PART 1
One.
A single spark can set a forest ablaze. A single word, misplaced, can unravel years of diplomacy. What unfolded was no ordinary misstep─ it was an act of unchecked enthusiasm, a leap before looking, A whisper that turned into crying in the middle of the night.
The storm began with a statement—seemingly harmless. It was meant to fall into the right hands, yet perhaps because it landed in the wrong ones, it became a matchstick struck against dry kindling. Neither the Press Secretary, who played a starring role in this drama, nor his employer, Dr. Muhammad Yunus, seemed to remember this childhood lesson: Too much of anything is perilous. With one impulsive stroke, Dhaka’s diplomacy was cast into turbulent waters. Some whispered it was reckless; others suspected it was deliberate.
Two. An encounter with a spy chief
March 12, 2025 – South Asia.
In the front page splash of Indian media heat a news─ Ms. Tulsi Gabbard, the U.S. Director of National Intelligence, the first woman to hold the role, and a combat veteran─ was the first Trump administration official to set foot in India, since January, 2020.
India, a pivotal U.S. partner in the Indo-Pacific, was poised to play a central role in Tulsi Gabbard’s diplomatic agenda. On February 12, she etched her name in history as the first U.S. official to meet with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Blair House, just days before his high-stakes discussions with President Donald Trump.
On March 18, 2025, she delivered a significant address at the esteemed Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi, focusing on “Global Security and Minority Protection in South Asia.” As India’s premier conference on geopolitics and geo-economics, the Raisina Dialogue brings together global leaders to discuss pressing international issues. (Rezaul H. Lashkar, Mar 12, 2025, Hindustan Times).
***
Her personal connection to Hinduism runs deep. Raised by a mother who embraced the faith and passed it on to her children, Tulsi’s life has been shaped by the principles of the religion. Her first name, Tulsi, is a sacred plant in Hinduism, symbolizing purity and devotion. She has reportedly always remained true to this tradition, living a life that reflects the values of her faith. A lifelong vegetarian, she sweared her oath to Congress on the Bhagavad Gita.
It seemed as a representative, Gabbard’s identity and beliefs were never far from the forefront. Her advocacy for Hindus and their rights, particularly in South Asia, was deeply personal and stemmed from a sense of duty to her community. Combination of her political action and spiritual conviction made her a unique voice in American politics, especially when it came to standing up for the marginalized.
Tulsi Gabbard’s resolution to say what she said about Persecution of Hindus in 1971 Bangladesh, while born out of a genuine concern for human rights, unfortunately oversimplified the complexities of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. Her characterization of the Pakistani military’s actions as being primarily directed at Bengali Hindus was a misinterpretation of the broader context. While it is true that many Hindus suffered horrifically during the war, the casualties were not limited to one religious group. The death toll, she cited as 2-3 million, was reportedly 3 million which included a significant number of Bengali Muslims, as well as other ethnic minorities. The Pakistani military’s campaign was focused on suppressing the Bengali independence movement leaders and the supporters of Awami League and its left allies. All these parties were composed of both Hindus and Muslims, ethnic communities such as Garos, Santals, Christians and nature worshippers, etc.
The violence of 1971 was not solely a religious issue, but rather a complex intersection of political, cultural, and ethnic tensions. The Pakistani military, alongside local collaborators, targeted those who supported Bengali sovereignty, regardless of their religious affiliation. The economic, cultural and political distinction between the people in Delta and the central government in West Pakistan was at the heart of the conflict, and this diverse characteristics of population in Bangladesh was perceived as a threat to the statehood of Pakistan. The Awami League’s drive for autonomy, supported by people across religion was seen as a challenge that needed to be crushed.
