Sheikh Shaheb was dubbed Bangabandhu after his release from the Agartala Conspiracy Case. Ershad also wanted to be somebody’s friend, so he titled himself Pallibandhu. Apparently Sheikh Hasina also has a title — no, not Captain Climate Change. She was apparently dubbed Deshratna by Kabir Chowdhury, says the professor himself in this Naya Diganta op ed.
One has to read the whole thing to believe Prof Chowdhury’s intellectual depth. Read it for yourself, and remember that Prof Kabir Chowdhury is supposed to be among the people we consider the conscience of the nation.
Prof Chowdhury says Hasina considered him for the presidency in 1996. Suppose this had happened. What would his friends have said after the 2001 election? That Kabir Chowdhury is a closet war criminal? Abdul Ghaffar Chowdhury wrote volumes about how Justice Shahbuddin and Barrister Ishtiaq were closed Islamists, how the AL-appointed chief advisor, election commissioner and army chief were all part of a CIA-ISI-RAW conspiracy to turn Bangladesh into East Pakistan and sell gas to India. If Kabir Chowdhury was the president in October 2001, perhaps AGC would have written about the professor’s brother who chose to serve Pakistani army even after 16 Dec and never returned to Bangladesh, or the fact that the professors family hail from Noakhali, the home district of Khaleda Zia?
In any case, what is Kabir Chowdhury doing writing in Naya Diganta? Doesn’t he know that this newspaper is owned by a senior Jamaat member? I guess ND wants to broaden its appeal, or maybe wants to introduce its readership to the intellectual brilliance in display. But what is the professor doing with them? What happened to the notion of boycotting Jamaat?
Or is this the beginning of some kind of wonderful new friendship?
Have you recently been visited by any ISI agent? This blog post must be a Pakistan-ISI-Islamist conspiracy to prevent Bangabandhu killing trial! Do you by any chance know Mehnaz Rashid?
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I dubbed Hasina “Bangabhaban-Bondhu”. (friend of Bangabhaban, she claims to be its owner).
But why are we all writing about Bangladesh, dont we know that there is an established national political party in BD, supported by Hasina and Khaleda called Jamaat? Shouldnt we all boycott BD cos of Jamaat?! Or should we?
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I think Prof. Chowdhury is lining himself up for the presidency, in case something happens to Mr. Rahman (god forbid). After all, he (Mr. Rahman) is an old man and does not seem to be in very good health.
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tacit Reply:
November 13th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
Speaking of President Zillur Rahman, I had high hopes for him to be a much better steward for our country than his predecessor. The Bhairab district controversy unnecessarily got him embroiled into a matter that has definitely tarnished his national prestige. However, I did not expect him to get involved in blatant misuse of power so soon.
Yesterday, the news came out that he has pardoned Deputy Leader of the House Sajeda Chowdhury’s son, who was sentenced to eighteen years in an ACC case. I have a low opinion of the ACC cases that have been filed in the last three years, and I think had Shahadab Akbar, Sajeda Chowdhury’s son, just fought in court, he could have had the cases quashed in the High Court. Instead, the President has pardoned Akbar’s sentence while he is still “in hiding;” before he has surrendered to the court.
Clearly, the owner of Bashundhara and his family took the wrong strategy. Instead of getting the Home Minister to fight their battles for them, they should have just gone to the President to get all the verdicts against them quashed.
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In BD, we have a political circle, not a spectrum. By definition two ends of a circle meet – hence, the strange bedfellowship of Kabir Chowdhury and ND. Or perhaps the national professor is about to pull a Mazhar on us all.
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Maybe its good to talk to several audiences at the same time. boycotting has always been a regressive option, especially to use on your own countrymen.
Maybe a great deal of bangladeshi seniors are ‘closet islamists’, not in the jamat sense, but an iqbalian sense that closed-minded year zero types refuse to respect.
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Amazing! How sycophantic one can get!!!! I have now seen it all.
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