As Indian billionaire Gautam Adani’s business empire and its practices have become a subject of intense global scrutiny, Bangladesh, too, seems to be drawn under the scanner. More and more experts are now coming out questioning the rationale behind Bangladesh’s power purchase deal with Adani Power (Jharkhand) Limited (APJL), which many of them have termed as “one-sided” and against the interests of Bangladesh. Amid such controversy, Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, adviser to the Prime Minister on energy, while responding to questions from the Indian media recently, said talks with Adani Group on power supply were “private” and “can't be made public.” It’s unclear whether the prime minister’s energy adviser meant commercial secrecy of the deal or the political compulsion alleged by The Washington Post on December 9, 2022. The question of commercial secrecy is no longer a valid argument, since a number of news organisations have obtained a copy of the contract and experts have published ...

  It is hard to imagine the level of humiliation and agony principal Salim Reza of Rajbari Degree College in Rajshahi has been forced to endure. First, he was assaulted, and then was forced to issue a denial by the same person who assaulted him. It can only happen if the alleged perpetrator turns out to be so powerful that protesting an assault or defiance for telling the truth means losing what else the victim is left with, such as safety and dignity of other members of his family and his livelihood. Reports suggest both the incidents took place at the same venue, the private chamber of the local MP Omor Faruk Chaowdhury. Salim was assaulted by the MPin front of other principals of different colleges in his constituency. And the second event was so surreal that he had to read a prepared statement to the assembled press, sitting beside the same MP, denying his ordeal at the hands of the host.  Principal Salim Reza’s denial statement is only comparable to those so-called admiss...

Going by media reports, India has triumphed in South Asia against its rival China in vaccine diplomacy. At least four South Asian neighbours – Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives have gladly accepted India’s generous gift of 3.2 million doses of Covid 19 vaccine produced by Serum Institute of India (SII) under the licence of Oxford-AstraZeneca. As the world is striving for finding a way out of the pandemic, India found its vaccine producing capacity very useful for diplomatic revival in the neighbourhood. On the other hand, such enthusiasm was markedly absent in relation to the Chinese vaccines.   Among those four nations, China had offered Bangladesh and Nepal some of its varieties as gift. It has also offered similar goodwill gestures to few other countries in Asia and Africa. Pakistan has already accepted the Chinese offer of half a million doses of Sinopharm’s vaccine. China has made a concerted push to sell its vaccines to countries around the globe for months but only re...