Bangladesh, March 28 -- There are moments in political history when ambition disguises itself as reform. It speaks the language of stability, of cleansing the system, of rescuing democracy from its own excesses. Yet beneath that polished rhetoric often lies something far less noble: the calculated removal of rivals to secure power without contest. Bangladesh, it seems, may be approaching such a moment again.

The recent remarks by Asif Mahmoud Shojib Bhuiyan hint at the re-emergence of an old but dangerous idea—the so-called “minus-two” formula, a concept rooted in the belief that the countrys political future can only be secured by removing its two dominant forces: the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (...