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Rohingya Crisis and Repatriation Strategy: BNP’s Roadmap from Burden to Bargaining Power

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1 August 2025 Bangladesh now hosts more than one million Rohingya refugees, the world’s largest stateless population. At the same time, two powerful neighbours—China and India—are racing to connect the Bay of Bengal to their heartlands through the very region that produced this crisis. The China–Myanmar Economic Corridor (CMEC) is carving a route from the Kyaukphyu deep-sea port in Rakhine to Yunnan, while India is building the Kaladan Multi-Modal Project and expanding the BBIN corridor to reach its Northeast. These twin developments turn the Rohingya tragedy into both a national burden and a once-in-a-generation opportunity. Past Diplomacy: Applause Without Leverage In 2017, as refugees poured across the Naf River, political allies of the then-government floated the idea that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina deserved a Nobel Peace Prize for sheltering the Rohingya. The image of a “Mother of Humanity” captured headlines, but the policy that followed produced little leverage: a ...
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When Reform Becomes Shortcut: NCP’s PR Gamble

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 21 September 2025 The Children of the Revolution We are all proud of the young student leaders who ignited the July Revolution -- brave,  articulate, and unafraid to stand up when the nation’s conscience had gone quiet. Many of  them now form the backbone of the newly minted National Citizens Party (NCP), and they  deserve credit for reawakening civic energy that had long been smothered by fear and  fatigue.  But pride need not blind judgment. Because what we did not anticipate -- and  what many of us now struggle to digest -- is that these same revolutionaries would mutate  into yet another political party, chasing power through the same machinery they once  denounced.  We thought they would evolve into an activist, non-partisan movement -- a  civic conscience that would challenge corruption and authoritarianism across the  spectrum, not compete for parliamentary seats. We imagined an organization of principle,  not anot...
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Zia: The Reluctant President

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30 August 2025 History did not present Ziaur Rahman as a schemer clawing for power. It confronted him with voids — moments when the nation’s tongue was frozen, when silence or paralysis threatened to suffocate the people. Each time, something clicked in him. He didn’t chase power; he stepped forward because no one else would. Part I – The Prodigal Soldier Before he declared a nation, he waited for his tongue to melt free. This isn’t a historian’s fable — it’s my family’s story. His partner in mischief that day was my Aunt Selima Prodhan, known in the family as Jhuti. One winter in Calcutta, the boy we knew as Komol — Ziaur Rahman to history — was rummaging for sweets in the icebox. In his impatience, he pressed his tongue against the frozen tray, and it stuck fast. The children shrieked. Jhuti laughed in half-panic, half-delight. Komol cried out once, then fell silent. His tongue was locked in cold iron agony. A lesser boy would have thrashed and torn himself bloody. Komol ...
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