The chasm was more than religious—it was Economic, political and cultural, woven with threads of contempt and hierarchy. To many in the then West Pakistan, the Bengalis were not Muslim enough, “half-Muslims,” not by faith but by an unbridgeable divide of language, class, and tradition. The war of 1971 was not a mere clash of faiths; it was a battle for sovereignty, a defiance against the illusion of unity built on the brittle foundation of religion. The rulers of West Pakistan, heirs to a colonial landlord’s entitlement, saw Bengal not as a partner but as a fiefdom, its people subjects, its wealth a vessel to be emptied. The genocide was not an aberration but the inevitable horror of a vision that refused to see a nation beyond its own narrow gaze─ a tragedy where culture, power, and prejudice intertwined in the making of history.
***
The echoes of 1971 still resonate─ the post 5th August 2024 timeline in Bangladesh is a solemn reminder of the dangers of political arrogance, cultural erasure, and the rigid dogmas that shaped the Two-Nation Theory in 1947. That tragedy is not merely a chapter of history but a cautionary tale for the present─ a stark testament to the cost of disregarding fundamental human rights and people’s sovereignty.
Alongside the conference Gabbard attended a closed-door conclave, led by India’s National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval. This was no ordinary gathering. Intelligence chiefs and security officials from countries like Australia, Germany, New Zealand, and the United Arab Emirate Security experts, including Daniel Rogers from Canada and Richard Moore from MI6, sat in tense discussions, grappling with the complex layers of modern security challenges: how to enhance intelligence-sharing mechanisms to combat terrorism, transnational crimes, cybersecurity threats and emerging challenges posed by new technologies?
Tulsi Gabbard’s words in her conference underscored the urgent need for international cooperation in safeguarding global peace and stability. The Raisina Dialogue, a nexus for policymakers and strategic thinkers, had convened leading minds from across the world. So Gabbard’s words were beyond her public address, she was also engaged in a pivotal, behind-the-scenes diplomatic effort.
The events unfolded in the shadows of diplomatic protocol, yet the implications of those discussions were anything but subtle. The world’s security framework was under constant recalibration, and Tulsi Gabbard was at the heart of it all, threading through the delicate balance of diplomacy and defence.
***
She spoke at a time when the political and religious tempest in Bangladesh swelling and shifting with each passing moment, twisting like an uncharted river in monsoon’s grip.
For eight months, and some even many years before, the Western media─ ensconced in their ivory towers─ have conjured visions of a Nobel laureate sculpting peace from chaos, a fable too intoxicating to question. In their reverie, they overlooked the sufferings of 175 millions people of bangladesh, in addition to that, a million displaced Rohingyas, cast adrift by Myanmar’s military junta, later finding fragile refuge in Bangladesh. As if the weight of a genocide history of 1971 wasn’t enough for us, the shadow of an unprecedented visit loomed─ the chief of Pakistan’s inter-services intelligence, ISI, for the first time since 1972, tracing his gaze over India’s Seven Sisters, a fleeting glance that carried centuries of unfinished business.
And then, the world hold its breath. Ms. Gabbard’s visit hung in the balance, poised to either fan the flames of tension or quench them in a moment of diplomacy. Therefore, all eyes were on Tulsi Gabbard.
Three. An ordinary man’s day went wrong
The tremors of South Asia’s unfolding drama sent ripples through the air, distorting the spring-evening’s light, bending time. On the outskirts of Dhaka, a man kept walking─ his face carved with an eerie seriousness, his gaze adrift like two lifeless Puti fish caught in an unseen current. Each step he took carried the weight of profound indifference, as if walking itself was the most tedious labor ever imposed upon him.
Despite standing in the shadow of power─ Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel laureate and Bangladesh’s Chief of Advisors─ PS was never far from danger. He had been a full pledged journalist, had tripped, flipped, fell and hit a rock in life. Had his time with AFP too. Known as a man with a nose for patterns, today he sensed something off in the stillness of the streets. Perhaps it was the weight of peace, stockpiled by his boss’s presence─ whose call he never expected to receive in August, yet it would change his life forever. It was unbelievable!
