Mainstream Weekly

The Poison in Bangladesh Polity

J Sri Raman — 2009-07-27T15:46:40Z

Was Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed fed poisoned food while in detention during 2007-08? The question should be a matter of concern not for reasons of her health alone and not only for the country that gave her a landslide election victory at the end of last year.
On June 27, in a television programme that went almost unnoticed outside of Bangladesh, a top leader of Hasina's Awami League (AL) alleged that Hasina was served poison-laced food for an unspecified period as (…)

- July 2009

Burma: Referendum and Resistance

J Sri Raman — 2008-05-23T10:17:20Z

It is a bestseller, but barely popular with its readers. The 194-page volume, which hit the bookstands in Burma on April 24, was the long-awaited draft Constitution authored by the country's military junta, without consulting most of its people. The draft was published just a fortnight before the people are due to vote on it, apparently as a formality.
The large number of the book's buyers, especially the young, may not be hoping to play a major role in the national referendum scheduled (…)

- May 17, 2008