Attacks on 'The Daily Star' and 'Prothom Alo' expose how radical politics devours its own enablers—and why India must read the warning signs.
Once celebrated as a relatively liberal, plural space—then called East Pakistan—Bangladesh is today staring at the consequences of a long moral and editorial drift.
The recent attacks on The Daily Star and Prothom Alo are not isolated outbreaks of mob fury; they are symptoms of a deeper disease that the country’s political class and influential media chose to ignore, excuse, or normalise.
'Prothom Alo' newspaper office torched on Dec 18 late night violence
Today, some of these outlets speak the language of victimhood.
That would be more convincing had they spent the last decade seriously interrogating the steady radicalisation of the street, the routine India-bashing, and the shrinking space for dissent that did not fit an approved ideological line.
Monsters, when nurtured, rarely remain loyal to their creators.
The violence directed at Bangladesh’s most widely read newspapers follows a grimly familiar pattern.
As Agartala-based Bangladesh watcher Manas Pal explains, any radical Islamist surge begins by intimidating or neutralising influential media institutions—“nipping in the bud” voices that may one day resist.
Chaos, or tawahush, is not accidental; it is tactical. ISIS theorised this explicitly in its Dabiq publication a decade ago, with Bangladesh identified as fertile ground.
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| Sheikh Hasina in 1990s |
That is why the shock expressed by 'The Daily Star' rings hollow.
The question that was rarely asked—when it mattered—was why so-called “student protests” in 2024 turned violently communal, or whether Sheikh Hasina’s gravest sin was simply her proximity to India and the legacy of the Liberation War.
Editorial courage is not demonstrated after mobs arrive at the newsroom gate.
The paper’s own lament—calling the attacks “a dark day for independent journalism”—reads more like belated wisdom than principled resistance.
Yes, attacks on the press are indefensible. But so is years of selective outrage, moral posturing, and strategic silence on radical Islam while amplifying narratives that weakened the state itself.
Bangladesh today is sliding into chaos. The Yunus-led dispensation looks exposed, immature, and incapable of governance or security management. February elections appear increasingly remote—perhaps by design.
India-bashing and the targeting of Hindus seem to have been seen as convenient pressure valves, but such tactics rarely remain contained.
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| Bangladesh watcher : Manas Pal |
For India, the implications are grave—arguably more destabilising than past crises.
For West Bengal and the Northeast, this is also a cautionary tale: hatred of the “other” eventually turns inward.
Anti-India rhetoric, casual demonisation of communities, and fashionable ideological hostility have consequences.
The Bhagavad Gita’s warning is starkly relevant: as you sow, so shall you reap. Bangladesh’s media and political elite are now tasting a bitter harvest.
The region would do well to watch closely—and learn.
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| Blogger in Dhaka : file snap |
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