Habib Siddiqui

Last week, a friend of mine shared a tweet from Aparna Sen, a Bengali-speaking Indian actress and movie director. She had tweeted: “ What has happened to Bangladesh? Is it turning into Pakistan? One keeps reading and hearing about Bangladeshi Hindus being tortured and killed! Stop! Please stop! The whole planet is becoming such a violent place!” Aparna Sen is a Bengali speaking Hindu who lives in India. As such, it is understandable that she was upset with the recent communal tension in Bangladesh when Islam's Holy Book - the Qur'an - was desecrated in some Hindu temples, being left over at the feet of Hindu idols by some miscreants during the Durga Puja, a popular Hindu festival. Reportedly, some Hindu mandirs were later attacked by some angry Muslims. Five Muslims were shot dead by police, a fact obfuscated in media reports in India to polarize public opinion against Bangladesh.  Deploying the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), hundreds of Muslims were arrested in a nationw

  NEW DELHI —For the last five days, Hindutva groups have been running riot in Tripura. Muslim shrines, mosques, properties, and shops are being vandalized at will. This comes against the backdrop of attacks on minorities in Bangladesh. Police have seemingly given a free hand to rioters who resort to looting, arson, and attacks on minority households. At least 12 mosques in five districts have been vandalized in the last five days. Several mosques and holy books have been torched. Friday was the worst day for Muslims in Tripura. Goons openly attacked the mosques. Locals blame Vishwa Hindu Parishad and other Hindutva groups for torching mosques and damaging the properties of Muslims. VHP and other groups carried out marches through minority inhabited areas and raised provocative slogans. A mosque in Pal Bazaar was targeted on Saturday night, and religious books were allegedly burnt. A mosque was vandalized in Kalamcherra market on Saturday. Later, the bakery shop of Shamim Ahmed of Kail

  As an eyewitness, I can recall the events of January 6th in Washington as if they were yesterday. The crowds of angry loyalists storming the building while overwhelmed security guards gave way. The slavishly loyal vice-president who would, the president hoped, restore him to power. The crush of media that seemed confused, almost overwhelmed, by the crowd’s fury. The waiter who announced that the bar had run out of drinks and would soon be closing… Hold it! My old memory’s playing tricks on me again. That wasn’t the U.S. Capitol in January 2021. That was the Manila Hotel in the Philippines in July 1986. Still, the two events had enough similarities that perhaps I could be forgiven for mixing them up. I’ve  studied  quite a number of coups in my day, yet the one I actually witnessed at the Manila Hotel remains my favorite, not just because the drinks kept coming, but for all it taught me about the damage a  coup d’état , particularly a political coup, can do to any democracy. In Februa