The Day of Tarique Rahman’s Restoration

Editorial priority on February 13 centered almost exclusively on the aftermath of the Bangladesh general election. In the morning, editors shifted from tracking preliminary trends to confirming a landslide victory for the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). By early afternoon, focus transitioned to the formalization of power, with headlines identifying Tarique Rahman as the incoming Prime Minister and reporting on the collapse of the student-led third-party movement and the Jamaat-e-Islami’s failure to secure a surge. Domestic coverage briefly balanced this with the inauguration of the 'Seva Teerth' complex, the new Prime Minister’s Office, where editors highlighted the government's rhetoric of shedding 'colonial' symbols. However, by evening, the narrative returned to Dhaka as New Delhi initiated diplomatic outreach. Major outlets prioritized Prime Minister Modi’s congratulatory phone call to Rahman and the BNP’s subsequent demands for Sheikh Hasina’s extradition. The day concluded with legal developments in the U.S., as headlines reported Nikhil Gupta’s guilty plea in the Pannun murder-for-hire case.