Brig Gen Shahedul Anam Khan ndc, psc (Retd)

The international system changes with the passage of time—strategic, political and economic compulsions act as the causative factors.

The invasion of Ukraine, which Russia chooses to euphemistically call “special operations,” has produced several lessons for us, as much as it has, once again, exposed various negative facets of the existing world order, the fault lines in international relationship, and the skewed international system hogged by the rich and the powerful.

That is a biblical truth which no man can sunder from reality. The havoc being wreaked in Ukraine is the consequence of the wind that the West has sown since the end of the Cold War.

The counterintuitive decision that the government has taken regarding the endorsement in Bangladeshi passports of travel to Israel demands clear answers.

It is not easy to rationalise some of the recent actions of the government related to the realm of governance, in other words, related to us the people. For now, let us address the second wave of the pandemic and the government’s actions or reactions to deal with it.

Governments in the Western world were galvanised by the “Je suis Charlie” (“I am Charlie”) slogan after the shooting at the office of the ill-famous sleazy French magazine in Paris in 2015 by Muslim extremists, which ended in twelve of its staff members being killed.

It is a rare piece of good luck for one to witness two historic events in one’s lifetime—the 50th anniversary of the nation’s independence and the birth centenary of its founding father, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. March 26, 2021 was one such day.

More than a decade ago in July 2010, I wrote an article titled “When state is the cause of its own insecurity”.

There were two senior-level meetings between Bangladesh and India so far in 2021.

On February 25, the most reviled and draconian Digital Security Act (DSA) claimed its first victim, and gave the nation its first Digital Security Act “martyr”.

It has been twelve years since the day 57 brilliant army officers were brutally killed by the BDR mutineers.

I believe that every statement of a prime minister contains substance and carries weight, more so when it has to do with politics and the opposition.

The five-year ride on the tiger by Aung San Suu Kyi is over. She is back to where she had been used to living during the greater part of her political career (except for a brief interregnum of pseudo-democracy): behind bars.

The tumul-tuous departure of Donald Trump from office has left an awful lot of wrecks in its wake, both internally and externally.

Finally President Trump has accepted the inevitable, but not before wreaking havoc, as we had predicted he would four years ago, both at home and abroad.

Two important Bangladesh-India meetings at the national level took place in the last month of 2020.

We are on the cusp of our 50th anniversary. Come March 26, 2021, it will be 50 years since Bangladesh had declared its Independence.

The Department of Social Welfare (DSW) vide their letter of December 14, 2020, “temporarily dismissed” the Executive Committee (EC) of the Retired Armed Forces Officers’ Welfare Association (RAOWA) and replaced it with a five member committee consisting of two serving army officers—a Brigadier and Major respectively, a retired member of RAOWA of the rank of Major, and two civil cadre officers of the rank of Deputy Secretary.

It is now officially known that Israel carried out the targeted killing of Iran’s top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.

Gokahle’s tribute, “What Bengal thinks today, India will think tomorrow”, reflected the leading role that Bengal was taking in the anti-British movement.