A new passenger train connecting Dhaka and New Jalpaiguri on the Indian side was inaugurated jointly by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina via a video conference.
The scaling up of the India-US strategic partnership to the level of non-NATO ally with defence deals, sharing and transfer of defence technology, interoperability, joint collaboration and joint production of defence equipment has exacerbated Moscow's anxiety, notes Rup Narayan Das.
The Bangladesh police on Tuesday arrested two senior leaders of the Jamaat-e-Islami for their role in a massacre during the country's Liberation War in 1971.Muhammad Kamaruzzaman and Abdul Quader Molla were arrested at the gate of the Supreme Court in Dhaka for the massacre in Mirpuri, Dhaka, in 1971. Senior Jamaat-e-Islami leaders including Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami and General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid have been named as the co-accused in the case.
After being sworn in as the 47th president of the United States, Trump started his inaugural address with a sentence that echoed Modi's coinage some years ago, notes Modi biographer Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
A belligerent rally in Kolkata by 16 Islamic organisations in support of Delwar Hossain Sayeedi, one of the prime accused in the 1971 genocide in Bangladesh, is indicative of West Bengal's liberal space shrinking, says Dr Anirban Ganguly.
Lt Gen J F R Jacob (retd), who negotiated the surrender of Pakistani troops in Dhaka following the 1971 war, passed away on Wednesday morning after prolonged illness. He was 92.
'I realised what a great leader he was by the way he took decisions to undertake the most-risky of missions.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday visited the National Martyr's memorial at Savar in Dhaka and paid homage to those who sacrificed their lives in the 1971 Bangladesh War of Independence against Pakistan.
In his powerful book, The Blood Telegram, Gary J Bass, a professor at Princeton University, has exposed how US President Richard Nixon and his National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger 'allied with the killers,' the Pakistani government in then East Pakistan, as it unleased genocide on a horrific scale. Professor Brass discusses Nixon and Kissinger's 'moral blindness,' why they hated India and then prime minister Indira Gandhi, and their plan to draw China into the conflict in an illuminating interview with Rediff.com's Arthur J Pais.
'A great General who had become a legend in his lifetime.' 'India will not see the likes of Sagat Singh again.'
The pacts signed after Modi-Hasina talks provided for deeper cooperation between the two countries in areas of water resources, youth affairs, culture, education and coastal surveillance.
The parliamentary clearance to the Land Boundary Agreement Bill has ensured that Prime Minister Narendra Modi gets the same tumultuous welcome which late Indira Gandhi received when she first visited Bangladesh after the liberation war in 1972
Several Bangladeshis are "anti-India" due to New Delhi's close ties with the ruling Awami League, a key advisor to opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party chief Khaleda Zia has said while asking the Indian government to build relations with the people of Bangladesh and not with any political party.
A T M Azharul Islam, a top leader of fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami party, was sentenced to death on Tuesday by a Bangladeshi special court for committing war crimes during the country's independence war against Pakistan.
The two governments are slated to ink a slew of agreements.
It is a timely reminder that when faced with twin threats, India has succeeded by wisely choosing allies, points out Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'According to me, her finest hour was in 1983-1984 when she neutralised a combined US-Pakistan-British conspiracy to Balkanise India by creating an independent Sikh State of Khalistan,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd). A special assessment of Indira Gandhi on her centenary.
'You had earlier sent a Prime Minister from Assam (referring to Manmohan Singh) whom people do not even remember now'
The death toll in violence across Bangladesh triggered by the execution of a top Jamaat-e-Islami leader on Saturday rose to 10, even as Islamists set afire the house of a federal minister in the country's northwest.
Bangladesh's decision to execute Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami for war crimes committed in 1971 has provoked anger across the Muslim world. Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar arrived in Dhaka hours after the execution, an important expression of India's support to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, explains Rajeev Sharma.
India's Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador T S Tirumurti, said on Tuesday that India condemns all forms of anti-semitism and all forms of discrimination on religious grounds anywhere in the world.
'General J S Aurora, the commander of the Indian forces in the East, asked General Sagat Singh to withdraw his troops who were on the move to Dacca -- but he refused.' 'He said, "Jaggi, over my dead body".' 'Therefore, I say the creator of Bangladesh was General Sagat Singh.'
A Bangladeshi publisher, who worked with slain atheist writer and blogger Avijit Roy, was on Saturday hacked to death by unidentified assailants in Dhaka, shortly after two secular bloggers and another publisher of Roy were attacked in a separate incident.
'Anglo-Indians have played a significant role at the forefront, meeting every challenge to the security of the motherland.' A fascinating excerpt from Barry O'Brien's The Anglo-Indians: A Portrait of a Community.
She, however, preferred not to use the word 'Rohingya' and said 'we have urged that the situation be handled with restraint, keeping in mind the welfare of the population'.
For the family and supporters of blogger Avijit Roy, who was hacked to death in Dhaka in February, it is a time to reflect on where Bangladesh is heading, says Indrani Roy.
'Like General Patton, possibly the greatest exponent of the art of war, Vajpayee had the ability to be always on the offensive,' assesses Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Bangladesh government on Monday sought death penalty for rightwing Jamaat-e-Islami's 91-year-old supremo Ghulam Azam as it challenged in the Supreme Court a 90-year jail term handed down to him by a special tribunal for war crimes.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday visited the Ramakrishna Mission, a branch of the Kolkata-based Belur Math, at the heart of the Bangladeshi capital on the second day of his two-day visit.
"I must have been 20-22 years old when I and my colleagues did satyagraha for Bangladesh's freedom," Modi said.
'This bill is for the children of Partition who are still subject to inhuman barbarism because they profess a faith rooted in India.' 'If India fails them, we shall be no better than a Pakistan which brutalises its minorities and has turned into a factory of intolerant bigots,' says former BJP MP Tarun Vijay.
Referring to section 6A of the Citizenship Act applicable exclusively to Assam, a five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said governments have to make compromises for the overall well-being of the nation.
Veteran doctor and educationist from Karnataka Belle Monappa Hegde and archaeology legend B B Lal were also given the Padma Vibhushan awards.
'The tank battle was fought at ranges of 300-700 metres.' 'It was a rare example of the complete destruction of a squadron by another squadron.'
The issue of the amended Citizenship Act is an internal matter of India, Advisor to Hasina on international affairs, Gauhar Rizvi, said in Kolkata.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar wants the Modi government and BJP to reap the profit of the surgical strikes. But electoral history suggests a political party's ability to exploit military successes for poll gains has a mixed record.
Speaking about the issue in India in March 2012 at a media conclave, Kissinger defended his use of unparliamentary language while referring to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
'...they were shocked to learn that just 352 Indian soldiers had made 3 brigadiers, 2 colonels, 170 officers, 290 JCOs and 8,000 troops surrender to the Indian Army.'
In a blunt attack on Pakistan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday accused it of creating "nuisance" and "constantly" troubling India by promoting terrorism.
'Extinguishing the eternal flame at India Gate is nothing short of a crime'
