How can freedom of speech flourish when sensitivities are so high, and public patience so low, when dissent is considered dangerous, any critique is considered to be a challenge, and all opposition is viewed as an existential threat that must be crushed? How credible are the preachy platitudes about democracy coming from people who are not its best exemplar?

An MP – who paradoxically represents the ruling coalition as well as its opposition in the parliament – recently played the proverbial role of the judge, jury and prosecutor.

Hefajat-e Islam, a radical Islamist group, yesterday gave a 72-hour ultimatum to the government to try Shyamal Kanti Bhakta for

Narayanganj school headmaster Shyamal Kanti Bhakta, who was in attention for the last few days over an incident of humiliation by a local lawmaker, is moved to Dhaka for better treatments.

Greek historian Herodotus, living in the fifth century, couldn't have known in advance that a headmaster was going to be humiliated in Narayanganj on the second Friday of May 2016.

Six days after his humiliation by a mob, Shyamal Kanti Bhakta is reinstated as the headmaster of a Narayanganj school.

First the headmaster, Shaymal Kanti Bhakta, was publicly humiliated by the local MP, and now he has been suspended by the school management committee!

Once again we are reminded that laws are often applied selectively, and for those who have power and influence, it may not apply at all. If the law ruled, law enforcement agencies would have taken immediate action after the incident took place in Narayanganj.

In the wake of severe criticism on social media, the education ministry has launched a probe into the incident of public humiliation of a headmaster in Narayanganj for his alleged derogatory comments on religion.