BJP's Nishikant Dubey Moves LS Motion Against Rahul Gandhi, “Part of a Thuggery Gang”; Bangladesh Counts Votes From Pivotal Polls; Govt Moves to Degrade Jana Gana Mana to Secondary Status
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February 12, 2026
Sidharth Bhatia
Bangladesh held its first general elections today since Sheikh Hasina’s violent ouster in August 2024. With the last free and fair polls in the country widely considered to have taken place in 2008 – after which Hasina and her now-banned Awami League had an uninterrupted stint in power – “excitement about a fair election drove many” to the polling booths today, Devirupa Mitra reports from Dhaka, noting that Bangladeshis also simultaneously voted ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on the constitutional reforms proposed in the ‘July Charter’. A close fight is expected between the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Jamaat-e-Islami, both of whom claimed victory when polls closed at 4:30 pm while alleging irregularities in the voting process. A clear picture of the result is expected around midnight Dhaka time. One local media house reported that the last time there was such a lack of election-related violence was in 1991.
Meanwhile the external affairs ministry said on Thursday that while New Delhi was invited to send observers to the Bangladesh elections, it ultimately did not send any.
Citing his duty to ‘uphold India’s unity, integrity and sovereignty’, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey has initiated a substantive motion against Lok Sabha leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi, saying the Congress leader is a key part of a “thuggery gang” trying to “destabilise India from within”. Gandhi’s “relentless and well-choreographed actions, within and outside parliament, are inimical to our country”, said Dubey. He also said the LoP had ‘engaged with’ the Soros Foundation and USAID (with whom the Modi government has also engaged), committed ‘anti-India activities’ abroad and made ‘unsubstantiated allegations’ against the Election Commission, Supreme Court and the government, Liz Mathew reports. If admitted, she notes, the motion will be followed by a debate and then a vote. The Congress has said the BJP is diverting attention from its criticism of the government.
In a first since the breakout of ethnic strife close to three years ago, Manipur’s new chief minister Y. Khemchand Singh visited the Jiribam district of his state on Tuesday and interacted with Meitei and Kuki-Zo-Hmar displaced persons. Speaking at a Hmar village the CM said that “we can be Manipuri Naga, Manipuri Kuki and Manipuri Meitei” and that “we need to rebuild the concept of Manipuri someone is trying to destroy”, though it is unclear who that ‘someone’ might be.
In other news for Manipur,
