Anu Muhammad

Even basic democracy seems to be missing in Bangladesh

It is a matter of great misfortune, as well as of disappointment and uncertainty, that democracy in Bangladesh is practically absent now.

What are the government’s plans with this huge population segment that is our youth, who are supposed to take the reins of our country in the future?

How does the government plan on utilising this significant chunk of the population?

There is a lack of clarity and transparency when it comes to how much subsidy is being provided to the power sector, why the government is providing it, and in fact, who they are subsidising.

Speaking to us about this issue is Anu Muhammad, professor of economics at Jahangirnagar University. 

The rise in fuel prices is an illogical decision that will only harm ordinary citizens and fail to deal with the root causes of the crisis that Bangladesh is currently facing.

Annual GDP refers to the financial value of all the products and services produced in a country in a given year. This means as a country’s financial transactions increase, so does GDP.

In 1886, three years after the death of Karl Marx, the May Day movement took place. Earlier, in his book Das Kapital, Marx analysed the simultaneous rise of capitalism and the development of the working class.

It is a matter of common sense that a university is supposed to create space and opportunities to generate knowledge, open up scopes for creative ideas and thinking, invite questions against the existing knowledge and system, and raise voices against injustice, discrimination and oppression.

They work in mills and factories, also under tin sheds in squalid conditions. They begin their long days commuting in crammed public transport vehicles or taking long walks, braving monsoon rain or summer heat.

As human beings, we enjoy the right to think and express ourselves.

“The demonstration of superfluous consumption amidst mass hardship must be eliminated. Thus sumptuous hotel dinners, the exhibition of costly jewellery and dress, and the display of surplus motor space speeding past long queues for heavily overloaded public transport, to mention only a few, must be limited severely.” — Professor Anisur Rahman, Member of first Planning Commission, 1974.

Yes, our world has entered into a new phase of rule which can be termed as surveillance capitalism, at home as well as on a global scale. Shoshana Zuboff, the author of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism writes, “At its core, surveillance capitalism is parasitic and self-referential.

The public universities, old and new, are in quite a sorry state. It seems that these institutions exist only to offer support for the government’s misrule.

Bangladesh is a workers’ land. More than seven million people are working here as manufacturing workers, nearly nine million in hotels and tea shops, more than four million in transport, two million in construction and more than 20 million women and men are actively engaged in agriculture.

Is development essentially harmful for the environment? Must we sacrifice the environment in order to achieve much-needed development? Should we allow poisoning of our air, destruction of our forests, and pollution of our water to embrace development? If the answer is yes, how can we survive—how can this mother earth retain its ability to support our existence and our reproduction?

The National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports is proposing the “Peoples' Master Plan for Power and Energy (2017-2041)” as an alternative to the government's master plan.

I have known the site of Rana Plaza in Savar for almost four decades now. I have to cross Savar to and from the Jahangirnagar campus

If we say yes to the Sundarbans, then we must say no to the commercial projects harmful for its survival. Whether it is a power plant or any other commercial activity, whether it is foreign investment (FDI) or local investment, whether it is investment from India,