He believed the appointment letter was a recognition of his significant contribution to journalism. Soon his job made him a slave to the duties he found himself accomplishing. Slavery—not to a desk or ink-stained papers, but to something far older. Duty, as in World War II. Adapting to the erosion of self was as profound as that of Reich Minister Paul Joseph Goebbels.
It was… a good opportunity. Plain and simple. His talent deserved recognition—just like the students marching against discrimination, their voices raw with fury, demanding to be seen. They rejected assertive steps for those who lagged behind. Let them die. They are talentless. Those fallen behind seemed to them unworthy. And Press Secretary obeyed them, because in a way, they were the real architects of the government his boss now served.
The street yawned, stretching into an unsettling quiet. Then, just as he reached the bend toward his suburb home, two words sliced through the silence, sharp as a blade:
“Ganoshatru.”
Was that a verdict, a curse? Or a warning?
Shadows of the trees shifted unnaturally. Teenagers─ silent, waiting─ hid among the bushes, their eyes dark pools reflecting fun. He hadn’t seen them in August, but now in February they were everywhere, woven into the fabric of the city and the suburb areas a like. Ghosts? Fugitives? Or Chatra League? He could not identify, crept over him a chill─ slow, deliberate─ like fingers tracing his spine.
For a moment, the PS had the distinct sensation that he was walking naked beneath a thousand unseen eyes, each one weighing his sins, deciding his fate.
And somewhere, in the darkness, some people watched him.
Ganoshatru! Na. No. A fundamental mistake by those gen-zs. His newly earned over confidence wrestled with the words echoing in his ears. He braced against their weight, dressed, stepped into the world, went to his office, showed his charisma to write about things that people knew wrong, and toiled through the day─ yet the phrase clung like an unshaken spectre. Ganoshatru─ the Enemy of the People.
Another full day passed with the words echoing in his mind─ The Enemy of the People. He pretended they weren’t there. But as February’s dry wind howled through the chaotic streets of Dhaka, spring felt unsettling. It was disinformation. Very unfair. He needs to correct them. After finishing his morning meeting with the boss, the Press Secretary grabbed his laptop, connected it to the power bank, connected the mouse, no time for bragging with the touch pad, he logged in, and checked in to his Facebook page.
He should have reacted. He should have done something. Real-life villains shouldn’t just slip away like ink bleeding into newsprint paper. But the ones from Masud Rana─ the popular spy thriller of Seba publishing house─ sometimes did. He may or may not have devoured those stories in his youth, hiding the books under his pillow, because its title page bore the warning “Only for adults,” which, back in the 1980s, made the book a secret his father must never uncover.
With a sigh, he stretched his legs onto the wooden footrest. Was it nostalgia or something else, settled over him like dust in the untouched Newspaper archive of his previous workplace.
He neither had a weapon that shoot 7.62 bullet, identified by retired Brigadier general M Shakhawat Hussain, who also wrote 32 books─ how, the Press Secretary had no idea─ nor had he a knife under his shirt tucked at the waist like the Kishor gangs, about who he defends a lot. He did not own a helicopter to unleash machine-gun fire─ Tha-tha-tha─ that the propaganda machine had spread, nor can he organize a mob to crush the audacity of the boys who hurled venom at him. He was the microphone of the state, and the incident appeared to threaten the longevity of that very microphone.
His cannon, his AK-47’s were words nad knowledge about how to play chess.
He wrote on his Facebook wall, “A group of youth called me Ganoshatru.” He knew what could become news. As likes and comments piled up, he felt his strength return─ ready to fight back.
But every person’s harvest is another’s downfall: As he revealed in his power of words, a storm broke over the heads of the people. In that moment, he learned from his obedient media that the Awami League, the largest party in the country─ was still active, even in exile─ whom his government had tried to destroy. That very day, they distributed leaflets. Thousands of their members had already been imprisoned, and they appeared like ghosts every day. Now, they were again making plans. He had to turn his focus on exiled and in country League activists, write messages supporting his government’s politics, pushing League further into the shadows.
