Once again, Bangladesh is sliding toward turmoil—an all-too-familiar pattern in its political history. The killing of student leader Sharif Osman Hadi has acted less like a spark and more like petrol poured on long-smouldering embers. What followed—arson, mob violence, attacks on newsrooms, and a state scrambling to assert control—signals not merely public grief, but a deeper crisis of governance and trust.
This instability is bad news for Bangladesh, and it is equally unsettling for its neighbours, especially India, which shares deep economic, cultural, and security ties with Dhaka. When Bangladesh shakes, the region feels the tremors.
The irony is hard to ignore. The student-led uprising of 2024 promised a democratic reset—an end to authoritarian drift and political monopoly. Instead, the post-revolutionary moment has exposed a vacuum where institutions should be. Street power has replaced civic process, emotion has overrun evidence, and conspiracy narratives are being weaponised faster than facts can catch up. Democracies do not collapse only through coups; sometimes they burn from within, one newsroom and one university at a time.
The attacks on media houses are particularly alarming. A democracy without a free press is like a ship without a compass—it may move, but not in any meaningful direction. Branding journalists as agents of foreign influence is an old trick in South Asian politics, and it almost always ends the same way: silencing dissent while empowering the loudest, angriest voices.
For the interim government, moral authority alone will not suffice. Nobel laurels do not stop riots; institutions do. Transparent investigations into Hadi’s killing, swift action against those attacking minorities and media, and clear communication with the public are no longer optional—they are existential necessities. Law and order cannot be crowdsourced.
For India and other neighbours, the situation demands cautious engagement, not opportunistic commentary. A destabilised Bangladesh risks border insecurity, refugee pressures, economic disruption, and the expansion of extremist networks—none of which respect national boundaries.
Bangladesh’s youth once proved they could dismantle autocracy. The harder test now is whether they, and the state that claims to represent them, can build something sturdier in its place. Justice without restraint becomes vengeance; protest without direction becomes chaos.
At this crossroads, Bangladesh must choose: institutional democracy or perpetual upheaval. The region is watching—and quietly hoping it chooses wisely.
