White House Quietly Corrects Trade Deal Fact Sheet; Hardeep Puri Scores Self-Goal With Epstein Press Conference; MHA's Compulsory Vande Mataram Order Downgrades Jana Gana Mana
‘Democracies Erode When Those Entrusted With Power Fear Laughter and Start Taking Action Against It’
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February 11, 2026
Siddharth Varadarajan
Bangladesh goes to the polls on Thursday in a landmark election in which the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat Islami are the main contenders – and are already trading blows and allegations of voter manipulation. The rise of the Jamaat to national prominence is the real story, regardless of the final result. “For all its organizational strength (its cradle-to-grave welfare systems, disciplined cadres, and efficient disaster response), the Jamaat serves a problematic end: It is in the service of creating a theocracy from the bottom up,” writes Navine Murshid in Counterpoint.bd.
After initially saying that India as part of its trade framework agreed to with the United States would reduce or eliminate tariffs on ‘certain pulses’ – something that the joint statement released on Saturday did not mention – the White House’s fact sheet has been amended to remove this reference, it has been pointed out. The fact sheet had also said that India had ‘committed’ to buying $500 billion in American goods but that word has been amended to ‘intends’. Two days after the joint statement came out, New Delhi in a communique specifically mentioned “green peas, kabuli chana and moong” – and not any others – as pulses that would be fully exempted under a trade deal.
The joint statement did say that India would cut or get rid of tariffs on soyabean oil and distillers’ dried grains, and now prices of soyabean and corn – from which DDGs are made – have fallen by 10% and 4% since Saturday to the chagrin of Indian farmers, Rajendra Jadhav and Mayank Bhardwaj report. “Although allowing US DDGS imports is weighing on prices, the short-term impact is likely to be limited,” they write, citing a commodities expert.
New Delhi has still not explicitly addressed US President Donald Trump’s executive order saying that India has committed to stop buying Russian oil directly or indirectly, and this is something foreign secretary Vikram Misri addressed in his appearance before the parliamentary standing committee on
