DECEMBER 2012

DECEMBER 2012

DECEMBER 2012

Cover Story and Featured Stories

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

Did Ponty’s murder take place in a paroxysm of passion or was it premeditated?
Akash Bisht Delhi

BANGLADESH: HOPE FLOATS

There is a new verve of change and empowerment in the air in ‘secular’ Bangladesh. And India’s creative engagement can mark a turning point
Sanjay Kapoor Dhaka 

BANGLADESH: The Quagmire of History

A search for historical facts has become an act of treason and prejudice in Bangladesh
Afsan Choudhury Dhaka 

BANGLADESH: Rainmaker

Where the State fails, BRAC comes in to fill the void. Sir Fazle Hasan Abed’s model represents a new paradigm of development
Sanjay Kapoor Dhaka 

Amar Sonar Bangla

Editorial: December 2012
Hardnews Bureau Delhi 

The Violence of Hunger

The book is an important addition to the available literature on Binayak Sen, the issues of public health and the state of democracy in India and its institutions
Mahtab Alam Delhi

BANGLADESH: Nothing Secular about it

Successive regimes in Bangladesh, including the Awami League, have betrayed secular promises to usher in a hardline Islamic State which has given a handle to fanatics to persecute and brutalise the religious minorities
Nurul Kabir Dhaka 

Dhaka’s war within

Despite a government crackdown, Islamic extremists are still entrenched in Bangladesh
Anshuman Behera New Delhi 

From Dhaka, with Love

Can Khaleda Zia, with her protracted baggage and apparent links with extremist groups, replicate Sheikh Hasina’s feat in addressing India’s security concerns? 
Dipanjan Roy Chaudhury Delhi

BANGLADESH: A basket Case?

Is Bangladesh on the cusp of an economic and social breakthrough?
Syed Zain Al-Mahmood Dhaka 

Bangladesh War Crimes Trials: From Principle to Prejudice

The tribunal to bring to justice the war criminals and rapists of the 1971 liberation war has run into unhappy ground
David Bergman Dhaka 

BANGLADESH: Wrestling, Freestyle

The politics of relentless confrontation between the two main political parties has ravaged the political discourse in what could be a vibrant democracy
Smruti S Pattanaik Delhi

More Stories from this Issue

Night in Slow Motion

The Tao of travel means that all night you can chase the moving flicker of lights on the zigzag pathways of distant, dark, dense mountain nights, and your eyes and mind are still aching for more.

Kreisky’s legacy for Palestine

In leaderless times like today, people like Bruno Kreisky are missed most.

Bully Bunter

I don’t know about you, but I’m suffering from a debilitating case of scam fatigue. I sincerely hope and pray that 2013 will be a relatively cleaner year or else all my blood vessels may burst. Indeed, my resolution for the coming year is to think positive. So here are my positive thoughts on BJP party president Nitin Gadkari, also affectionately known as Bully Bunter.

The culturing of cuisine

“Your staple diet must be idlis and dosas?” was the rhetorical question from a cheery young waiter at Lahore’s Pearl Intercontinental when he learned I was from India. My prompt protest that, being from Delhi, I ate food similar to what was being served in the expansive breakfast buffet failed to convince him. “This is what we have been told. Try our nihari and halim. I am sure you would not get it in India, which I hear is vegetarian,” he went on.