Mahfuz Anam

The interest, the patience, the discipline, enthusiasm shown by the Dhaka audience and the capacity to understand and appreciate the intricate renditions of a particular raga, displayed by our listeners with instant applause, speaks of the growth of a large number of genuine classical music enthusiasts that we never knew existed.

Twenty-six years ago the autocratic rule of Gen. Ershad came to an end in the face of years of mass agitation leading to the restoration of democracy and reinstatement of the representative government in 1991. Since then 6th December has been celebrated as Democracy Restoration Day.

How much of a game changing impact will Chinese President Xi Jinping's recent visit to Bangladesh, 30 years after the last such visit, have on politics of this region and beyond?

There was something eerily familiar about watching the present US election as a Bangladeshi. We have seen it all several times

The challenge now before all of us is to determine how deep and wide the spread of extremist ideologies is, how entrenched is the threat and, more importantly, how we can effectively fight it.

Fahim's was always a larger than life presence. Never a moment without his infectious smile, always the first to come up with a joke suitable for the occasion, never shying away from pulling someone's leg, almost always taking us by surprise with his ready wit and always able to turn a rather serious encounter into a more pleasant occasion with his superb social skills.

Most of our greatest politicians were parliamentarians like AK Fazlul Huq, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, Dhirendranath Datta, Ataur Rahman Khan, not to mention Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Tajuddin Ahmad, Syed Nazrul Islam, M Mansur Ali and many others.

As we step into the 64th year since the fateful day of February 21, 1952, we take the opportunity to reflect on the long road we have

A few days ago a new TV talk show series, called “Anamosity” (title given by my daughter), ran in town, which I hope the readers of this paper did not miss. If you are lucky a few more episodes may still be in the process of production.

One of the accusations made against The Daily Star and its editor in parliament last Sunday was that we had encouraged the army's involvement in politics. We want to state categorically that we never stood in support of anything but democracy.

Yesterday, seven honourable members of parliament demanded my trial for "treason" for publishing reports that they claimed to have led to Sheikh Hasina's internment. We fundamentally reject this link as it is not based on facts.

After months of planning, weeks of dummy runs, the paper was finally rolling out of the press on the night of 13th January, 1991.

One of Bangladesh's many tragedies was the near reversal, within three and a half years of our birth as a country, of the gains of our Liberation War and the coming to power, later, of people who not only opposed the birth of Bangladesh but actively participated in the genocide and crimes against humanity that was the hallmark of the Pakistani forces and their Bengali collaborators.

Three recent elections, federal in Canada, state level in Bihar and national in Myanmar, have once again showed us the might of the “Peoples' Will” and what it can achieve. Each of these elections had some special significance with the one in Bihar and the last one in Myanmar having unparalleled historic significance. These elections reminded us that we had some internationally praised and historically significant elections of our own and made us wonder when we would have similar elections in Bangladesh again?

The PM blames Khaleda, the BNP chief blames Hasina, the killers continue to kill, the victims' families live in fear, people remain confused and angry, friends of Bangladesh watch in disbelief and the smile of our enemies grow wider.

No murder is acceptable, and if the victim is an innocent foreigner who had come to Bangladesh to serve a good cause, it becomes even more reprehensible. When we think about how randomly Cesare Tavella was killed and how his death relates to nothing that he had done, said, or written, when we see that he had not instigated others to do

The killers are doing their work. Are we doing ours? Need we answer?

This time, too, there is nothing on Teesta, yet we have agreed on all forms of transit in the name of connectivity.

On June 1, Indian Nobel Peace Laureate and child rights activist, Kailash Satyarthi sat down for an exclusive interview with Mahfuz Anam, Editor of The Daily Star.

We are all familiar with the mathematical formulation that 0+0+0= 0. Well, not so, says Prof Yunus.