New Delhi, Sept. 2 -- When it comes to democratic dysfunction, the fiasco of the 'Mancha 1971' meeting in Dhaka on August 28, 2025 deserves a place among the most ruinous acts of self-sabotage. The facts are as troubling as they are revealing: a group of self-styled "July Fighters" stormed a discussion commemorating the Liberation War, heckled the speakers, confined participants, and vandalized banners. Their targets were not radicals plotting insurrection in secret but freedom fighters, intellectuals, and even a former Awami League minister, Latif Siddique.

One would expect the state to act as an arbiter of law, restraining the aggressors and protecting the right to free assembly. Instead, the opposite occurred. The police, far from dis...