The return of a leader?

Time for some updates on political events in Bangladesh. Tonight the former prime minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to return after earlier being banned from entering the country after a couple of weeks visit in the US. Hasina left Bangladesh after the care taker government issued state of emergeny and banned all political activities, to spend time with her son and his new born baby in the US. Her political rival, the other former prime minister Khaleda Zia, stayed on in Bangladesh, but for a while it seemed like the care taker government was trying to force her out of the country and rumours had it that she was on her way together with family members to leave for Saudi Arabia.

During Hasinas stay in the US a court in Bangladesh issued a warrant for her arrest on charges of extortion and murder. Khaleda Zia has her eldest son imprisoned on charges of serious fraud and corruption. It remains to be seen if the two leading political figures of Bangladesh will stay in the country and if they might be arrested or not in the near future. Hasina is expected to arrive at the airport this evening, and security measures are on high alert in this politically volatile country.

An interesting twist in the drama of Bangladeshi politics and the current situation is that the son of Hasina, Sajeeb Wazed (who she visited in the US), is a frequent blogger. On his blog he defends his mother against the charges levelled against her and talks about his own aspirations of getting into politics. Check out one of the more interesting political blogs of our modern time: http://www.sajeeb.blogspot.com/ for more updates.

Over to India where parliamentary elections are going on. As always I am struggling to get a grip of the Indian political scene, but updates will come soon on whats going on in the Northern region in states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar where Congress and BJP are fighting a hard battle. These states are enormous with between 100-200 million voters and also among the poorest and less developed states of the country. The results in elections here have a crucial impact on the political setup on the national level in India.