South Asia is experiencing deepening political turmoil

As long as South Asian countries remain plagued by political instability, strong and sustainable economic growth will remain elusive

People protest in front of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party headquarters in Dhaka, Bangladesh, last week. Photo: AP/Rajib Dhar

Violent student-led, Islamist-backed protests in Bangladesh have toppled Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government, and mob attacks targeting those viewed as supporters of her secular Awami League party — in particular, the country’s dwindling Hindu minority — are proliferating. 

At a time when neighboring Myanmar is engulfed in violence and the Pakistan-Afghanistan belt remains fertile ground for cross-border terrorism, political upheaval in Bangladesh, two years after the overthrow of Sri Lanka’s government, is the last thing India, the regional power, needs.