Muhammad Azizul Haque

Protests against a divisive new citizenship law began to rage in the northeastern states of India (Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya, etc.) on December 11, 2019 when the BJP-led Hindu nationalist government won parliamentary approval for the new citizenship law.

Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam/Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home;” yet the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh do not want to return to their homes in Rakhine State of Myanmar, where generations of them have lived for centuries.

The ongoing ethnic cleansing of Rohingyas in Rakhine State by the military and security forces of Myanmar has caused over half a million of them to flee and take refuge in Bangladesh.

In the aftermath of World War II, some European politicians and political thinkers contemplated forging unity among democratic countries in that continent. This was viewed by them as a way to avert extreme forms of nationalism and future wars in Europe and also as a means to ensure peace among European nations.

Even as the US, under President Donald Trump, is withdrawing itself into the cocoon of isolationism, protectionism and ultra-nationalism...

As the largest country and economy in South Asia, India is expected to exhibit restraint and generosity in its relationship, particularly with its small neighbours. It should pursue an agenda of collective interest and mutual benefit with its neighbours — not one of self-interest at the expense of its neighbours.

On February 12, 2017, I first came to learn from a Facebook message from the Bangladesh Embassy in Brasilia that Mohamed Mijarul Quayes, Bangladesh Ambassador to Brazil, and former Foreign Secretary, was in an ICU there with serious respiratory and renal complications.

Donald Trump's declared principle of “America first” implies that under him the US would pursue ultra-nationalist, protectionist and isolationist foreign policies.