On the evening of February 3, 2025, at a press conference at the Foreign Service Academy, the PS addressed the nation’s media, declaring, “The cohorts of the fallen fascist are trying to create issues and distributing leaflets. Our strong message to those who will distribute leaflets: they will be arrested.”
This statement came amid a sweeping crackdown by the interim government and the now identified Islamic protester groups, which had outlawed the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), branding it a terrorist organization. Meanwhile, true terrorists and war criminals roamed free. The ban was imposed under the 2009 Anti-Terrorism Act on October 23. BCL members were accused of inciting campus violence and carrying out attacks during the unrest, leading to mass arrests─ even at exam venues. Several hundred medical students identified with BCL faced expulsion, caught in the crossfire of a crackdown. The lines between justice and political retribution were blurred.
As part of his new government’s narrative of human rights, the Press Secretary blamed Awami League supporters for inciting chaos, while groups empowered by his own government had already engulfed the nation in flames. Now, not even his unwavering conviction could shield his employer from the storm they had unleashed together.
Three: The Red Fort is not Red
In March the wind in Dhaka twisted through the alleys and high-rise corridors, carrying with it a message that had already slipped past the high-security gates of the Red Building at Baridhara─ the USA embassy. Inside, where the air hummed with quiet urgency, a young Marine stood partially veiled in shadow, his silhouette framed against the slanted light from the window. His face remained unreadable, but his gaze followed the movement of living things outside─ the slow, deliberate steps of embassy officials navigating a crisis unfolding faster than ink could dry on urgent letters.
The gates remained as inaccessible as ever for commoners, yet beyond them, a ripple effect had begun─ subtle at first, like the shift of tides before a storm. What had started as reaction to a remark had now become an unstoppable current, stretching across oceans and dragging reluctant players into its depths. The U.S. Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, landed in India for a conference, and her words had not merely landed; they had ignited.
A Geopolitical thriller unfolding
The ancient proverb echoed through the corridors of power: “Not everyone is meant to harvest the fields.” It was a reminder that diplomacy was an art, not a reckless game. Yet, in a twist of fate, a single statement from Tulsi Gabbard, the U.S. Director of National Intelligence, sent ripples across the globe, setting off a chain reaction no one had foreseen.
Gabbard, in an interview with multiple Indian media outlets, voiced her concern about the persecution of religious minorities in South Asia.
“The long-time unfortunate persecution, killing, and abuse of religious minorities like Hindus, Buddhists, and Christians have been a major area of concern for the U.S. government and President Trump’s administration.” She further elaborated on the global threat posed by extremist groups, emphasizing their ideological goal, and said, “The threat of Islamist terrorists and the global effort of different terror groups are rooted in the same ideology and objective – which is to rule or govern with an Islamist Caliphate…This obviously affects people of any other religion, other than the one that they find acceptable, and they choose to carry this out with terror and very violent ways and means.”
While the statement itself was not new, what followed was an unprecedented diplomatic debacle.
The statement and the Delta
As things unfolding, Bangladesh’s interim government, displayed an unparalleled diplomatic ingenuity─ or rather, the complete lack thereof─ by passed the corridors of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Instead, fuelled by some unknown but evidently potent sense of urgency, the Chief Advisor’s Press Wing, came forward in this diplomatic war field, and released a statement against U.S. Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard’s recent comments.
It was aggressively worded, display of political indignation wrapped in officialdom. The content of Pres Secretary’s statement was nothing new─ but the method, oh, the method, was like replacing a surgeon’s scalpel with a sledgehammer.
Typically, such remarks would be addressed through formal diplomatic channels, allowing for carefully curated responses. Perhaps a polite query to the U.S. embassy for clarification would have been enough. But The Press Wing’s though process is extreme. Why go for subtlety when you can launch a verbal missile straight into an international firestorm?
The statement hit the media. The Delta on the bank of the Bay of Bengal had been hit by a political tsunami.
To be continued...
3 April, 2025
Journalist and writer.