Phony secularism of the Bangladeshi dictatorship

The horrendous attacks on Hindus across Bangladesh–under an ostensibly secular regime–lay bare the dirty secret of the unelected Bangladeshi regime that none of the pet press dares touch: in the absence of legitimacy gained from the ballot box, the dictatorship (like many others in developing countries) has leaned on religious zealots for a veneer of manufactured acceptability. In the case of the one-party, one-family Awami League dictatorship in Dhaka, these zealots often belong to the shadowy Hefazat-e-Islam movement who once tussled with the government but then came to an understanding of mutual reinforcement of absolutist dogma.