJP secured 45.84 percent of the vote, improving upon its ...

  Do you feel exhausted trying to find reliable facts about everything happening around you? As emerging digital platforms increasingly outpace legacy media, it is often frustrating to discover that a seemingly credible story, complete with high-quality video footage, turns out to be fabricated. Such content is frequently designed either to malign individuals or to advance the vested interests of particular groups. While many of these interests are political in nature, they can also serve corporate or business agendas. Rapid technological advancement and the widespread, low-cost accessibility of artificial intelligence (AI) tools have significantly lowered the barriers to content creation. Today, almost anyone with minimal resources can become a content producer. Much of this cheap, low-quality content is now weaponised as propaganda, used by malicious actors to run disinformation and misinformation campaigns. Communication experts have coined the term “slopaganda” to describe this...

  It is disheartening to see that, as journalists, we are losing both our inquisitiveness and our capacity for critical thinking. Instead, our work is increasingly tilting towards relaying and amplifying pre-processed information— much like the growing fascination with processed foods. Laziness may be partly responsible for this habit. Cooking requires thought, preparation, and labour; processed food, by contrast, sits on shelves or in freezers waiting to be consumed with minimal effort. Lazy journalism is just as convenient: communication experts package information that advances their employers' political or commercial interests and deliver it to journalists—often to familiar faces— through digital communication or courtesy visits.  Professional training and ethics require journalists to examine such processed content critically, rigorously analyse it, ask pertinent questions, verify both current and historical facts, and then reprocess the information for publication or bro...

  Journalism today faces unprecedented attacks worldwide, targeted by powerful actors regardless of the size or influence of the targeted media outlet . Politicians, security forces, and individuals wielding technological tools are simultaneously undermining legacy or mainstream media (MSM). Donald Trump set the tone when he branded journalists “enemies of the people.” In his second term, the attacks have only grown more brazen. Politicians across the globe have followed suit, no longer willing to face scrutiny, dismissing investigations as nothing but conspiracies. On the battlefield, the situation is even grimmer. In Israel, the campaign to silence coverage of atrocities has broken all records. According to the United Nations Israel killed more journalists in the past two years than in the two World Wars, wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq combined. Elsewhere, too, journalists are routinely targeted by security forces who operate with impunity, thanks to weak civilian leaders...

  The image of a former Chief Justice, hands cuffed behind his back, clad in a bulletproof vest and helmet, being escorted to court is deeply unsettling. Yet it is no more disturbing than a Chief Justice fleeing his official residence in the wake of a popular uprising, seeking refuge in a military garrison, or being forcibly evicted by plainclothes security agents and exiled from his own country. Alarmingly, Bangladesh has witnessed all of these in the last eight years. It is a tragic chronicle of how the judiciary has been systematically dismantled by an all-too-powerful dictator—Sheikh Hasina. The repeal of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which abolished the provision for a non-partisan caretaker government to oversee elections, stands as a pivotal moment in this erosion. It enabled Sheikh Hasina to conduct three consecutive one-sided elections and tighten her grip on power. While the Supreme Court had the jurisdiction to rule on the amendment, the conduct of then Chief J...

  The Bangladesh Police Service Association (BPSA), representing elite officers (BCS cadre) of the law enforcement force, has issued a strong and ominous message to the media. The statement was disturbing, as its tone and tenor appeared to intimidate journalists from reporting on corruption involving any of its members. In an unusually lengthy release (12 paragraphs and over fifty lines), the association did not cite a single report or name to which they objected for being slanderous. The association's statement  seems to place collective blame on the media, claiming that "partial, motivated, and indiscriminate reports about former and serving members of the Bangladesh police are being published serially in the news media (print and electronic) and on social media." While the association has every right to protest what it calls a "smear campaign" against its members, it did not name any alleged victims of defamation, making it difficult to justify accusing any m...

  The recent designation of Bangladesh’s former army chief, Lieutenant General (Rtd) Aziz Ahmed, by the United States under its anti-kleptocracy and human rights law has raised significant questions, particularly: why now? This designation, under Section 7031(C), disqualifies him and his immediate family members from obtaining entry visas to the US. In an interview with this daily, Aziz himself questioned the timing, noting that he could have been banned in 2021 when Al-Jazeera aired the investigative documentary All the Prime Minister’s Men, which alleged gross misuse of power and significant corruption by him. He recalled that despite the controversy, his official visit to Washington proceeded as planned, even though nine NGOs had called for its cancellation. This decision drew strong criticism from activists. The timing of this measure is particularly puzzling as it follows a visit by  US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Donald Lu, aimed at "rebu...